Review submitted by M. Gesoff
Author’s Rating:
After extensive research I had the good fortune of looking for a photo scanner at the same time the Epson Perfection V500 became available. After scanning the first batch of 60 slides, I can heartily recommend this unit. The most significant capability of this unit, especially for the price, is the built-in ICE technology for scratch and dust removal. It is, in a word, astonishing. And, it is saving me many hours of extra work manually doing the same job. There is software-based scratch and dust removal included in the Epson software, but it is ineffective and cannot compare to ICE. I am scanning at 2,400 dpi, more than enough resolution for any practical use other than heavy cropping and enlargement. I use compressed air to “clean” the slides before scanning. When scanning with ICE turned off, the amount of dust marks are amazing. Turn ICE on and 98% of the dust is gone. It does take longer to scan with ICE, but the offset is the time saved many times over not having to manually remove the dust post-scan. Photoshop Elements 4.0 is included. I use Elements 6.0.

So far, the unit has worked flawlessly. Software installed cleanly on first try. Front panel buttons can be reprogrammed for other than the default (e.g., I changed the button for email attachment to launch the OCR to text software included.)

A tip for those who buy this unit for slide and/or film scanning with ICE and scanning 2-4 slides at a time: Click the “All” button in the preview window after prescanning (previewing) the multiple slides to select all slides, then click the checkbox for ICE to insure that all slides are processed by ICE. You won’t find this in the documentation or on Epson’s website. I spent time figuring out why all 4 slides weren’t being processed by ICE (I thought the unit was defective at first because only the first slide, which is selected by default, was being processed by ICE), so now you know without spending the time I did. I have used the scanner for photographs and documents, and have converted articles to editable text, all with no problems and excellent results. Still, slides/film is where it shines, thanks to ICE.

Review submitted by N. Maher
Author’s Rating:
I just purchased this scanner – primarily to scan my 1000+ slides. At first, I was a bit reluctant because this model is brand new to the market and I was concerned about those inital bugs. But I know that Epson makes a good product so I took the chance. And am I glad that I did. It has some outstanding features:

1. Very simple to set-up and then operate. I scanned my first photo within 30 minutes of unwrapping the package. No problems with the software and the on-line User’s Manual is really easy to follow.

2. Very fast scanning. The scan (including preview) of photos is unbelievably fast. But I was really surprised at the speed of scanning slides. A normal scan (without using Digital ICE correction) of 4 slides took less than 5 minutes. Compared to some of the other products, I’ve been reading about this is lightning speed.

3. Very quiet. When scanning photos, you can barely hear it. A little more noise when scanning slides, but certainly not bothersome.

4. Offers 3 modes to choose from – Auto, Home, and Professional. The Auto is the easiest and results in a very good photo. The Home and Professional offer a number of correcting features (more with the Professional mode). I am an intermediate Photoshop user and the Professional mode was as close to using an editing software as I’ve ever seen. The scan time slows down a bit when you use these correcting tools, but again – no big deal). Once I get the hang of it, I’m sure it will speed up the amount of time I will need with Photoshop.

5. Digital ICE is fantastic! This feature is used when only scanning film or slides. I first scanned slides without using it. The waulity was very good, but my slides are almost 30 years old so there was enough noise (mostly dust)and fade in them to be noticeable (something I was resigned to fix in Photoshop). I then scanned them using ICE and was amazed! The noise was completely gone and the colors were remarkably restored. The Photoshop work is going to be a piece of cake.

6. The price is unbelievable for what you get. I’ve seen scanners costing much, much more that aren’t nearly as good as this one.

In summary, Epson has come up with a real winner. I really can’t find anything negative to say. If you’re looking for a quality scanner at a great price, look no further. This is the one!

Review submitted by Trevor Goodchild
Author’s Rating:
Initially I was disappointed in this scanner. I was getting artifacts in my scans: posterizing, strange banding (like an old dot matrix scanner) and scans above 2400dpi didn’t seem to have any additional detail. For a while I was convinced the optical resolution was 2400 instead of the advertised 6400.

Eventually I discovered that the Epson software sucks. I would recommend only using the Color Restoration (which seems to be first rate oddly) and Digital Ice options. Everything else seemed to ruin the photos upon close inspection. You will need to make any adjustments in photo shop.

In addition to this, the software is difficult to use. It has an option to save your scanning settings — but it doesn’t work (on OSX at least). I have to set the option manually for every scan. When you preview your scan, sometimes it only selects one photo when you mean to change the settings for them all. Between these two problems, I find myself scanning photos with the wrong settings on a regular basis. As a SW Engineer myself — this is inexcusable.

Some people have complained the scanner is slow — it is — but if you compare specs it seemed to be in line with other scanners of this price.

Despite these problems I give the scanner 4 stars. I own a Canon scanner and the software is *far* worse *and* the image quality sucks, so Epson wins by default: Marginal Software and excellent image quality seem to be a winning combination.

Review submitted by Misty Matonis
Author’s Rating:
I primarily picked up this scanner because I want to digitize my photos via their negatives. I was also pleasantly surprised by some of the other things that I can do with this scanner as well. But first: putting it together.

