Portable scanners - Are they really THAT bad?
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- Опубликовано: 15 июн 2024
- Despite the predictions of 40 years ago, we're not living in a paperless world yet, so you may need to scan in documents and photos. Are small portable scanners an adequate solution, or is a conventional flatbed scanner still your best choice? Let's find out...
Time flow:
0:00 Introduction
1:31 Overview
2:51 Handheld scanner
5:34 Scanning magazines
9:07 Sheet feeder scanner
11:30 Scanning photos
12:39 Landscape image
13:35 3-way comparison
14:47 Conclusion
#portable #photo #scanner 
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![Best Budget Portable Scanner 2023 [don't buy one before watching this]](/img/1.gif)
Top tip: if you get moire on an even number of DPI try an odd number of DPI and vice versa. This usually gets rid of any moiré effect.
Even DPI 300, odd DPI 299?
@@graealex Yes, like if 300 produces moire try 600, if 600 produces moire try 300
I just scan higher than I need, soften that result, and then resize. It turns those dot patterns into areas of solid color.
So odd* as in starting digit. I'll try this because i know what you mean.
@@Mrshoujo There is a general problem when stuff is quantized. One quantization is the dots used in the printing, the other quantization is the scanner head.
Because the resolution of the scanner head is below or only close to the resolution of the printing, spurious frequency components called aliasing appear.
If this wasn't an image, but music, you would bandwidth-limit it in the analog domain before digitization. In this case, you would want to put a diffusor on the picture before scanning it. It can also be solved by severely increasing the scanning resolution, and then bandwidth-limit it in the digital domain (e.g. with gaussian blur, which is basically a 2D lowpass filter).
Coincidentally, such a product exists for scanning film ("Scanhancer"), because film also has grain. So scanning quality can be improved by bandwidth-limiting in the analog domain.
I was in desktop support when all the sales people though these where the future. Then they used one.
I bet they weren't disappointed.
I have a very similar handheld scanner. It works very well. I got it from a thrift store. The included SD card had two scans on it, the first page of a cookbook, and a piece of notebook paper with all the previous owner's banking information written on it.
Wow! I'm glad a criminally-inclined person never bought that!
This usually happens when someone dies suddenly.
All their stuff gets stored and sold as-is. 😔
Over the years and the 50+ laptops I've picked up discarded on the side of the street or in dumpsters, only 1 of the hard drives did not have any porn on it...smh
Nothing like some good ol bank fraud🤓
@@ultra4e haha!
I had one of those for school, because I have a fine motor disability and I can't write really well. So I was supposed to scan the document to fill it in on the computer.
This issue is that, because of the very same motor disabilty, I was not able to use the thing. Very ironic, innit?
Also I think they do a terrible job compared to a flatbed scanner.
(edit: for clarification, I'm talking about the handheld one)
"There's more than one way to scan a cat" Didn't expect to hear that. And this time...nothing's beating a flatbed, even if it uses a parallel port. If I could get one!
The Adobe Scan app is pretty great. I've used it to scan entire books. It will automatically find the edges of the page before capturing the image. You can then convert the images to PDF. The text on the images will be converted so you can find or copy and paste from the PDF.
it has 2 major disadvantages though. 1) everything is distorted because of the perspective, angle and lag of flatness (so it is not usable for technical drawings) and 2) the resolution gets worse the bigger the document is.. again a problem with technical drawings. For other stuff it is pretty good though
@@olik136 A lof of these correct Perespective.
@@DanielLopez-up6os they try to do that- but it relies on finding the corners and then the squareness of the paper. Again works well enough for most documents- put is far from usable for any technical drawing. Even "real" large format scanners struggle with image distortion
This video convinced me to continue to use my old flatbed scanner, which I don't find too bulky or uncomfortable to use.
