Couldn't be happier... kinda.
First off - the scanner itself. The unit arrived carefully packaged and without any damage. I check stuff like that because I know I'll be writing an Amazon review at some point and want to say it. No rattlesnakes in the box. No ticking time bomb. Just a scanner. And those two air pillow thingies that I like to pretend that I'm gonna keep in an upstairs closet and use to ship Christmas presents until I remember that I'm a compulsive procrastinator and end up buying everyone Amazon gift cards and trying to figure out how to use Grandma's "Cross Stitch The Mona Lisa" kit for myself when I find it about mid February.
I bought this scanner for what I hoped would be three purposes: scanning receipts, scanning a boat load of pictures at a moderate quality level so I could get rid of the shoeboxes and managing my daily influx of bills/mail/threats and other stuff that comes in the mail that I used to compulsively hold onto and move around the country with me but would rather scan and trash so I can compulsively carry around a single hard drive full of PDFs of that same stuff that I'll never look at again.
I am happy to report that this scanner nails all three at a reasonable price point, which would have earned it a five star rating. There are a few annoying things (that didn't have to happen) that cost the star. I'll explain, but during the breakdown of each scanning experience.
Receipts: This scanner handles the receipt scanning like a pro. I've set it up at the end of my desk, hovering over the edge and directly above a trash can. I come home at the end of the day and push the receipts in (after a little software interface - more on this later). It scans the receipts and gravity pushes them out into the trash can. The scan settings are perfect for this operation. Color or Black and White anywhere from 200 - 600 DPI. For receipts I am doing color scans (cause who doesn't love color and the file size on color vs BW is negligible) at about 200 DPI. It's honestly overkill but whatever. The scans are so good I'm using my phone on my computer monitor to hit the Walmart smart saver code box ($3.66 so far, RAWR!) after the receipt is long gone.
Pictures: This one is a little tickier. I was hoping for a little bit better native quality without having to fuss with the picture inputs. I've eventually settled off on scanning in a TIF files and then mass converting to JPG. It seems to do a better job for some reason (the native JPG scans look a little wonky with the pictures, but the TIF's look fine). As with the receipts (but more relevant here) the scanner auto feeds. You put one picture in, it scans it and a countdown timer starts on your screen. As long as you get the next picture "grabbed" by the scanner in the next 30-60 seconds (user editable setting) it stores the first picture and scans the next. The scanner comes with a variety of input scan settings (jpg, tiff, pdf, etc) and does the processing work well. I'd rate this function at a B. I would have settled for a C, so I'm happy but if you are buying a scanner JUST for picture scanning I think you could probably do better. As a multi-function, this hit the mark. As a side note, I'm also scanning some lower quality items (recipe cards, clippings, etc) and those come out like a champ at the basic settings (200DPI, color).
So, where is the bad?
The software and a lame money grab by Brother. First up, the software.
A multifunction scanner like this is designed to appeal to the home organization OCD personality. I am one of those. As a result, I am scanning a variety of things trying to clean up my house for the day when Better Homes and Gardens isn't going to come over and take pictures, followed by Lifehacker who nominates me as basket case of the year who can pull a receipt for the original copy of Netscape I bought in 1996 off my hard drive (which I can now do. Call me Lifehacker.) I want each of these files to go to a different place. Current receipts to one folder on my hard drive. Archive receipts to another. Recipes to a third. My family pictures to a fourth. The shoebox full of pictures from my in-laws to a fifth. Etc. This software can do it, but the basic software requires you to click a browse button and navigate your hard drive to change the directory every single time you change. And there is no memory related to a drop down box. At this point I've used all five directories. A drop down box would save a lot of time switching between projects. Or perhaps (if you really wanted to get crazy) a user configurable "What are you scanning now?" pop up when you opened the program. Let me pick out the directories, put a cutsie picture up there and let me do it easy. Don't make me look at "My Documents" and drill down fifteen directories to get to where I want this picture of my wife when she was three and was harassing her father to go. Small thing, but over time it's gotten annoying. So easy to fix.
And I'm sure Brother would have fixed it if they weren't too busy writing their receipt organization program. The one that the CD said I could install - but only after I downloaded it - and the CD bounced me over to the Brother website and made me enter the serial number off the bottom of the scanner. Which I did. And then they asked for ten bucks.
I can only assume that this software that I am supposed to pay ten bucks for will be as user friendly as the one you gave me. You know, the one without the drop down box or folder memory? Or maybe it doesn't have that, but I can go to another website and enter the serial number again and give you ten more bucks? A money grab. An upsell. A digital version of the annoying Best Buy salesman that wants to help you as you walk around the store (along with his fifteen friends) before you go stand in the line at the front of the store for thirty minutes as the one ill-tempered cashier helps everyone. And tries to sell you a warranty.
Good scanner. Gets the job done. Slimy upsell effort and mediocre software. The three star to Brother is brought up by the solid hardware of the scanner itself. Four stars.
EDIT: The button scanning is cool, but if you use it (insert the document, let the scanner grab it, press the button) it pulls the document into one folder that Brother set up. It's buried down in your "My Documents" folder. If you use this, you'll have to manually sort anything you scan to where you want it. So now I've got a sixth folder. That I can select if I browse, or just press the button. Meh. Easier to use the program and browse there than scan things in to a hard drive directory that Ponce DeLeon himself couldn't find and have to move them all manually.
| 商品尺寸 | 5.33 x 28.96 x 3.56 cm; 399.16 克 |
|---|---|
| 连接技术 | USB |
| 功能用途 | Auto-Document Feeder |
| 制造商 | Brother Printer |
| 商品重量 | 399 g |