It’s fairly easy to set up the scanner. Simply take it out of the box, plug in the plug to power the top of the unit (if you’re using this to scan negatives, you’ll need this backlight, for everything else you can keep it unplugged), plug in the power cord and get the USB ready. Note: there is a lock that covers the USB, probably to help protect it if you were going to be traveling a lot with you scanner (who would do that, I don’t know, it’s too big for easy travel), so you will probably have to slide that over so you could access the USB port. Be sure to take off all the blue tape, both outside of the unit as well as on the inside cover of the top. Also note that the inside top cover has a lock as well; this is for the scanner head, and you may have to unlock it prior to actually scanning (I did).

Before plugging in the USB to my computer, I installed the various driver and application components on the CD. This actually took a lot longer than expected. I have a fairly fast PC with a 52X ROM, and it took close to five minutes to install the various applications (Creativity Suite, FineReader 6.0 Spirit (an OCR program), the scanning application and the User’s Guide). There is also an accompanying CD with Adobe Photoshop Elements (4.0 for Windows, 3.0 for Mac), but as a Photoshop CS3 user, I didn’t bother to install this.

Registering the product is fairly easy. The unit’s ID can be found on the back left of the unit. Be warned that you will be taken to a Web page offering a discount on an unrelated product with a big download button; you don’t actually need the product and don’t need to download more stuff.

Since I picked this primarily for scanning negatives, this was what I first tried with the unit. The scanner comes with two holder plates, and you can do 35mm film negatives and slides on one plate, and medium film on the other. I was scanning 35mm color negatives, and so I placed them in the appropriate holder and snapped on the top of the holder. Scanning the negatives straight away is fairly straightforward. You simply press the scan button on the front of the unit. This will start the Epson Scan application, and you’ll be able to set various things that will allow you to get the best scan possible (more on this below).

I’m going to take a break here and detail the error I made in my first attempt to scan negatives so that you, kind reader, do not make the same mistake. After putting the negative holder on the glass, I removed the reflective back from the top of the unit to expose the light area (fairly simple to remove it and put it back on, even has a handy little handle at the top, too). What I didn’t notice was that each section of the holder has a letter corresponding to where you should place the tab on the corresponding indent on the unit. 35mm negatives use the “A” section, and I had placed the holder on the “C” section. I kept getting an error message saying that it couldn’t see that there was a document to scan. This confused me for a bit, and I wound up using the Home and Professional modes to see if I could get my negatives to scan. When I had unchecked the thumbnails feature for preview, I saw that only the slides area was being scanned. I then realized my error, and adjusted the position of the holder on the tab indents accordingly. The top unit only has a small glass area for the top light, and so the scanner, obviously, will only scan that small area. You can actually see this in the photograph of the unit on the Amazon page. Once I corrected my error, I had no problem scanning my negatives.

Back to the Epson Scan application. There are three options for you to choose from: Auto, Home and Professional. Auto simply auto-detects the type of document you are trying to scan and uses default settings to produce the preview of the document. Home and Professional are for photos and negatives. The difference between the two is that Professional provides you with more options to choose from so that you can get the best scan you require for your needs. Unless you’re into heavily working your photos, your best bet is to go with the Auto feature.

Scanning photos and documents is also quite easy. You need to make sure that the reflective piece is on the top of the unit. This will also ensure that your document does not move around on the glass. Scanning, again, is simple as pressing a button.

I wanted to try out FineReader with this unit, as well as the PDF button. For FineReader, I loaded up the program, and pressed a button within it (Scan), to get the document scanned and loaded into FineReader. I was easily able to get the OCR to work nicely with the document without problem.

For PDFs, I simply pressed the PDF button. This brought up a different PDF-specific application with a different dialog than the scanning application. Because the unit does not have a feeder, you will have to manually scan individual pages yourself. Creating the PDF then requires you to simply press the finish button; the document is then placed in your My Pictures directory if you are a Windows user. It would be nice to be able to state where you want the file to save, but that’s a minor flaw.

I also attempted to import a scan within Photoshop. I’ve done this before with other scanners, and Photoshop had zero issues with the scanner application, and everything worked smoothly.

There is a third button for email, by the way, however, I don’t have email set up on my machine and so I did not test this feature out.

I’m very pleased with this product. I found the scans to be quite sharp, and the scan process to be intuitive. I can see a novice with scanners not having too much of a problem with this unit, save for the holder issue I discussed earlier.

Review submitted by Ryan M. Wahl
Author’s Rating:
A few reviews mentioned a weakness of this scanner was that it was slow. I however had absolutely zero issues with how long it took to scan in fact it is extremely fast on my machine (under 8 seconds for a 4X6 on 600 Res)even when using the digital ice technology and other enhancement options (under 15 seconds). The scanner does a beautiful job and everything I have scanned so far has been great.

Can also be used to scan directly into Photoshop CS2 which is a huge benefit when doing lots of older pictures that need restoration work. Film scans looked good, not great, but it does offer high quality film scans considering this is not an independent film scanner.

