VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand Portable Scanner

I love this product! It's easy to use, so handy, seems well made. Of course, it is an electronic gadget, so I have been handling it with care and put it away in it's case as soon as I am finished with it. I have used it to scan a few hundred pictures so far, and the picture quality is excellent (for my needs, it's clear enough to see detail and read text) in both low and high resolution. Took me just a few scans to guage how quickly to move across a page. If the page is too large to do in one swipe, simply do it in two or three overlapping passes. You could stitch it together if you had to, but I have found it to be sufficient to have multiple images rather than spend time putting them together. I then hook it up to the pc (included usb cord), it is recognized as an external storage device, and the images are quickly transferred to my computer. I have used my Picassa photo software to crop the edges neatly, but you don't have to. Currently I am trying to figure out what I'd like to do with my kitchen, so I have been scanning pictures of ideas from books, magazines etc, and saving them to a file on my computer. I can use this anywhere for that! I'm using the files on my computer right now, but am getting an e-tablet soon, so will be able to have the files with me when i am out and about. I will also be using this to organize receipts, warranties, etc. And, since we homeschool, I can see this coming in handy to scan and organize co-op notes, schedules, all sorts of things. I love this so much I don't even mind I paid $20 more for it a few weeks ago, than it is now. My friend has gotten them for herself and siblings because of mine, and I think I am getting one for my sister for a gift, too. I highly recommend buying the extra storage case, I can't imagine throwing this wand into a backpack or purse without it. And you will want to get rechargeable batteries ( I recommend the hybrid kind, they hold a charge much longer), and keep spares with you if you're out of the house or at the library with it. I only cannot comment fully on the included software, it is supposed to allow you to convert text in the picture to 'useable' text, I haven't messed with it enough to be able to give an honest report. I've got an 8gb micro card for it, the most pictures I've had on it at one time was 139, of high resolution, and it wasn't full....I didn't think to check and see how much room was left. I do have a desktop scanner, and I found it to be quite a pain to sit at the desk and try to put a book in there the right way, it was so nice to sit at the table and scan that way! I'll still use it as a copy machine, or for quick flat scans, but my go-to scanner is my magic wand. Oh, another recommendation, if you have younger children you may not want to call it a magic wand, mine have been having Harry Potter fantasies about mom's new gadget! I think this would be an excellent gift for students, craftspeople.......

It has been way too long since anyone made a really usable hand scanner. I've been looking for one for years. So I was very excited when I saw a review of the 'Magic Wand' on one of my news feeds. This product does the trick. You have to be fairly slow and steady to get a good scan, but hey... it's a hand scanner! So no surprise there. The scan quality is quite acceptable for a device of this type. Not what you would get from a flatbed scanner, but hey... it's a hand scanner! Print is readable, photo quality isn't fantastic but might improve as my scanning skills get better. The scanner is bundled with 'ABBYY Screenshot Reader', which extracts text from an image. ABBYY is one of the major producers of optical character recognition (OCR)software. I have a document scanner that came with and ABBYY OCR program. But I have never seen a screenshot reader before. This product allows you to select an area on your computer screen, and it will extract text from that area and put it in your clipboard. So when you scan an image with the 'Magic Wand', you can connect the scanner to your computer with a USB cable (included); open the image in a picture viewer; and use Screenshot Reader to capture the text. You will probably have to do a bit of touch-up after you paste the text into another application. I have yet to see an OCR program that does perfect text conversion. One trick that helps a lot is to zoom in on the text to make it larger. OCR programs work better with larger text. I am very pleased with the 'Magic Wand'. I keep it next to my laptop in the living room (yeah, I'm a multi-computer geek, and I do "side surfing" while I'm watching TV) so I can quickly scan things out of magazines or books. And it's small enough to toss in my computer bag when I'm on the road. Along with my Planon Printsitk portable printer ( Planon Printstik PS950ME Label Printer - Monochrome - Direct Thermal ), I've got a complete office in a bag!

