Posted by Jeffrey Kabbe on December 31st, 2007 in Hardware, Reviews | Permalink
Mini-Review: Fujitsu ScanSnap S510M
December 31, 2007One of the first things we bought when setting up my wife’s law practice was a Fujitsu ScanSnap. When my wife first told me she needed a ScanSnap, I responded that we had a scanner – you know the kind, one of those free printer-scanner-copiers you can get when buying a Mac (both the Apple Store and MacMall frequently offer this promotion). I was then informed that preparing an estate plan requires lots of scanning – to the tune of a few dozen of pages for each estate plan. A flatbed scanner clearly wasn’t going to be sufficient, so we got a Fujitsu ScanSnap S510M.
MacWorld posted a review of the Fujitsu ScanSnap S510M over the weekend. Our experience with the S510M has been generally positive, but it hasn’t worked as well for us as it did for the MacWorld reviewers.
When the S510M first arrived, I was pretty amazed. The scanner was fast, pretty easy to use, and came with a copy of Adobe Acrobat. There have been a few frustrations, though. The MacWorld review states that the S510M is “much less prone to sending through multiple sheets at a time.” I don’t know how well the earlier ScanSnap models performed, but the S510M could still use some improvement. Pages that were stapled, paper-clipped, or three-hole-punched will sometimes go through the scanner together. Fixing the problem usually involves either several tries or carefully feeding the sheets in one at a time.
Overall, we’re happy with our ScanSnap S510M. Even with the sheeting feeding problem, using a ScanSnap is still much faster than using a flatbed scanner.
Save on a Scan Snap: Through the end of the day today, MacMall is offering the ScanSnap S510M at only $390 after a mail-in rebate. I wish that promotion had been going on when we bought ours. If you miss the special, the regular (non-rebate) price of $440 is still a pretty good deal.
I’m a huge fan of ScanSnaps, and currently have the S510M. The page-feeding problem you describe is best handled by fanning or separating the pages that had been stapled together so that the staple holes don’t cling to each other.
Posted by Grace Suarez | January 6th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
I got my ScanSnap from Scantastik for $415 with no shipping costs. It came within four days. There is a $50 rebate on the Fujitsu site that you can send it that is, I believe, the same rebate that MacMall offers.
I love the ScanSnap – paper is vanishing at an astonishing rate in my office. My only issue has been Adobe Acrobat 8 Pro crashing every time I try to open it; I am running Leopard. I have read that Adobe is coming with a bug fix in January sometime. I hope so.
Good luck.
Posted by Chris Goddu | January 7th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Grace, instead of using a staple remover, just cut off the upper left corner of the papers with scissors. In this way, you don’t have a problem with staple holes.
Posted by Dave | March 2nd, 2008 at 2:01 pm