I personally liked the software that came with the Epson, very easy to use. Some people mentioned that settings did not remain in place when scanning multiple photos which is incorrect. If you set the scanner options the way you want, there is a check box that says reset settings after each scan. Uncheck that and your ready to go!

The Epson V500 can scan multiple images at once and separate them into their own files, another huge advantage when using CS2. I did not use the supplied copy of Adobe Elements and I strongly recomend not using it because it is very limited in what enhancements you can do to your photos.

All in all, this is a great scanner. Very powerful and fantastic results. Works wonderful in Vista and is extremely fast depending on your setup.

Review submitted by BookMan
Author’s Rating:
My old HP scanner (actually, it wasn’t that old) died a few months ago and it was time for me to get a new one. I accidently came across the predecessor to the ScanScap S1500 (the S510) last week while I was having my taxes done and was amazed at the speed and compactness of it. My tax person also gave it glowing reviews. As I wasn’t aware that Fujitsu manufactured scanners, I thought I’d do a little research which led me to reviews of the S510 here on Amazon. Rather amazingly, I was very surprised to find that the S510 had so many extraordinarily high reviews (something that I don’t believe I come across too often, especially with items such as scanners). One of those reviews mentioned that a new model (this one – the S1500) had just been released by Fujitsu. After some more research (it wasn’t yet listed on Amazon), I found that this scanner was available and that it had many new features. As it turns out, I was the “first kid on my block” to acquire one and I’m glad I did! This machine is incredible!

The speed is absolutely blinding – an incredible 20 pages per minute but, because it scans both sides of a page at the same time, double sided documents scan at 40 PAGES PER MINUTE! Wow! As with previous models, this scanner is very small and appears to be well built: it’s quite heavy for its small size and fits very nicely on my small computer desk. The scanning quality is equally spectacular – it scans up to 600 dpi in color, grayscale, and black and white and mine came with a good assortment of software (Adobe Acrobat 9, Rack2-Filer, and ABBYY FineReader). It scans documents beautifully! While I’ve been too busy scanning the billions of pieces of paper that have cluttered my life for years (this scanner will actually do that quickly and efficiently – something I’ve always just dreamed would be possible), I haven’t yet tried to scan photos; I suspect that this scanner will do a good job but that another type of scanner would probably do better for archival purposes).

The only problems I’ve had were with Acrobat (I already have Acrobat 9 Pro on my computer) – I found that importing previously scanned documents into Rack2-filer were always listed in reverse order (ugh!) and Fujitsu tech support replicated the problem. They suggested, however, that I completely uninstall (not just repair) Acrobat and reinstall it. That did the job. BTW, I received great tech support from Fujitsu.

One interesting thing is that this scanner does not come with TWAIN drivers. Because of this, it is not possible to use it to the same extent as other scanners. Just the same, my reason for getting this scanner was to create .pdf files and this scanner does it like no other.

Overall, I’m thrilled with the Fujitsu S1500 – there is no question that it is the best one I’ve had (and I’ve had many) and is well worth the money (the S1500 is also the most expensive scanner I’ve ever purchased). I would recommend this to anyone who needs to scan documents.

Review submitted by H. T. Nelson
Author’s Rating:
I purchased this scanner as a first step in creating an electronic filing system for a home office. As I accumulated 20 filing cabinet drawers of paper documents going paperless seemed to be an answer.

Purchase of the Fujitsu S1500 was based on the numerous 5 star reviews. I am reasonably tech literate and have used the scanner for about 2 weeks. Here are my initial impressions:

Pros –

1. Speed: This scanner seems blazingly fast. Not a resource hog. Will scan duplex 20-25ppm at default settings on Win2K/1.8mhz/1gb platform.

2. Scan quality very good at all settings.

3. Size and looks: Small desk footprint. Looks great open or closed.

4. Excellent paper feeding as long as documents are same size and 20# or greater paper weight.

Cons –

1. NO TWAIN DRIVER. I knew this going in but did not appreciate how much this would cripple the device in day to day use. Let me explain. I had envisioned creating a virtual file cabinet in my computer using Windows Directory/Folder/File system then scanning my paper documents into this system as pdf files. The problem is that the native Fujitsu software does not let you append an existing pdf file!!!

As an example take a file for utility bills. D:/Home Expenses/Utilities/Gas_Electric.pdf. You can easily scan in all prior bills(limited by 50 sheet ADF)and a pdf with one page for each bill will be created. But if you had more than 50 prior bills or when next months bill comes then the next scan you perform to include these new documents will create a new pdf and does not allow the option of appending this more recent scan to the existing pdf. As you can see one could easily end up with 1000s of individual pdf documents in your filing system. The work around is to launch Adobe Acrobat (not reader) and use it to open the old composite pdf and use Acrobat to append the newly created pdf to the prior file. This work around takes longer than scanning in a 30 page document. Twain based scanners easily work with existing windows file structure and allow you to append an existing pdf without invoking Acrobat.