I just got this on my doorstep today and I couldn't wait to try it out. My math teacher only uses the new version of our math book (I got an older edition to save money). The concepts are still the same, but with some changes to the exercises. So in order to do the correct homework problems (he only assigns a few problems per chapter) without having to buy the new edition book, I wanted to be able to scan pages from a peer's book. From the test scans that I did with my book (which I will post), I think this will be perfect for me. I don't need super clean scans -- I just need to be able to read the content. I just need to figure out how to scan the entire page without the edge getting cut off. With a little more playing, I should be able to get it no problem. There are also guidelines on either side of the device, which are very helpful to keep the scan straight and ensure that you are actually scanning the content you want. As it says in the description, the files are saved as JPEG. Super easy to connect the scanner to my laptop via the usb cable provided. No software needed -- it's recognized as a storage device. So I just drag the files to my desired folder on my laptop, then delete them off the memory of the scanner (or really, the microSD card). It also comes with a carrying bag that has a little bit of extra room in case you want to keep extra batteries along with it (barely enough room for the usb cable if you squish), and a wipe cloth to protect the scanner part of the device. I can see how this scanner can be very useful in the future and not just for my original purpose. I seriously love being able to scan just about anything. I watched the YouTube video about this scanner, and I can definitely see myself scanning curtains, carpet, wallpaper, tables, etc to be able to have accurate colors and textures for decorating and other craft projects (as long as it's flat enough to scan). Usually, it's been guessing from memory since pictures from our digital camera aren't very accurate in color because of lighting in the room or the flash of the camera. For fun, I also scanned other things around me, including a place mat, my curtains, and my leg (well, really my pajama pants) -- I'll post these pictures as well. Overall, I am happy with this. I'll have to see how this plays out in the long run, but I would recommend it for anyone that especially needs a portable way to scan book pages or random things like fabric patterns and the like. *Edit: This might be a "duh" for most people, but I finally realized that I wasn't getting the edges of the pages I scanned because the rollers on the bottom weren't being engaged, which is necessary for the scanner to start scanning. There doesn't seem to be a way for me to completely scan a page out of a textbook without missing pieces, so now I know I will have to scan a page twice (flipping the orientation of the scanner) in order to get the entire page. I'll post another picture of getting the edge of the page.

This is a review for the VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand portable scanner. I rarely write reviews about products, only if it is really good, or really bad. In this case I am happy to say - this is a really good product. It works just as well, if not better then advertised. This was a Mother's Day gift to my wife from my kids (dad bought it, lol) and she loves it as well. By the end of the weekend, she had scanned every picture in every photo album we have, and we have alot of pictures!! I have read many reviews about not only this portable scanner, but others as well, and alot of them, the Magic Wand included had many negative reviews which I do not understand at all?? Possibly they got a bad unit? But the complaints they had are some of the things I like best about this scanner. It was said multiple times that if you dont keep your hand perfectly steady when scanning something, that the image comes out really bad. I'm sorry b/c I know I dont have a steady hand, and the scans come out perfect 99% of the time. This device is so easy to use, my 10 yr old uses it all of the time to scan pics out of magazines, and stuff, and they come out really good. I have even started using it to scan stuff for work, like my job orders, and inspection papers. Again - perfect. The only thing that I would change is that it would be nice if it came with the micro SD card, and an adapter. Even though it doesnt, they are relatively cheap at a Wal-Mart or Target, etc.. I have an 8GB card in mine, and it has plenty of room - and then when you get close to full, just dump it onto your computer HDD. Overall, I would defanitely recommend this product to anyone. Great value, especially for the price!

Not worth the price. I have tried about a hundred times to get a good scan of a receipt. It always ends up unreadable. You have to hold the docs firmly and keep it straight, but since the edges are too close to the margin there is no place to hold it with a paperweight. The logistics of this product just does NOT work for me at all. Then you cannot see the result right away so you have to plug in the USB to a PC, but you cannot scan whilst the USB is plugged in. This is really is a waste of money. I got an iPhone app for 1.99, that can scan receipts, credit cards, docs etc... In a snap, a million times more useable and a much better scan quality and so much cheaper. If there is a ZERO star rating I would have chosen that.

My intention in purchasing this magic wand scanner was to get a good reproduction of a pinball playfield so I could create a vector file and reprint the art. Unfortunately, this is not the tool for my job. The package contained the wand, a cloth sleeve to store it, and a USB cable to hook up to a PC. A Micro SD card is not included in the base model, so that will need to be purchased separately as there is no on-board storage. I eagerly brought this out to the shop where the pinball machines are kept. I wanted to get a proportional scan of the entire playfield art of a pinball machine to reproduce it. Unfortunately, it was impossible to take any scan and get the image to come out with no distortion. Any small imperfections in the movement of the scanner will throw off any consistency in the image. This could come from minor imperfections in the surface of the image being scanned (bumps etc) or issues with the guide wheels not properly moving in sync with each other. In the end, trying to stitch multiple scans together into a single image was impossible due to flaws in the scans. My use was very specialized and it didn't work out for the use I needed. That being said, the color reproduction and the resolution was actually quite excellent. Using this to scan photos or documents would be a no-brainer. I would highly recommend this for scanning items that fit within the 8.5" parameters and do not require absolute perfection. I still plan on keeping it for those purposes.