A flatbed is nice but I got a portable one with a document feeder. It was a Canon Imageformula P-215 from eBay and it only has a maximum resolution of 600 DPI but I only needed it for black and white documents. It worked well for that. It turned out to be a trouble free scanner for me despite however much it may have been used before I bought it. It was just $50 on eBay. Most scanners including that one cost a heck of a lot more if you buy them new. I only needed to archive a stack of old personal documents, the kind you don't share with anyone. I just need the copies to last as long as I may live and once I pass away they can then become lost to time but no sooner.
If you want to make phone camera "scans" more worthwhile you should use one of the many apps on the market that will correct the perspective and remove glare and such for you
Indeed. Microsoft Lens is free and produces good results, at least when it comes to scanning documents.
Been using FastScanner for years. It does that And its free.
I just use my phone's built in camera app that has a scanner mode. Pretty decent for documents.
@@yeoldestuff Microsoft lense is one of the best out here, yes
But they made cloud integration reminders very obnoxious
And if you actually login into your Microsoft account it will starts saving everything to cloud by default
Nice benefit of the perspective correction is that you can take the photo from an angle where you don't have glare
Reminds me of those handheld B&W/Gray scale scanners with an ISA interface board you used with an XT or AT ... it was marvelous back then but of limited use 😁
The best option is probably still what it was in the 70s - put your SLR on a tripod facing down and use 3 studio lights. Lot more accessible now lol
lol' Minolta SRT-101 slr.
Maybe you can now use a GFX100(S) if you really have to
reminds me of all the threads on the discogs board. people there had some wild setups for their slr's, but the results were superb
You could use that handheld scanner at the newsstand. Free News, whoa!
its almost like you can read the newspaper at the news stand, free news, woah
Newspaper is literally old news.
@@kayakisgod Reading standing? That's silly.
@@kayakisgodI'm not reading my newspaper at the newsstand like a peasant.
I know at least of one visual artist who carries (or used to carry) one of these in his drawing bag so he can get quick and decent scans of his sketches without carrying a complete laptop around. I found that might be the perfect use case for these.
Moire' pattern is because the CMYK print's particular line screen is somewhat close to the pixel resolution of the "Low" scan setting. There's also the fact that the dots in each of the four colors in the print are at (usually) fifteen degrees off from each other. This is done to prevent moire' and other unwelcome artifacts. You can see the little "rosettes" with a decent magnifier. Source: Too many years in the print industry.
Keep watching... the flatbed scanner has enough resolution to show the rosettes.
I used the Brookstone portable scanner, it’s actually decent for paper documents and small photos, it’s only meant for quick scans at schools and offices. But I don’t recommend them for everyday scanning, get a rapid scanner from Epson or Canon, those are top notch scanners, the schools use them for students to upload their class assignments and homework!
I remember 1983 as if it were yesterday. We had a Vax (DEC) and in many ways we were networked close to today's situation. It was obvious then that computers generated MORE paperwork. Whoever wrote the reverse wasn't paying attention.
@@vaquero3579 -- Yep! DEC dropped the ball. They and Sun were selling power workstations based on UNIX. But Intel and M$ were bringing power to the masses. c. 1990 tech software often came in two versions: one for PCs and another for the workstations. The workstation version cost several times the cost of the PC stuff. DEC didn't do what it would have taken to address the cost issues. When Intel permitted cheap hardware to approach & pass the capability of the workstations, it was game over.
So you’re a VW guy huh… 😉 I always enjoy your videos, relaxing, entertaining and informative.
Twain drivers were a stable and enjoyable solution .. is something that nobody ever said.
I have seen a couple handheld models in use over the years. The earlier one was rubbish but the other was actually really solid, with good image and no sliding frustration.
I have the exact same scanner in my closet. I haven used in years. However, the sound it makes while scanning is unmistakable.
Bravo on your selection of adjectives you used to describe the picture quality.
Pan Digital made a photo size version of that scanner, and I use it weekly for receipt scanning. Its quality is about the same as the one you reviewed. I love that you scan face up, which a surprising amount of "portable" scanners don't do. And it's fast and convenient to just turn it on, scan some stuff, and get them on the computer later.
