VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand Portable Scanner

I have been looking for a way to scan my pilots logbook for some time now and finally came across this. I gave it a shot and it works perfectly for this application. I have found the B&W Low Resolution mode to be perfect for scanning text. It almost never has an error when using this mode. However, in high resolution or color, and even more so when both are selected, the scanner has trouble keeping up. Unfortunately there is no way to tell if youre going too fast unless the red light comes on, in which case its already too late. It would be great to have a yellow led as a warning. I found for scanning across the spine, a $10 piece of lexan from Home Depot works wonders. I just put whatever I need to scan under it and have at it. Great scans every time and I dont have to worry about it being unreadable in the middle. Perfect for oversize scans.

This scanner works great for scanning text from books. I am a graduate student, and I wanted an easy way to copy quotes (or whole sections) from books. I did a lot of research to find a scanner that could do this well. I have not been disappointed with this product. I have actually been amazed at how well it works. When I am scanning from a book, my biggest problem is keeping a steady pace. However, this scanner somehow overcomes even my slight jerks and hesitations when I scan. I have not used the OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software that came with the scanner. It seemed un-impressive. Instead, I use the OCR software that came free with my Canon printer/scanner. It is OmniPage SE 4.2. This software, combined with this scanner, make a great combination. For scanning text from books, I would highly recommend this scanner, but I would suggest finding alternative software if possible. Update: After using the product a few more days, I unfortunately need to update this review. I initially gave the scanner five stars, but Ive reduced it to three. This is because it often cuts off the last portion of each scanned image. For instance, when I scan text from a page in a book, it will cut off the portion of text near the edge of the page. Ive tried to solve this by continuing the scan well past the page edge, even and inch or more onto the surface below the page. However, for some reason the scanner still cuts off the last portion of the image. Sometimes (as happened when I first used the product) this does not affect the portion of text Im trying to scan. But many times it does cut off actual text I am trying to scan. It is as if the scanner is trying to automatically discern where the text ends, but it over compensates. This is very unfortunate and frustrating. This product works so well in so many ways. I wish VuPoint could offer a solution for this. I would gladly give it a five star rating, if it werent for this issue. Update #2: I found out what causes the scanner to clip off the last portion of images. There is an excellent, very detailed review of this product at [...] I highly recommend this review. In the review the author explains that when the rollers on the Magic Wand stop rolling, it stops scanning. Thus, portions of a book near the edge of a page (e.g. the last few lines or page numbers) get cut off. That is disappointing but frustrating. Im now giving this product a four star rating. The problem of cutting off the ends of scans doesnt seem like something that is an easily fixed problem (e.g. through a firmware upgrade). It is just how the product works. The website listed above offers suggestions for working around this problem. I would still highly recommend this scanner.

I am a doctoral student in Italy, and the university libraries here do not loan out their books, so this scanner is a real game changer for me. Ive used a DocuPen RC-800 scanner in the past, but the VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand works much better for me, especially since I use a Mac. Let me give a little comparison of my impressions of these two devices: The DocuPen is only slightly Mac compatible; the software it uses to integrate with my Mac has almost no options, and is quite cumbersome to work with (the PC version of the software is much better). It is very slow to download the scanned images to my computer, and just as slow to erase the originals from the scanner. In high resolution mode, you have to drag the scanner quite slowly and carefully, or it will mess up the image. The scans that it makes are are decent, but somewhat uneven and grainy. The VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand is better in every way. It has a longer scanning surface, so you can easily scan bigger book pages. You can drag it across the page at almost twice the speed as the DocuPen, and the image still comes out great. Downloading and erasing the originals is a snap. The scanner saves each image as a .jpg file, and when I plug it into my Mac via the USB cable, my computer basically recognizes it as a camera. It automatically opens iPhoto and downloads a whole load of images in a matter of seconds, and then I can delete the originals from the scanner even faster than that. This is a VAST improvement over the DocuPen. Here are a few other helpful hints: When scanning from a book, take a thin sheet of white cardboard (I use the back cover of a spiral notebook) and place it underneath the page youre scanning, all the way up to the spine of the book. Make sure the scanning surface begins as close to the spine of the book as possible, and then drag the scanner from the spine outward. Perfect scans every time! Once my scans are in iPhoto, I drag the whole batch to an empty folder on my desktop. Then I select the entire batch, right click (or control click) on the entire batch, and tell it to open with Adobe Acrobat Pro (you will have to purchase this program, obviously. Its not too expensive if youre a student). When Acrobat opens, it asks you if you would like to turn all of these files into a single PDF. Just click yes, and your whole document is brought together. Then just use Acrobat to do an OCR conversion, and you have a beautiful, searchable PDF of your source document. This collation and OCR process takes a bit of time for the computer to process, but its worth it.

