Any Scanner recommendations

[DFA]

I am planning to start a big project of getting rid of paper at home. I want to scan all the items into my PC and burn to DVDs. I have been looking for a scanner that has some sort of document management capibilities.

 

[FinanceDude]

I just bought a Visioneer.......I did lots of research. I
ll write down the model number and post it tomorrow, or later tonight..........

 

[walkinwood]

My recommendation is to get one with an automatic feed like visioneer. With a flat-bed, just placing documents on the bed and removing them is enough to drive you nuts.

I will be following this thread closely to see what our collective intelligence recommends. Need to buy one soon.

 

[slingshot]

Me too! I want the feed in type, as the flat bed DOES drive me nutso. Looking forward to seeing what works and I'll be checking out the Visioneer, so please post the info, Finance Dude

 

[modhatter]

With out a doubt the ScanSnap S510 (may have a newer model now) I scan everything in my scanner. I am sick of filing and want everything at my finger tips. It is very fast, and if you do a lot of scanning, it can't be beat. Go on Amazon and read reviews. It is not cheap though, but don't go for the cheaper one. I did, and wound up buying the auto feeder more expensive one after. (I take the other one with me when I travel) but my ScanSnap S510 sits right next to me computer, and I would never be without it now. Use it continuously every day. Zip, zip, zip

I didn't buy it on Amazon (unusual for me) cause I found it cheaper at a couple of other places.

 

[ERD50]

My recommendation is to get one with an automatic feed like visioneer. With a flat-bed, just placing documents on the bed and removing them is enough to drive you nuts.

I will be following this thread closely to see what our collective intelligence recommends. Need to buy one soon.

Me too! I want the feed in type, as the flat bed DOES drive me nutso. Looking forward to seeing what works and I'll be checking out the Visioneer, so please post the info, Finance Dude

Automatic feed is great, until you need to scan something that isn't a flat sheet. How do you do a book, magazine, or or something with depth? I had to scan something that was glued in a frame, and it wasn't coming out. Flat bed scanner got it perfectly (careful, not all of them have enough depth of field for this)!

Sure 99% of the time, flat works, but be aware of the limits. I guess nowadays, with cheap hi-rez digicams, you can just take a picture for that 1%.

-ERD50

 

[Zero]

One consideration is that a feed type will only scan single page items. Things like bound documents, books, magazines will still need a flatbed. So I'd go for something that does both.

I have not used this one but it's got a good rating and I like Xerox.
Newegg.com - XEROX DocuMate 515 24 bit 600 dpi Fast Simplex Scanner

 

[SVHoper]

I will second the Fujitsu ScanSnap... but the key point is that it creates searchable PDFs (OCR optical character recognition that works).... so Google Desktop can crawl across the contents of all the documents and your searches can be at the level of the document contents... not just the document name e.g. find one line in a Visa statement.

 

[Major Tom]

Also, if your data is important to you, remember to back it up properly. I have a mirrored RAID array on my computer, with a third hard drive containing a copy of the data in a seperate physical location. Every now and again (or after introducing a lot of new data onto my computer) I swap out the drives on the computer with the separate drive and allow the array to be rebuilt. That way, I have 2 drives in my computer with a bang-up-to-date version of the data, and a drive in a separate location with a version of the data that was current as of the last back-up date.

 

[Bimmerbill]

I was just thinking of doing this. $500 for the Fujitsu is too much tho!

 

[Katsmeow]

You can have the best of both worlds. A flatbed scanner and an automatic feed. In my case I have an HP printer and it has a scanner where I can either use flatbed or feeder.

 

[Bimmerbill]

I guess I am more interested in the software end of it. I'm sure I could scan, name and file the stuff since I am pretty organized. I wonder if the dedicated software adds anything to the process.

 

[Bimmerbill]

Follow up: I bought a Fugitsu ScanSnap s1300. It's the smaller, portable scanner that Fujitsu makes. It folds up nicely and is easy to store.

It scans full duplex and has a 10 page auto feed.

Its fast and does a great job so far. I like that I can scan to Google Docs as well.

 

[DFA]

I will look at that one too. I may have to get two since I have a lot of documents and some things that will require a flat bed scanner such as some old coins I have.

 

[samclem]

I'd recommend Ameriprise, and maybe check out "First Command" and whatever Amway is being called today. Oh, wait, I misread the thread title. Never mind.

 

[Bimmerbill]

Now I have to decide what I can scan and what requires originals.
Will warranties be honored with scanned in copies of receipts?
The scanner has been great so far. Already scanned in about 4" of paper, mostly legal and DDs school progress reports and education plans.

 

[FinanceDude]

I'd recommend Ameriprise, and maybe check out "First Command" and whatever Amway is being called today. Oh, wait, I misread the thread title. Never mind.

You mean "SCAMMER".....gotcha!

 

[slingshot]

I really, really, really love my new Fujitsu Scan Snap! Thank you all for the recommendations