Interestingly, it came with a sleev with a black plastic back and clear front, with registration marks on the top. When it sees the marks, it advances to the top of the clear portion of the sleeve, and scans from there. It's rather helpful for receipts. Unfortunately, it has a length limit, so if you're planning on scanning receipts from cvs, it's not for you.
I also still use my Plustek opticslim m12, from the early 2000s, i believe. This stuff lasts a very long time.
I have one of these. Wonder if some kind of sleeve or barcode pattern can extend the length of the scans. Very useful for receipts or coupons/tickets
Lovely throwback to your video form 10 years ago of "ode TO Joy" on an HP scanner.
Scanning capabilities for smartphones are actually functional and quite impressive, at least on iPhones or Samsung phones, which have scanners in their default Notes apps (no need for separate apps), so much so that on an iPhone it almost reproduces the original file whose content was printed.
The main downside is that the files end up being even larger than those from a regular scanner, going towards 30MB in size - and those are actually far less convenient when attached to emails or online forms or applications.
Using a good ol' scanner from a printer is still the best solution, but nonetheless, portable scanners are really interesting.
I've been using the CamScanner app for years, and they've been adding more and more ads the whole time. Glad to know I don't need it!
Easy enough to downsize the file
@@azoriusmage It's inconvenient though to have to cross that file through another service / website before being able to use it, when you can just get a good one from the start
@@simonhangan2571 You gert the option to reduce it when you send it
The scan options on phones are interesting and convenient, but it unfortunately doesn't completely help with glare and difficult lighting conditions.
I just wanted to say your videos haven’t changed since you started Wich I love
Great review. This video, with the three-way comparison, reminded me of ProjectFarm (if he reviewed and compared older electronics)!
I remember seeing those portable scanners in older catalogs. I always wanted to buy one for convenience’s sake but now I’m glad I never did, though that Pantech scanner seemed more than acceptable for non-archival scans where time is of the essence.
Nice video. I use a portable scanner all the time with my laptop. I love it.
Great vid ! Had my share of scanners. from the Radio Shack thermal paper one, to flatbeds to pro autoloaders (over 20 years ago) with SCSI controllers. Never really had much use for handheld portable ones but sure like the idea. BTW, had 2 EVEREX laptops, one from 1994 (BW screen, could use it in full daylight outdoors) and one from 1997.
wow didn't know these were a thing, they are pretty cool, the battery one especially, for someone often on the go it could be great, that's a huge advantage
I used a B&W only Logitech Scanman, complete with red leds, on my Windows 95 desktop publishing system. At the time, it was a wonderful and amazing 'time and labor' saver.
All of the "wand" type scanners I've ever seen or used have simply been an exercise in frustration. Invariably you fight with the page so much and end up having to use hacky solutions like taping the page down that you would have saved yourself more grief to use a proper document scanner that you feed documents into. If you need to scan books/magazines these days, the upright camera-based book scanners are they way to go as they'll handle curvature properly in the better models and are way faster, and are only a little bit bulkier when folded up.
For regular document scanning, I bought an Epson document scanner (an ES-200 in my case) a couple years ago that folds up to only slightly larger than your second unit, but when opened up has a full proper document tray at the top that's able to accept at least a dozen pages to scan in one go with no intervention. It produces clean, accurate results and is a huge timesaver when scanning multi-page materials; for anybody trying to digitize their documents without buying a full-blown office style document scanner or all-in-one, these are a great option. It's not a "standalone" device (it must be hooked up to a computer) but it can be USB-powered, and honestly these days it's not hard to bring a small laptop or something with you if you actually need to scan in the field somewhere.
Ok ok. You got me with the catscan joke. Bravo.
I don't know why but V's New Jersey accent really started coming out when be was talking about the cleaning stick haha
The Brookstone brings to mind my old Logitech Scanman Color, although the Brookstone is a big improvement in being able to scan a full page width without ‘stitching’ multiple scans together. TheLogitech was actually pretty good at scanning in standard 35mm prints as long as you kept a fairly steady hand on it.