This is one of those items I wasnt sure why I purchased it but would probably find some uses for it. Not that I have money just to throw around but I love gadgets and this was to interesting to pass up. As it turns out I have found quite a few uses for it such as scanning entire pages of old photo albums at once so I can preserve the pictures on CDs & DVDs. This method is much easier than removing and scanning one photo at a time. As for the scanner itself its very well made and very easy to use. If you have some specific projects or uses in mind for this item than I think youre going to be very happy with it. Just remember to order a Micro SD Card along with it because it doesnt come with one as you might think it would. Im using a 4gig card which will store hundreds of images on it. And one more thing, make sure you push the small SD card in all the way or you might think the scanner does not work, um like someone I know thought at first.

It has been way too long since anyone made a really usable hand scanner. Ive been looking for one for years. So I was very excited when I saw a review of the Magic Wand on one of my news feeds. This product does the trick. You have to be fairly slow and steady to get a good scan, but hey... its a hand scanner! So no surprise there. The scan quality is quite acceptable for a device of this type. Not what you would get from a flatbed scanner, but hey... its a hand scanner! Print is readable, photo quality isnt fantastic but might improve as my scanning skills get better. The scanner is bundled with ABBYY Screenshot Reader, which extracts text from an image. ABBYY is one of the major producers of optical character recognition (OCR)software. I have a document scanner that came with and ABBYY OCR program. But I have never seen a screenshot reader before. This product allows you to select an area on your computer screen, and it will extract text from that area and put it in your clipboard. So when you scan an image with the Magic Wand, you can connect the scanner to your computer with a USB cable (included); open the image in a picture viewer; and use Screenshot Reader to capture the text. You will probably have to do a bit of touch-up after you paste the text into another application. I have yet to see an OCR program that does perfect text conversion. One trick that helps a lot is to zoom in on the text to make it larger. OCR programs work better with larger text. I am very pleased with the Magic Wand. I keep it next to my laptop in the living room (yeah, Im a multi-computer geek, and I do side surfing while Im watching TV) so I can quickly scan things out of magazines or books. And its small enough to toss in my computer bag when Im on the road. Along with my Planon Printsitk portable printer (

My intention in purchasing this magic wand scanner was to get a good reproduction of a pinball playfield so I could create a vector file and reprint the art. Unfortunately, this is not the tool for my job. The package contained the wand, a cloth sleeve to store it, and a USB cable to hook up to a PC. A Micro SD card is not included in the base model, so that will need to be purchased separately as there is no on-board storage. I eagerly brought this out to the shop where the pinball machines are kept. I wanted to get a proportional scan of the entire playfield art of a pinball machine to reproduce it. Unfortunately, it was impossible to take any scan and get the image to come out with no distortion. Any small imperfections in the movement of the scanner will throw off any consistency in the image. This could come from minor imperfections in the surface of the image being scanned (bumps etc) or issues with the guide wheels not properly moving in sync with each other. In the end, trying to stitch multiple scans together into a single image was impossible due to flaws in the scans. My use was very specialized and it didnt work out for the use I needed. That being said, the color reproduction and the resolution was actually quite excellent. Using this to scan photos or documents would be a no-brainer. I would highly recommend this for scanning items that fit within the 8.5 parameters and do not require absolute perfection. I still plan on keeping it for those purposes.

I purchased the

This is a pretty good scanner for the price paid. The resolution is high enough for keeping copies of documents and pictures. Its very compact so its easy to carry around. I carry it with my laptop because it fits in perfectly. It comes with software but I dont use it. I just take the micro memory chip out and put it into its adapter and into the laptop. Images scanned are in jpg format, black and white or color, so its very easy to use. Works best on FLAT surfaces, okay on others. Downsides are you always have to have a white background when scanning any size documents, otherwise youd have the background scanned into it as well; and you have to be careful in your scanner rolling. Speed is not a problem, fast or slow, image still good, but direction is key because the image often times comes out distorted. The rollers on the bottom do not often roll straight so an aligner is recommended so scanned images come out straight. Nothing you cant fix with a little photoshop, but its a hassle. Also, the scanner will slide the paper with it if you dont hold on to the paper, especially towards the bottom of the paper. It uses batteries instead of usb charge (batteries included, usb cable also included, memory chip NOT included). If you only need the info and dont mind the quality, then this is PERFECT! I would recommend this for students especially when they need to copy notes, test questions, encyclopedias, etc.