2. Paper catch tray very fragile and ADF paper support does not stay up (also reported by other reviewers).

3. Double feed sensor: stops scan and reports. This is good. However you cannot retrieve the double fed sheet and place it back in proper order because the next sheet is already in the scanner and cannot be backed out. You have to either cancel the scan and start over or put the unread sheet back in out of order and then use Acrobat to rearrange the pages in the resultant pdf document. If you choose to cancel the scan the document that is halfway into the scanner will not be ejected and you need to perform an new scan to retrieve that sheet.

4. A scanning run will only handle one size document at a time. In my experience if you have a mix of paper sizes you will need to do a scanning run for each paper size. Each run will generate a separate pdf file with you will then need to deal with.

5. I paid extra for the scanner bundle with Rack2File software thinking it would help me create the filing system I envisioned. After loading and spending several hours with this software I don’t understand how it works or what it is supposed to do. I consider the extra $30 dollars I spent for the “bundled” scanner money poorly spent.

6. Other minor annoyances are:

While the scanner and snapscan software will run on older platforms the bundled software Rack2file and Acrobat require XPpro SP3 or newer. This is not clear from specs.

ADF will hold 40-50 sheets but output tray will start to jam after 20-25 sheets.

Documents printed on less than 20# paper and with printing on both sides the back side printing will show up on the front side scan. Many commercial invoices are printed both sides on thin paper.

Cannot set several default scanning profiles. You need to reset the scanner parameters each time you want a different profile.

Bottom line:

This would be a 5 star low end document scanner if it only offered a twain driver. As it is I can recommend it only to prospective buyers who understand the full implications of this limitation. I thought of returning this scanner and getting one of the twain based models like the Epson GT S50 but at this point I have learned enough of Acrobat to quickly append my pdfs retrospectively.

I strongly recommend avoiding the “bundled” product since I don’t see what added value the Rack2File software brings.

I considered giving the scanner a one star review just to get people’s attention but the hardware is so good 3 stars seems about right.

Review submitted by B. Brentlinger
Author’s Rating:
I have scanned about 8000 sheets so far. I have found these settings helpful with rack2filer:

1. Auto color detection, Duplex, Best image quality (300dpi Color/Grey 600dpi BW), Options [Only Blank page removal checked (no auto rotation - slows down page viewing)], Continuous scanning.

2. Same as above except change color mode to gray.

And in general I have found:

The multifeed detector works great and has detected many double feeds. It handles old thin thermal fax paper without double feeds – pretty amazing, because I would think that if anything would jam or double feed it would be that. The prompt shows the image of the detected multifeed and gives you the option of keeping it or discarding it – this has been helpful when it detects sticky notes on scanned paper that are supposed to be there.

It has handled many old papers – barely legible and has done an adequate job picking up light print.

Very light or old papers with light print or pencil hand writing are better handled by forcing the color detection to grey. Otherwise Auto everything works well.

Blank page detection – does not work with the other side of lined loose leaf paper or graph paper that has nothing written on it. That is to be expected – but a possible design improvement idea for this product. And to get around this, I have set the scanning side to single-sided. Otherwise blank page detection worked well.

Scans looked exactly like the originals and in rack2 filer the binders read and looked as well as the paper binders.

When it does jam (which was rarely the scanners fault and mostly from staples, taped paper or over loading), the prompt shows the last few pages scanned which makes it easy to recover.

Fanning and creating a step-like pattern of your paper stack before loading the paper makes a big difference in preventing paper jams.

Some of the advantages:

I can take many binders worth on information with me on my notebook without dragging the heavy paper binders in my bag – or one of those wheeled bags that my colleagues use.

There is the security of now being able to have multiple copies of my binders in physically different locations [desktop, notebook, and off site backups] all without using a copy machine.

I need less space for file cabinets [files], bookshelves [binders], and thus less office space.

Everything is now in one place. My office is too small to have all my binders and files together, but now they all fit in one folder on my hard drive.

Although I will still use paper to write on, I don’t foresee a reason to ever need to bind or file papers anymore. Just take notes, scan, and recycle.

The actual images for Rack2Filer and CardMinder are in PDF files so if anything happens with Rack2filer – you can always access the data via windows explorer and acrobat.

I have used NeatWorks for my accounting (receipts), documents, and business cards for about a year now. The mobile scanner scans at 3 ppm black and white and 2ppm color – single sided only. So for duplex color ScanSnap is (20ppm x 2)/2ppm = 20x faster – a huge improvement. The NeatWorks software is also heavy and slow compared to Rack2filer and CardMinder.

However, NeatWorks is better than ScanSnap organizer or Rack2filer for receipts. And it can import the PDF scans from the S1500. So, I recommend using NeatWorks software (not the NeatWorks/Desk scanner) for receipts, Rack2Filer for documents and CardMinder for Business cards.

Review submitted by Eye Physicians Surgeons
Author’s Rating:
Our office has about six of the predecessor to this scanner — the S510. They are extremely dependable and do exactly what they promise. When it came time to get another scanner, I immediately looked for a Fujitsu and found this newer model. I ordered it and got exactly what I expected – a very dependable scanner that needs very little babying. We’ve been very satisfied with the Fujitsu scanners and will continue to look to them whenever we have a scanning need.