Excellent video! Are you a vintage VW fan? I had a champagne 82 VW Scirocco when I was in college, and loved it. I would go to the import auto junk yards here in Houston with my friend in his VW thing with all the doors and windshield removed on saturdays to dig around for repair/replacement parts as they were needed.
It was probably 2001 and I was working for a company out of Milwaukee while living in Central PA. All of my paperwork had to be electronically sent to the home office. I was issued a candy bar scanner like the one @2:14. You didn't sweep the scanner over the paper, but rather there paper was drawn through with steppers that sounded really cool. 95% of the pages came out some form of crooked, but it managed to get the job done. I may be remembering incorrectly, but I think that scanner plugged in to a PCMCIA card in the laptop. That was back when the network connection was also PCMCIA. I also had a USR 56K PCMCIA card. Those were the days!
Thanks for the video, Kevin.
Lada Canada at 12:40 was the most surprising thing
At work I use a desktop Brother scanner that sits upright and feeds the paper from tho top out to the bottom. It scans quickly and clearly. It also has a feature to rotate and delete scanned pages before you save the files. Only thing is it doesn't like pages with receipts taped onto them.
I had a canon usb flatbed scanner that was fantastic but eventually, operating systems stopped supporting it. Had to throw it away and the hardware still worked fine!
Hi VWestlife.......I noticed the CRL processor manual. In my early years I met Glenn Clarke (the C in CRL) at the last station I worked at in 1982. The CRL system for both AM & FM were state of the art before Orban controlled the airwaves.....I read somewhere that he went to Orban but I don't remember where I read that....I enjoy your videos......
CRL ended up buying out Orban in 2000. I know it seems strange that a small company ended up buying their much larger competitor, but I believe it was because CRL had a better credit rating at the time, and Orban had a lot of debt.
Oh hey I'm pretty sure I have one of those pan digital scanners branded as pixie or something like that that I got at Goodwill. I love your videos and your sense of humor and every once in awhile your voice sounds enough like mine that when I'm listening at work I think "am I listening to one of my videos?" for a split second 😂
I like that PC Magazine cover for no particular reason
Regarding the print pattern visible in scans, sometimes resampling the image to a slightly smaller size will merge that back in to the colours it was meant to have represented on the page.
A portable scanner can be useful on the go like in a train plane etc nice video Kevin as ever you made a video i find interesting.
I love riding the train plane. It's awkwardly faster then a train but a little slower then a plane.
Any modern smartphone is much more convenient.
I have one of these "feed through" scanners, a Brother DS-620 which has a 600dpi resolution if my memory serves me correct. Had it for ages and it does the job quite well for my purposes. Plus it saves space as it is a bit limited for me, i can easily tuck it away in a drawer while not in use. Though i need to hook it up to my PC using a (very dated looking) software to run it.
For cleaning mine i can actually flip open the feed through-house to clean off the rollers and scan sensor, which is pretty neat.
The only annoying thing is the USB connection is located on the back, right where the paper comes out, and will (ofcourse) get stuck if you're not observant enough. The way it's connected on the side as on yours would've been much better. I've also noticed the surrounding light can leak through and cause some weird effects so i use to cut my quite strong LED desk light out while scanning.
Even with their flaws those portable scanners seem to have better scan quality than the ones built into modern all-in-one scan/print/fax devices. In the early 2000's I had a Umax Astra 4400 flat bed scanner that was capable of some pretty ridiculous resolutions. That was great if you had enough hard drive space to save them, the memory to open them, & the time it took to transfer from the scanner to the PC over USB 1.0. I used it to scan my senior year high school yearbook. It looked great but took several days to finish.😅
The canadian export version of VAZ 2104 looks amazing.
Nice comparison of scanners, I would think they're are 3 different tools though, each with their good and bad points. Probably prefer the battery powered handheld myself.