I love this product! Its easy to use, so handy, seems well made. Of course, it is an electronic gadget, so I have been handling it with care and put it away in its case as soon as I am finished with it. I have used it to scan a few hundred pictures so far, and the picture quality is excellent (for my needs, its clear enough to see detail and read text) in both low and high resolution. Took me just a few scans to guage how quickly to move across a page. If the page is too large to do in one swipe, simply do it in two or three overlapping passes. You could stitch it together if you had to, but I have found it to be sufficient to have multiple images rather than spend time putting them together. I then hook it up to the pc (included usb cord), it is recognized as an external storage device, and the images are quickly transferred to my computer. I have used my Picassa photo software to crop the edges neatly, but you dont have to. Currently I am trying to figure out what Id like to do with my kitchen, so I have been scanning pictures of ideas from books, magazines etc, and saving them to a file on my computer. I can use this anywhere for that! Im using the files on my computer right now, but am getting an e-tablet soon, so will be able to have the files with me when i am out and about. I will also be using this to organize receipts, warranties, etc. And, since we homeschool, I can see this coming in handy to scan and organize co-op notes, schedules, all sorts of things. I love this so much I dont even mind I paid $20 more for it a few weeks ago, than it is now. My friend has gotten them for herself and siblings because of mine, and I think I am getting one for my sister for a gift, too. I highly recommend buying the extra storage case, I cant imagine throwing this wand into a backpack or purse without it. And you will want to get rechargeable batteries ( I recommend the hybrid kind, they hold a charge much longer), and keep spares with you if youre out of the house or at the library with it. I only cannot comment fully on the included software, it is supposed to allow you to convert text in the picture to useable text, I havent messed with it enough to be able to give an honest report. Ive got an 8gb micro card for it, the most pictures Ive had on it at one time was 139, of high resolution, and it wasnt full....I didnt think to check and see how much room was left. I do have a desktop scanner, and I found it to be quite a pain to sit at the desk and try to put a book in there the right way, it was so nice to sit at the table and scan that way! Ill still use it as a copy machine, or for quick flat scans, but my go-to scanner is my magic wand. Oh, another recommendation, if you have younger children you may not want to call it a magic wand, mine have been having Harry Potter fantasies about moms new gadget! I think this would be an excellent gift for students, craftspeople.......

I got a refurbished one of these to scan documents out of old statute books for legal research. I have five minor issues that keep this from getting 5 stars. First, I was very disappointed that the software the scanner comes with does not work for Macs. After an hour searching online, I was unable to find a mac-specific driver for the scanner. But I just plugged it into my computer anyway, without installing any software, and it worked. I have a MacBook Pro running OS X 10.6.6. iPhoto (7.1.5) thinks the scanner is a camera and pulls up the scanned images to import. The scanner also mounts like a USB Flash drive--just a removable disc. You can download and delete the stored JPG images manually. You could probably download and delete through iPhoto too; though, I havent tried. Second, You *do need* a Micro SD card in order to use the scanner. It does not seem to have any built-in memory at all. This is a little annoying, but the cards are pretty cheap. I happened to have one lying around so this was less frustrating to me than it seemed to be for other reviewers. Third, the scanner comes with a leather carrying case. I bought the hard case that Amazon suggests, thinking I needed some kind of storage case to keep it from getting dusty. If youre not going to be abusing it, like by carrying it around in a backpack filled with heavy textbooks, then you shouldnt need the hard-sided case--save yourself the extra $20. For me, the hard case is probably worthwhile because the scanners plastic casing probably wouldnt appreciate being carted around in a bookbag. Fourth, the scanner has four rollers on the bottom that spin as you scan a page, so that the scanner knows how fast youre going and can piece the page together; however, they dont spin very smoothly. This could be due to my scanner being refurbished. So far I have been able to scan things successfully, even when the Error light pops up mid-scan, but the jerky action seems like it could be problematic in the future. Fifth, some of the things Ive scanned so far have pretty thin pages and the scanner actually picks up the print on the back side of the page. I might be able to manipulate the image to erase these ghost images, by correcting the contrast or something. I havent had that problem with traditional scanners before. Overall, this is a light, portable scanner that I can use to scan pages out of old books and keep from having to live at the library all the time. It does what I need it to do. And it works with my Mac, no thanks to VuPoint.