Fujitsu ScanSnap S510 Sheet-fed Scanner

I am very pleased with this purchase. This is by far the best and easiest to use scanner I have ever used. I use it in my office. The copies are great and it scans both sides of multi-page documents with ease. This is not a picture scanner however so if that is what you need you may want to search further

When I heard about the concept of a sheet-fed scanner, I instantly started looking for one to buy. Our legal group was previously living in the dark ages, laboriously scanning contracts a page at a time via a flat bed scanner. We found this nifty little device, read the great reviews, decided to give it a shot, and the legal group is now in ecstasy.

Pros:
* Fast! Even with the quality turned up, this scans an entire contract in the time the our Canon flatbed takes to warm up.
* Easy! Once you get the software installed and tweak any settings you feel like tweaking, scanning involves hitting a green button on the face of the scanner and clicking a single button on the screen. The provided software gives you a thumbnail of each document, lets you easily rename the documents, lets you double-click to view in Adobe or a program of your choice, lets you drag-and-drop documents to the desktop, etc.
* Cute! Okay, 'cute' is probably not a selling point for most IT departments, but it really is! It has a very small footprint and a clean design in black and silver. The blue power LED lights up in welcome when you open the document feed cover.
* Paper jams are incredibly easy to clear. There's a single silver button that gives easy access to the paper path.
* No Engrish! The manual and software is refreshingly free of mutilated Japanese to "Engrish" translations. I only noticed one or two minor translation glitches.
* Good software! I'll be honest, one reason I chose the Fujitsu over a similar Canon product is because I have never liked the look, feel, or usage of Canon's software. Well, I don't know what the Canon would have been like, but I really like the Fujitsu software! It's so easy to use! The out-of-the-box defaults work well, the settings are easy to tweak if you need to, and the ScanSnap Manager is intuitive and easy. There are many, many software options that I haven't tried and probably will never try (such as OCR), but it's nice to have them there just in case I ever need them.
* Can still scan receipts! It comes with a plastic sleeve thing that you can put clippings or smaller pieces of paper inside of for scanning. Handy!

Cons:
* Minorly annoying software installation. There are three different disks to install from ... four if you count a disk full of trial software. Also, some of the installation processes have been tweaked since the manual was originally printed, so there are extra paper inserts to describe the new steps to take. If you get confused, look through all the manuals and inserts until you find screenshots that match what is happening on the screen.
* Doesn't have a TWAIN driver, as has been stated before, but who cares? It works seemlessly and quickly with the provided software, so this is only a theoretically downside, not an actual one.
* Can jam on faster feed modes. The first document I tried was a 4-page contract that had been stapled in one corner. Turning down the speed, AKA turning up the scan quality, and changing the feed direction solved the problem.

I purchased this scanner after reading all of the great reviews on Amazon. I have now had it for about one month and it has worked better than I imagined it could. I use it primarily in my business for converting loan documents such as applications, tax returns, Word documents, etc. into PDF files for E-mailing to banks and clients. It came with Adobe Acrobat Version 8.0 and the combination has been fantastic. I can scan the documents, combine them into a single file, reorder them, bookmark sections, and then E-mail the final product.

A really great side benefit has been how well the ScanSnap S510 scans my old printed snapshots. I have about 4,000 photos of my children as they were growing up that I took prior to digital photos being available. I have scanned over 3,500 of them to JPG format. I have had almost no jams, and the resulting product is great. I scan the photos using the next to best resolution and it scans about 35 pictures per minute. I will now be able to give each of my children a copy of all of my photos to do with as they wish.

I love this scanner. It has been one of the best purchases I have made this year. In all honesty I can not think of a single negative. I did keep my old sheet scanner for the rare times I need to scan a page from a book or magazine that I don't want to destroy.

I'm purchasing our 12th ScanSnap scanner today, not because of any problems with prior units, but because it is the most sought after device in our law firm!

We purchased our first unit about a year ago and now everyone wants one on their desk because they are small, easy to operate and fast enough to avoid a trip to the high-output hogh-speed copier we have down the hall, and the files are easier to name and move after scanning.

They have held up well in a business environment where they get heavy daily use, it would be more than adequate in a home or small office situation.

I tried to use an HP multi-function printer for scanning and it just didn't meet my needs. I have lots of paper to handle, and spend a lot of time creating pdf's from paper documents for distribution. I had direct experience with the Fujitsu 5120c scanner and wondered if this lower cost unit could do what I needed at half the price.

It does. Fast scans, with duplex scanning on the fly, makes it perfect for my uses. It is set up to create pdf's directly, and comes with Acrobat Standard. Scans are great, and can be quick unless you need a higher resolution than usual.

Occasional misfeeds on the multipage documents are a small issue for me. Best thing to do is make sure staples are removed quickly and the papers are "fanned" to put some air between them.

We did have a faulty installation CD on the second scanner we ordered. Was able to download a copy of that installation program, though it was a bit difficult to find.

Installation and operation has been mostly trouble free.

Loading up a 10-15 page stack of paper, which is printed duplex and getting a quick pdf that can be emailed instantly is worth every penny.

Does more than PDF's. We did a large volume of family pictures as well. The variety of sizes were a problem, but we used the clear carrier to scan several at a time. Took a weekend to convert hard copy photos in a huge family album (boxes actually) and burn to CD for everyone in the family. Biggest problem was the sudden demand for those cd's from everyone who had any connection at all to the family.