The Brookstone reminds me of Charlie Sheen's scanner from "Wall Street" - its portability is perfect for corporate espionage in the 1980s!
The scanner in that film was a real product, it used a small linear scanhead like the Brookstone one coupled with a thermal printer. It was very awkward to use and not really much use for anything but looks so cool. I would love to find one in a junkshop or something but thats unlikely as they were horribly expensive and niche products.
this video comes a week after I bought my very first flatbed scanner, a Canon CanoScan LiDE 220.
In windows it can scan up to 600dpi without any drivers, and up to 1200dpi with the canon driver/software. But then on Linux it will do the full 4800dpi that the specifications say it can do.
I was surprised by how easy it is to use, and that it can work with just a USB connection, no external power needed. I'm very happy with my choice, even more so after seeing this video showing off the type of scanner I had originally planned to buy.
I may get one of these portable scanners. I'm sure you can buy a cable with a barrel plug on one end and USB on the other and use a power bank to power the scanner. It shouldn't freak out over 1 volt difference. Or make a 6v battery pack.
I have a scanner just like the handheld one in your video for scanning books, but the book is too big for it. The best way to scan a book for me is align the scanner parellal to the long edge of the book and scan from the center of the book (the binding part) towards the edge of the page, so many books are bigger than what it can handle.
FYI- the Pandigital was the OEM for Kodak’s P line of scanners
3rd scanner was really impressive.
Just don't get that second one mixed up with your shredder!
I have a smaller pandigital, bought it secondhand to scan in a few hundred photos, it was a joy to use and so quick compared with messing about with a full sized flatbed scanner, photos were just for facebook use so super high quality was not needed.
I have one of these wand scanners and it works great. You don't need to tape down the document, neither you need to push that much on the paper while scanning. If you gently move it from top to bottom, it scans perfectly, no wrinkles or other side effects.
as a copytech i suggest trying to apply simple green to the rollers on the handheld scanner! it usually will get you by until you can replace the DF rollers on a full size copy machine
For the handheld one you could try swiping the wand from the centre of the page outward for smaller pages.
I do IT work for a LOT of medical offices. The multi-page sheet fed scanner is KING.... by far.
To make it easier to scan using the portable wand you can put the thing to scan between two transparencies (such as those used for an overhead projector in schools and colleges). Then you have a more solid article to scan. (Portable photo scanners use these too, when cut to the correct size - they take in the item you are scanning automatically, with a bit of assistance. They are not very good though, as they often take more than one attempt to scan an item. Often they stretch the image as they get stuck - or go askew; at least in my experience of using them).
I still haven't found a good portable non-sheet-fed scanner. For sheet-fed, I'm a strong Fujitsu fan. They're expensive (less so used) but are heads and tails over everything else out there. I have the Fujitsu S1100 and it's been a trouper, and reasonably fast too. Wired, but that's the way I like it. I also have an Epson wireless ES-50W scanner and it's just okay. Scans are usually skewed, but it is wireless and can scan directly to my phone.
As a trucker, I use the Epson also to scan my mountain of daily paperwork to my phone where I can then send the documents via data to the proper office that needs the information. The skewing is not an issue for me since the office has the software to correct this if needed. That thing has taken many falls and still works well.
@@grandinosour I actually keep my Epson in the car and bounces around in the trunk and still works.
Love it, there truly is more than one way to scan a cat, your so awesome!
I think you could have used both hands to hold the handheld one. You might get better control and result that way.
Also, Fujitsu, Brother, and other companies have desktop rapid scanners that are a bit smaller than the conventional desktop printers. Ever since I used one of those (Scan and Snap) I can't go back to other scanners.
They do have models similar in size to the last one (compact versions of the rapid ones) but I've never tried them.
You may have more control over the wand scanner if you use one hands at each side whilst dragging. Also, it may be easier to scan magazines if you rotate them 90 degrees and scan from the spine to the edge - you won't get a full page this way though and you'd have to be pretty consistent to stitch the two images together...