Review submitted by Robert Truitt
Author’s Rating:
I purchased this scanner with the Rack2-Filer software so that I can eventually get rid of all the paper that I end up collecting over a year.

I just did an amazing thing with this item: I scanned a 129 page document, having a mixture of legal and letter size paper. I did have to baby-sit the device, adding 20 pages to the back feed tray, while removing scanned pages. I did notice that if can’t feed the next page, you may want to slightly lift the feed tray (it is on a hinge). That helps the scanner grab the next page.

It placed the scan straight into my open “Rack2-Filer” binder.

Really nice!

Review submitted by W. B. Halper
Author’s Rating:
For the last year and a half, I’ve been using a Fujitsu S510 SnapScan page scanner, which is a natural competitor to the Epson GT-S50. So, when I was offered the chance to review the Epson, it seemed like a natural fit – somebody looking to purchase one is likely to also look at the other. (Go to Fujitsu ScanSnap S510 Sheet-fed Scanner to read that review. It was fairly far down, on page 4, when I last looked.)

Let’s look at the two scanners…

First of all, both scanners are top fed and scan both sides of a page in a single pass. They are infinitely faster than the scanners built into the “all-in one” printers and suitable for high volume scanning…the Epson is rated for 1200 pages per day.

The Epson GT-S50 comes with both TWAIN and ISIS drivers, giving it with a clear advantage in interfacing with software from other companies. Almost every program that can read from a scanner uses one or the other. The ScanSnap, on the other hand, uses its own proprietary driver, which only ties into their ScanSnap Organizer program…a program that displays small images of the scanned pages. Both scanners come with OCR programs, for converting scanned images to editable text, but, with the TWAIN driver, only the Epson directly interfaces with different programs – OmniPage Pro, Textbridge, or whatever else you prefer.

The Epson driver offers more choices in output resolution. Whereas the SnapScan has four levels – Normal (150dpi), Better (200dpi), Best (300dpi) and Excellent (600dpi) – the Epson has eight levels ranging from 75 dpi up through 600 dpi. For some strange reason, neither company’s software allows you to name the output file before scanning. After scanning, you’ll need to manually rename each file with something recognizable. (The default date/time stamp doesn’t give you any useful information if you need to find a file a month later).

The Epson ships with software for both Macintosh and Windows systems. I’ve tested both versions in a mixed Windows/Mac network and they both work smoothly. The Fujitsu ScanSnap, on the other hand, comes in dedicated Mac (S510m)and Windows (S510) models. I’ve only used the Windows version.

Both scanners are similar in their physical shape, although the Epson looks quite a bit larger…it’s about 1″ longer, 2″ taller and an inch or two deeper than the SnapScan. It holds 75 pages in the input slot, versus 50 in the SnapScan. The Epson has a two-line display on the front. The SnapScan only has “scan” and “power” buttons. Both units are solidly built and give the feeling that they’ll last for a long time…I’ve used my SnapScan for 30K+ pages and it’s still going strong. Both units have user replaceable pads and rollers to keep them running smoothly.

How do they operate in real life? To begin my testing, I fed the same 42 page document through each scanner. The document was complex as they come, with both text and color graphics on most pages. It was also laid out to be used in a vertical flip chart (letter-size, but bound on the short edge)…from the scanner’s perspective, the back-side of each page was upside down. My theory was that a scanner that could make sense out of it could handle almost anything…

The Epson scanned my test document faster than the ScanSnap, but software processing of the scanned image took longer. The ScanSnap took 3min 10sec from the start of the scan to PDF file creation, without using text recognition; the Epson took 4min 6sec. The OCR software runs in the background on the SnapScan, but runs in the foreground on the Epson. Because of this, the SnapScan can be used to scan the next document while the text is being recognized, while the Epson remains busy until it’s completely finished. My test document tied up the Epson for 12min 20sec from the time that I started the scan until the OCR finished and saved the file. My computer’s no slouch, but a faster computer would obviously shorten that time. If you use an outside text recognition package, you can always run it at a later time and eliminate this time waster.

The ScanSnap features automatic rotation of upside down and landscape pages. (Everything is fed in vertically on both scanners.) The Epson doesn’t…you get what you feed in. In my test document, the ScanSnap flipped the upside pages right-side up. The Epson left them upside down. Even with the upside down pages, the OCR worked fine.

The Epson can handle mixed page sizes in one scan. You can drop all your receipts in and have them scanned at once. The ScanSnap needs all the pages to be the same size in each scan…a longer page is assumed to be a misfeed and aborts the scan.

The Epson has a straight through paper path. It can handle credit card and ID Card scanning. The ScanSnap doesn’t and can’t. This makes the Epson perfect for a medical office where health insurance cards are always being copied.

The Epson can scan documents up to 36″ long. The ScanSnap stops at legal size (14″). This is useful when you are scanning cash register receipts, but as a practical matter, I seldom run into anything else that’s longer than 14″…at least not without also getting too wide for the scanner.

