|
Planon Systems Handheld Portable Scanner RC-800Great quality scans, when it doesn't shut off half-way across the page; difficult to keep straight, even with the little rollers, and hard to manage near tight bindings--probably easier on older, worn books, or ones with broken spines, but if you're not worried about breaking book spines, stick with a flatbed.
Price is right though. For my use, massive amounts of continuous paper (well logs), just didn't work. This is very anonying.Because the scanner is so lightweight, it is very difficult to guide it straight, thus the image is distorted.
Very small and portable. This causes your scan to end saving what is done up to that point in a file. Seems like an awesome idea.
In essence you have to start over. Finally sent it back. If you only have a page or two occasionally it would be OK, but much more than that use something else, though not sure what if you're traveling.Two main problems.
1) It keeps cutting off, and 2) getting the scan straight is very difficult.If you pause for any length of time the scanner shuts completely off, then you have to go through the process of restarting.
JUST DON'T BUY. POOR product, POOR service, POOR everything. I am simply speechless. their customer service is TERRIBLE.
You will want to purchase a memory chip for it, however, (I bought two for the price of one at [.].) to maximize performance.I contacted tech support the first day and found the personnel to be exceptionally cordial and helpful, as was the individual I spoke with in customer service. This means that when you place the pen on a book page, the margin of the page must be sufficiently wide to allow you to get the scanning lens over the entire body of the text. (I actually purchased a refurbished unit that was about 50% off the regular price).Although I returned the product just prior to the end of the 30 day return period, I decided to write this review to offset many of the negative reviews that simply do not reflect my experience with the RC800.I used the scanner off and on for nearly 30 days and found it to perform as advertised. But the process was as prompt and professional as any I have experienced with any company I deal with online.My reason for returning the unit was due to the fact that the scanner lens or window, does not extend the entire length of the pen. After reading the other reviews on this site, I postponed ordering the RC800 twice.
I'm a college professor, not an employee of Planon or of any of its competitors. There are things about the accompanying software I don't like, but I could say the same thing about all software applications I use.While I hope this review proves to be helpful toward enabling you to make an informed buying decision, should you have questions about my review, feel free to contact me at [.]. So there is about a half inch (I don't know the exact measurement) of the end of the pen that does not scan. The plastic casing makes the pen light-weight but it does not appear to me to be of poor construction. to return it via UPS). I found the unit to be well assembled, contrary to other reviewers. Within two days of receiving the returned product, Planon had credited my credit card with the full amount of the purchase (less original shipping of about [.].--it cost about [.]. But even this approach is limited by the size of the margin--if it is smaller than the thickness of the pen, you cannot place the pen in the margin deep enough to scan from the inner text margin to the outer.While the quality of the scan is not as high as most flatbed scanners, you can expect to achieve a relatively high degree of accuracy with the scanner if the text you are copying is relatively clean and clear (and does not contain old typeface with ligatures between letters or broken type).
However, since I needed a scanner that would scan antique books that cannot be flattened to fit on a flatbed scanner (without damage to the books), and since Planon promised a 30 day guarantee--no questions asked--I decided to make the purchase. Granted, you can scan laterally, from side to side, and let the OCR software rotate the page. When I did decide to return the unit (see explanation below), I was treated professionally and my request was processed promptly. Since Planon says it could take up to as long as 10 weeks for monies to be returned, I was prepared for a wait.
Towards the middle the Docupen actually wrinkles the page. Its also rather cheaply made, I think the next generation of these items will be much better. This pen is very interesting, it has a great concept but it performs rather bad. Now dont get me wrong, it works great if you were scanning a single page, but it fails for books. A button to "scan" would have been better as well. The other reviewers were right in saying that this product fails in every aspect, its a great technical feat but it does not deliver. Some problems I found was when I was trying to scan a book, this becomes very difficult as you have to hold the book down, while holding the DocuPen hard against the book.
|