I have a Brother branded one and it’s honestly pretty good for a portable handheld scanner
i had one of the very first mobile handheld scanners in the nineties, it actually worked quite well (after i finally managed to install all the drivers)
Reminds me of my youth, back when I was a wee engineering boy playing with the Logitech “scanman” handheld scanner.
Could you run the AC power scanner on 4 AA batteries connected to the barrel jack connector?
Yes, you could rig up a 6-volt battery pack to run it.
I still use an Epson flatbed scanner I bought in 2003, it was a very expensive model at the time. I think I've also still got a wand scanner somewhere, it's very like the one here - maybe the same item with a different maker's name on? Anyway, I found it a PITA to use.
The second scanner is not that bad, I wish I can find at least a 2400 dpi to replace my Canon LIDE600 which I use for photos and documents. They do make books and magazine scanners but they are a little bit expensive.
I still use the VuPoint for my notary business. So simple to take an ID scan, and so much more secure than a phone camera.
Is it possible that I was in a thrift store parking lot while watching this and purchased an Epson DS-30 scanner there for $6? - yes! Hope it works!
i think that handheld one is a badge engineered vupoint magicwand. the one i have came with a "dock" that is a document/page feeder. i've had much better luck using it with the dock like the pandigitial. the few times i needed to scan by hand, i used a thin plexi to hold the page down.
These are like modern miracles compared to the hand scanners of the 90s. Flatbeds were crazy expensive back then and so the average enthusiast could only afford a hand scanner, to which even those cost several hundred dollars. But the hand held ones were so sensitive to motion that you had to perfect moving the scanner down the page as even a sudden small jerk ruined the whole thing. I figure these modern hand held ones have quite a bit of digital signal processing to compensate for all that.
If you scan left to right with the handheld you will get better results, it's a more natural movement than towards you. Also don't press down so hard, the box says glide.
It wouldn't fit the entire page if it scanned it horizontally.
@@vwestlife Turn the magazine on its side.
Yes, this is exactly what I was thinking. Also, it might be possible to scan pages from books or magazines from the fold to the edge with a pair of images that cover the whole page, then stitch them together into a single image with e.g. Hugin.
Any of these beats when I had to use a camcorder feeding a Hauppauge TV card in order to put a "photo" into an email. I did pick up a Mustek scanner with a parallel port interface soon after. Since it and my printer mainly got used as a copier my next purchase was an all in one MFP.
I bought the PanDigital photo scanner after seeing this video, though I haven't tried it out yet.
Also, if you happen to own a multifunction machine (printer/scanner/fax/copier) you also have the burden of having to buy new ink cartridges/tank ink/toner for laser. And that alone ramps up your operating costs. I own a multi machine from Canon, and while it does a great job with the scanner, it's just expensive to use on a constant basis.
That's why you find so many scanners (portable and full size) at thrift shops for dirt cheap. If you have the space, it's a handy device for scanning your important documents. And the upright ones are more space saving. Get them while you can, especially as many thrift stores are hiking up prices on vintage electronics, as they know they can get more out of it.
The Pan Digital scanner seemed to introduce scratches and/or lines in the scans. Am I correct thinking that? Or was the original photos damaged in some way? I can imagine that pulling the photo through the scanner would introduce the possibility of dirt getting stuck before the pulling motor, and thus scratch the photos...
I have a Brother DS920DW portable scanner. It's great for scanning mail like statements and letters so I don't have to store with clutter.
@@nooneinpart I have the same experience with photos. When scanning to SD card the background is grey too. Canon flatbed scanners are great for photos
People think these are bad???
Dude! I take mine (Similar to the Brookstone version) to the library and will scan all type of stuff to read later all the time.
The things are darn near idiot proof.
When scanning book pages, you have to sweep left to right, though for best results.