Using the default settings, the ScanSnap had a sharper output at 600dpi. Clicking the “unsharpen” box in the Epson software produced a scan that almost exactly matched the ScanSnap’s output…why unsharpen actually sharpens is a mystery. In solid-color blocks, the Epson was clearly superior, producing a solid-color output. The ScanSnap had a lot of off-color noise that was clearly visible when enlarged.

The Epson also has the ability to drop out colors, which is useful when scanning something printed on colored paper. It would also be useful if you need to remove a red “confidential” or “top secret” stamp from a borrowed document.

Besides the drivers and other utility software, the Epson includes PaperPort 11 SE, which is a visual file organizer. It operates similarly to the ScanSnap Organizer. I didn’t test it out…the last time I installed PaperPort 11 Pro (NOT the SE version), it messed up my computer so badly that I ended up reinstalling Windows to get rid of it. (If you have a minute to kill, go read the reviews on Amazon for PaperPort 11 Pro!) I assume that Epson’s version is more reliable, but having been burned more than once, I’m not about to try any version of PaperPort ever again! Both scanners use the ABBYY FineReader software. It works nicely. The ScanSnap also includes a full version of Adobe Acrobat Standard…a $200 program if you were to go out and buy it separately.

So….which scanner would I buy? The short answer is that it depends on your application. If you’re using both Macs and Windows machines, the choice is clear…the Epson works with both. Both scanners are built for years of use and each has unique features (e.g. card scanning) that point it in one direction or the other. The Fujitsu ScanSnap is designed to be a more “push the button and it goes” type of device. The Epson GT-S50 is more flexible. I like them both.

Update – August 3, 2009 – I’ve now had both machines running side-by-side for about five months. I now find myself almost always using the Epson instead of the ScanSnap. The reason is simple – the Epson NEVER double feeds. This may be a function of the newness of the Epson, but my Fujitsu isn’t really that old, nor, at 19K pages has it seen much service. The double feeding has become a real problem…I have to carefully watch everything going through the SnapScan to make sure that it’s not skipping a page. Not good.

Update #2 – November 14, 2009 – I upgraded one of my office computers to Windows 7 and the GT-S50 is working fine. There no drivers yet available for the ScanSnap S510…Fujitsu is estimating the end of December. Even their newer model, the S1500 won’t have drivers for another couple of weeks.

I also need to add that I’ve have a less-than-satisfactory with Epson service. My GT-S50 keeps truckin’ along, but another Epson scanner, a V500 Office started misfeeding after two weeks. Epson wouldn’t ship me a replacement unit…their scanner service policy apparently requires that the scanner be delivered, at customer’s expense, to a repair depot. That’s not exactly the most customer-centric way of doing things…

Update #3 – January 27, 2010 – Fujitsu now has Windows 7 drivers available on their website. My s510 is now up and running.

Review submitted by H. Murchison
Author’s Rating:
Epson Workforce GT-S50 Review

I’ve been looking to move to a more paperless environment at home. It seems I get a daily deluge of mail that I have no intentions of archiving in its original form. I decided that the time is right to get a document scanner and start archiving these documents into PDF for safekeeping and retrieval.

My initial goal was to get a Fujitsu Scansnap but I was a bit put off by the fact that Fujitsu made separate scanner models for Macintosh and PC. Im on a Mac right now but I like the flexibility that PC support gives. So I decided to keep my eyes open for any other cross platform scanners and the Epson was announced shortly afterwards.

So after unpacking the Epson Workforce scanner I noticed the heft of this product. It’s a sturdy peripheral and well designed in my opinion. The installation process was a bit

tedious. I had to supply my administrators password 6 times to install the various application and drivers. I do not know if Windows will have the same annoyance.

The software included for Mac is Abbyy Finereader 5 Sprint, Presto Bizcard reader, Epson Scan, Epson Event Manager. Let me be honest and frank with you. The bundled software literally looks like it comes from the 90s. Epson should have done better and partnered with better vendors. Fujitsu includes Adobe Acrobat and a superior Cardminder for business card scanning in addition to the superior scansnap manager.

The performance of this scanner is stellar. I ran a page through at 200 dpi and it felt as though it was ejected rather than fed. At higher dpi the scanner slows down a bit but its still a good performer. I’ve been having some issues with the deskew feature. I scanned a few small documents and they were not properly deskewed and captured slightly crooked. I looked at the driver and the deskew button was grayed out. Still haven’t found out why I’ll keep checking. All document scanners tend to skew the scans a bit so deskew is important if you like your documents straight.

Application support- The Epson Workforce scanner uses TWAIN (industry standard) and ISIS (higher end) drivers. I found that my Adobe Acrobat 9 easily accessed the scanner, and quickly created a searchable PDF via its OCR function. Acrobat with built in OCR and a document scanner may be all some of you need. It works very well. Other applications I tried didn’t always have a TWAIN interface preferring to to use Apple’s Image Capture. No worries though you can setup which folder you want to scan too and some applications will “watch” a folder for files to import. Suffice it to say you “will” get your documents into your app somehow even if you cannot scan it in natively.

