I just KNEW this product was out there somewhere! I kept thinking, "Surely I'm not the only person who has hundreds of photos to scan and can't afford to take weeks to do it!" I kept looking, reading reviews, and looking some more. There was no way I was going to take 5 minutes or even 2 minutes per picture, previewing, scanning, cropping, adjusting. All I wanted to do was get decent, quick scans from old photos, good enough to post on Facebook. This little gem turned out to be perfect for what I needed.
PROS: This model will handle up to 8.5 by 11 inch photos. There is an adjustable guide to help you feed pictures into the slot, but I found I didn't really even need to use it as long as I positioned the photo up against the left edge of the scan path.
Scans are very quick. At the default setting, a 4x6 photo takes approx. 20 seconds to scan and save. Everything is automatic. You put a picture in the slot. The scanner feeds it through fast! When the light stops blinking, you scan another. I sat there watching TV, feeding one shot after another through the unit without a hitch.
One of the best features is that you don't have to be connected to a computer. If you're not connected via the USB cord, photos are automatically saved on the SD card. (The unit comes with a 1GB card, which hold hundreds of photos. HINT: After you install the scanning software from the SD card during setup, you can delete the scan software from the SD card. You'll free up lots of room for more photos. Just be sure to save a copy of the software somewhere, because I could not find a way to download it from the manufacturer's Web site.) You could take this unit to your family reunion, sit at a table with the relatives, and scan in photo after photo. When you get home, you can transfer the photos to your computer, or just pop the SD card into your digital photo frame. (I scanned about 350 photos and had them uploaded and posted to Facebook photo albums in about 3 hours.) Of course, if you'd prefer to connect and scan directly to your computer via USB cable (included), that is easy to do as well.
CONS: You have very little control over the scan settings. You choose either 300 dpi (dots per inch) or 600 dpi. (300 dpi is fine for posting photos online.)
You have no control over how the photo files are named when they are saved on the SD card or on your computer. (They are just numbered sequentially.)
You will need another software program if you need to manipulate the images after scanning (cropping, adjusting colors and brightness, etc.) The software that comes with the scanner does not have any editing functions. I recommend IRFANVIEW, a superb freeware photo editing program
It would have been really nice if the unit could have operated on batteries. Then you would not even have needed to use the power cord (included)! Maybe next model...
BOTTOM LINE: If you need museum-quality scans for posterity or super high resolution scans for enlarging, get yourself a good flatbed scanner and digital photo editing software. It takes a lot of money, time and effort to get scans that good.
But if you just need quick, decent quality photo scans for sharing via email or posting online, this may be exactly what you're looking for.
NOTE: After now doing approx. 500 scans, I have not had any of the problems with lines across the image that some reported. I do use the little cleaning swab (included) about every 50 scans as suggested by the manufacturer.
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