Quite honestly I was skeptical because I had the Planon 850 portable scanner and the experience was horrific. I purchased this product because I have many books (mainly volume text) and I saw it to be much more convenient if I were able to put either the collections or chapters [that I am reading] on my Kindle while on the go. I looked into purchasing my own digitizer, which the minimum cost is $10,000, I tried the Snapshot program to no avail, and looked into book digitizing services, which are extremely costly (a 7-volume work containing roughly 4400 pages costs $500.00) Pros: firm construction, lightweight, non bulky, travel case, no installation required (recognizes device like plugged in SD card), very very very easy to use, quick scanning (not 4-8 sec scan wait like planon), unlike Planon it does not stop scanning over a break in the page containing a large white area, great resolution, easy to convert images (jpg) to PDF with HP document manager. cons: right now I honestly can't say other than its perfect for 8.5 x 11...a larger width size you would kind of have to ad lib but not impossible. I will try to add images. I scanned a chapter from Cambridges Companion to the Quran, which was approximately 25 pages long (the book is maybe 9x7 in) and it took me 10 minutes with an additional 2-5 minutes to convert them to PDF and load it unto my Kindle.

If all you want is to scan an article or recipe, where the quality of the scan isn't so important, this would be a useful product. I purchased it to scan images from antique books that would be damaged if placed on a flatbed scanner. I found the product extremely disappointing, for the following reasons. 1) The scanning portion of the wand is recessed at least 1/2 inch at the end of the wand, which means that if you're trying to fit it against the inner margin (gutter) of a book, you'll end up losing much of your image. Basically your margin has to be about an inch wide for it to work. You can try rotating the wand, but if you scan over a surface that is not COMPLETELY flat (e.g., an open book), you'll get distortions. 2) Distortions. Again, if the surface isn't completely flat, if you don't scan completely straight, if you jiggle the scanner at all, you'll get distortions. If there are curves to the surface of your page (again, common in an open book), they'll show and distort the image. You'll find that a square picture will come out skewed. So if an EXACT reproduction of a page or image is what you're after, this isn't going to do the job. 3) Going off the edge of a page... This scanner works pretty well if you can scan a flat document on a solid flat surface (e.g., a single piece of paper on a tabletop). But if you're scanning a large book, you have the problem of the scanner "dropping off the edge" once you reach the bottom or side of the book. You may not have reached the end of the portion you wish scanned when the scanner itself runs out of room. 4) No ability to remove "screening." If you're scanning photos or color illustrations from a book or magazine, there is no mechanism to get rid of the moire patterns that result from scanning a screened image. Most flatbed scanners have a "descreening" option that enables you to get rid of this. Since it's just about impossible to get rid of a screen moire AFTER the fact, this greatly reduces the scanner's usefulness. 5) No ability to view the image as it is being scanned. If you want to see how it came out, you have to stop work, plug it in, go look at the picture, then click on the "remove device" icon to remove it, go back, scan again, and so on... It would be helpful if you could plug this directly into your computer and see the scans as you make them. I haven't quite decided if I'm going to keep this product or just give up and try to resell it (the return-by date being long gone), but again... it depends on what you want it for. If you're a student and you just need to be able to scan in material to study, but it doesn't have to be a perfect reproduction (just "readable"), I think this would be very helpful. But if you need a high-quality image, it's going to be very, very frustrating.

I order this particular magic wand manufactured by Vupoint, for my sister for Christmas. I have owned and used this same product for sometime, with great satisfaction. So I shopped around to get the same manufacturer. To my surprise the name on the magic wand was different. I was not pleased. With little time to spare, I gave the one I received to my sister, anyways. After Christmas and helping her use the magic wand, we discovered ... there was not a 32g micro chip included? I will be in contact to get, what was promised. Other than that the scanner seems to work fine. So tired of not getting what you pay for :(