Comparison. Fujitsu this year announced the new S1500/S1500m Scansnap. It is not available nor on Amazon at the time of this review but it is now on Fujitsu’s website. I downloaded the data sheet and user manual for the new scanners. They are impressive. In addition to a sensor that can tell if two sheets have been fed (a feature of the Epson GT-S80 at more $$$) they also automate some of the scanning. You can toss in files of differing sizes with no problems. The biggest thing though to me is the Scanmanager software seems so much more fluid and modern to me. I also read that it may support both PC and Mac platforms in one device which was a feature I had to have. I will keep my Epson which works great yet is no frills and see if the Epson Scan software improves though I could see myself replacing this scanner with the S1500m and taking advantage of the superior Scansnap software.

Review submitted by W. B. Halper
Author’s Rating:
For the last year and a half, I’ve been using a Fujitsu S510 SnapScan page scanner, which is a natural competitor to the Epson GT-S50. So, when I was offered the chance to review the Epson, it seemed like a natural fit – somebody looking to purchase one is likely to also look at the other. (Go to Fujitsu ScanSnap S510 Sheet-fed Scanner to read that review. It was fairly far down, on page 4, when I last looked.)

Let’s look at the two scanners…

First of all, both scanners are top fed and scan both sides of a page in a single pass. They are infinitely faster than the scanners built into the “all-in one” printers and suitable for high volume scanning…the Epson is rated for 1200 pages per day.

The Epson GT-S50 comes with both TWAIN and ISIS drivers, giving it with a clear advantage in interfacing with software from other companies. Almost every program that can read from a scanner uses one or the other. The ScanSnap, on the other hand, uses its own proprietary driver, which only ties into their ScanSnap Organizer program…a program that displays small images of the scanned pages. Both scanners come with OCR programs, for converting scanned images to editable text, but, with the TWAIN driver, only the Epson directly interfaces with different programs – OmniPage Pro, Textbridge, or whatever else you prefer.

The Epson driver offers more choices in output resolution. Whereas the SnapScan has four levels – Normal (150dpi), Better (200dpi), Best (300dpi) and Excellent (600dpi) – the Epson has eight levels ranging from 75 dpi up through 600 dpi. For some strange reason, neither company’s software allows you to name the output file before scanning. After scanning, you’ll need to manually rename each file with something recognizable. (The default date/time stamp doesn’t give you any useful information if you need to find a file a month later).

The Epson ships with software for both Macintosh and Windows systems. I’ve tested both versions in a mixed Windows/Mac network and they both work smoothly. The Fujitsu ScanSnap, on the other hand, comes in dedicated Mac (S510m)and Windows (S510) models. I’ve only used the Windows version.

Both scanners are similar in their physical shape, although the Epson looks quite a bit larger…it’s about 1″ longer, 2″ taller and an inch or two deeper than the SnapScan. It holds 75 pages in the input slot, versus 50 in the SnapScan. The Epson has a two-line display on the front. The SnapScan only has “scan” and “power” buttons. Both units are solidly built and give the feeling that they’ll last for a long time…I’ve used my SnapScan for 30K+ pages and it’s still going strong. Both units have user replaceable pads and rollers to keep them running smoothly.

How do they operate in real life? To begin my testing, I fed the same 42 page document through each scanner. The document was complex as they come, with both text and color graphics on most pages. It was also laid out to be used in a vertical flip chart (letter-size, but bound on the short edge)…from the scanner’s perspective, the back-side of each page was upside down. My theory was that a scanner that could make sense out of it could handle almost anything…

The Epson scanned my test document faster than the ScanSnap, but software processing of the scanned image took longer. The ScanSnap took 3min 10sec from the start of the scan to PDF file creation, without using text recognition; the Epson took 4min 6sec. The OCR software runs in the background on the SnapScan, but runs in the foreground on the Epson. Because of this, the SnapScan can be used to scan the next document while the text is being recognized, while the Epson remains busy until it’s completely finished. My test document tied up the Epson for 12min 20sec from the time that I started the scan until the OCR finished and saved the file. My computer’s no slouch, but a faster computer would obviously shorten that time. If you use an outside text recognition package, you can always run it at a later time and eliminate this time waster.

The ScanSnap features automatic rotation of upside down and landscape pages. (Everything is fed in vertically on both scanners.) The Epson doesn’t…you get what you feed in. In my test document, the ScanSnap flipped the upside pages right-side up. The Epson left them upside down. Even with the upside down pages, the OCR worked fine.

The Epson can handle mixed page sizes in one scan. You can drop all your receipts in and have them scanned at once. The ScanSnap needs all the pages to be the same size in each scan…a longer page is assumed to be a misfeed and aborts the scan.

The Epson has a straight through paper path. It can handle credit card and ID Card scanning. The ScanSnap doesn’t and can’t. This makes the Epson perfect for a medical office where health insurance cards are always being copied.

The Epson can scan documents up to 36″ long. The ScanSnap stops at legal size (14″). This is useful when you are scanning cash register receipts, but as a practical matter, I seldom run into anything else that’s longer than 14″…at least not without also getting too wide for the scanner.