That seems like a very good use for one of these
Try witch hazel or high % IPA to clean the Brookstone rubber rollers?
Im not sure if it's a common feature, but I love my Epson ES-50's ability to scan arbitrarily long documents (like up to several metres long!). Not great image quality, but excellent for receipts
Would you be willing to scan the wolfsburg brochure and share it only? The quality of the wand scanner would be fine. I'd really like to see the magazine, being fan of old VW's.
Thanks! - if i remember correctly, Last Scanner shown looks similar to one i have from USDA, many years ago.
Not sure what year of program needed to use; Have no use for it. - It needs good home. : }
idea: would cleaning Rollers with soap & water renew "tackiness"?
I recall handheld scanners that looked like a squeegee. An optional extra was a tray which would drag the scanner along making it more like a flatbed.
P.S. Just before you started looking at the cat photo our cat decided to jump on my lap. Then he was staring at the screen.
I was first introduced to computers in 1979, and even then I heard my computer teacher saying they would lead to the paperless office.
This might be a comment that youve had several times, so I'm sorry if I'm just part of the cocophony. My default phone camera (Galaxy S10) has a "scan document" setting. it will auto-detect when i am taking a photo of a document and ask me if I want to scan it. It will then take the photo and adjust it to be a square, so photos at certain angles are adjusted digitally for a scan. It works well, I've used it a few times.
As an experiment, here is a "Scan" of the first PC Magazine page, taken on my phone, from your youtube video: i.ibb.co/BKny8Fw/pcmagazine-scan.jpg
And I just now realised that your channel name IS connected to volkswagens :))
I get great results with my Pixel and there Google Stack app. Auto color correction,auto crop,auto angle compensation etc.
I've used it for IDs, legal docs etc
Tandy 1000 excellent. My first personal desktop.
Where did you find the music presented at 11:42 and 13:53? It's most excellent! Or, dare I say, totally rad!
They're from the BackTraxx Music Library. I did a video about it.
@@vwestlife Cool! I saw that video and kind of suspected that. But I enjoyed the music more this time than I did on that initial demonstration. Maybe it's because you implemented it so well when showing off the photos. 🙂
At 5:40, is the magneto-optical system the same or similar to what MiniDisc was based on? Sounds pretty similar to me!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magneto-optical_drive
Yup. MiniDisc is basically Sony's version of MO discs.
Apart from the considerations... do you remember the SCSI flatbed scanners that played music if turned on without any connection?
I was able to see and listen to an HP one, here in Italy, because of a friend of mine owning a professional model 😉
Yes, like the HP ScanJet I showed at the end (although it's the parallel port version).
I'd like to see a circular sheet feeder scanner design where you have to twist the paper into a cylinder. You'd probably have to hold it together with the easily removable kind of sticky tape in order for it to go through cleanly, but still, if you only had to scan documents very occasionally, I'd think you could get it down to a size which may just fit in your pocket.
That's how early fax machines worked.
You can actually get really good "scans" from your phone if you use a suitable stand to hold it steady, so you don't need to use the flash. The better scanner apps can do some nice processing to clean up the image and perspective.
I'm a lawyer, and have used a hand scanner for many years to digitize folders and folders of case records!
As I understand, the handheld scanner does not have any sensors to the wheels, for example, so if you move it across the picture in an uneven speed or not in exactly the straight angle, you tilt it slightly to a side, you always end up with a kind of distorted image, right? I always wondered about that and your picture at 3m49s confirms that. The sheet feeder scanner unfortunately does not allow you to scan thicker and larger objects, so the flatbed are still the best.
I seem to have that exact same scanner as that Brookstone, but it's branded "VuPoint Solutions" and "MAGIC WAND". The only difference is that instead of a "C/BW" button, it has one labeled "JPG PDF". Of course, one would expect Brookstone products to be rebrands.
I encountered the same issues with scanning actual paper. There isn't really a good substitute for the old-school flatbed scanner with a heavy lid that presses the paper flat on the scanning glass.