Using the default settings, the ScanSnap had a sharper output at 600dpi. Clicking the “unsharpen” box in the Epson software produced a scan that almost exactly matched the ScanSnap’s output…why unsharpen actually sharpens is a mystery. In solid-color blocks, the Epson was clearly superior, producing a solid-color output. The ScanSnap had a lot of off-color noise that was clearly visible when enlarged.

The Epson also has the ability to drop out colors, which is useful when scanning something printed on colored paper. It would also be useful if you need to remove a red “confidential” or “top secret” stamp from a borrowed document.

Besides the drivers and other utility software, the Epson includes PaperPort 11 SE, which is a visual file organizer. It operates similarly to the ScanSnap Organizer. I didn’t test it out…the last time I installed PaperPort 11 Pro (NOT the SE version), it messed up my computer so badly that I ended up reinstalling Windows to get rid of it. (If you have a minute to kill, go read the reviews on Amazon for PaperPort 11 Pro!) I assume that Epson’s version is more reliable, but having been burned more than once, I’m not about to try any version of PaperPort ever again! Both scanners use the ABBYY FineReader software. It works nicely. The ScanSnap also includes a full version of Adobe Acrobat Standard…a $200 program if you were to go out and buy it separately.

So….which scanner would I buy? The short answer is that it depends on your application. If you’re using both Macs and Windows machines, the choice is clear…the Epson works with both. Both scanners are built for years of use and each has unique features (e.g. card scanning) that point it in one direction or the other. The Fujitsu ScanSnap is designed to be a more “push the button and it goes” type of device. The Epson GT-S50 is more flexible. I like them both.

Review submitted by Jerry Saperstein
Author’s Rating:
I bought my first OCR (Optical Character Recognition)machine in the mid-1980s. As I recall, it cost me about $15,000 and was about the size of a washer/dryer combination. It was slow, prone to jamming and the results were mediocre.

Twenty years later the breadbox sized GT-S50 puts that first machine totally to shame. It took only a few minutes to install the necessary software on a computer running Windows Vista Home Premium (64 bit). Another few seconds to drop in a stack of 79 pages (a little over the specified 75 page limit of the Automatic Document Feeder (ADF)). A couple of mouse clicks to select the desired output format and folder and one more click to start scanning.

This machine is blisteringly fast, operating at least at the 25 pages per minute specification. The ADF feed is very smooth. A couple of pages had “chads” where I removed staples and a couple of pages were slightly crumpled, but the GT-S50 kept right on plowing along. Image output is buffered, so the paper feeding part finishes before the conversion to images occurs. The Abby FinePrint Reader works somewhat slowly, but it is acceptably accurate. I did not try the supplied Nuance PaperPort 11SE software because my experience with the last couple of versions has been bad. I will be using it with Adobe Acrobat in the future and I have no doubt that it will work because Epson has included both TWAIN and ISIS drivers.

There is a fairly broad array of options for scanning text and images. The menu driven scanning software is simplistic and, I think, idiot proof. There are numerous output quality options with little guidance on which to use, which may lead some beginners astray. The menu is in some ways simplified to too great a degree. It is not immediately clear, for example, how to designate your output folder or how to change the default name of the output file.

In terms of performance, the GT-S50 is built for business needs. It is far superior to the common multi-function machines found in many home and small offices. Setup, as noted, is very fast and very easy.

The machine itself is very well designed. The output tray slides into the main body and the ADF tray folds over the top, serving as a dust cover. While small, the machine is fairly heavy, though you can “lug” it from location to location without difficulty.

In all, this is one very sweet machine. It is fast, simple to operate, delivers high-quality results, moderately portable and apparently built to last. It will handle not only regular sized paper, but business cards, odd-sized items in a separate carrier sheet and items 8.5 inches wide and up to 36 inches long.

Anyone familiar with professional document scanning software will instantly realize that not every bell and whistle is provided. Far from it: the included software covers the basics and not much more. But the fact is that most people will not miss all the capabilities supplied in professional scanning software.

I am very impressed and hope to quickly convert the contents of my filing cabinets to PDF files in the near future with the able assistance of the Epson WorkForce Pro GT-S50 Document Imaging Scanner. It is a very slick, very useful, very sweet machine.

Jerry

Review submitted by Kent J. Smythe
Author’s Rating:
I got the Epson WorkForce Pro GT-S50 scanner because of my needs in copying oversize contracts and prospectuses that I have to deal with and one of the great things about this machine is the ability to copy 8.5 X 36 inches long,YES let me repeat that… UP TO 36 INCHES LONG!!!

After dealing with several different scanners over the past 12 years and the limitations in copying the longer than 12-inch contracts & prospectuses that come up, it’s a joy to copy the 14 inch long contract that was impossible till getting this machine and the picture quality is great,I did my scans at 600 dpi and it looked perfect.

Another feature that comes with the GT-S50 that is totally new to me is the ability to copy both sides of the documents at the same time and it does it so fast and perfectly.

It took about 5 minutes to download the 2 discs that came with the Scanner and it was ready to go without any problems.

In the past every scanner I’ve had was bigger than one would hope for and this beautiful little powerhouse folds up when not being used into an incredibly small dust resistant unit and I really am pleased with it.

This machine is a real winner.