Customer Reviews

C Pen 800 Handheld Scanner

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just bought the C-Pen 800. It has a built in battery and comes with a carring case. The battery seem to last typically a week. I think C-Pen is much better than the 600 and 200 because of the built in battery. I mainly use the C-Pen for the dictionary which comes with the purchase of a 800. And you get to choose which dictionary you want. The dictionary is great. I am using a webster and it gives everything that's important. Only thing it doesn't give is the pronunciation and sentences. It takes getting use-to to scan and write things using the C-pen, but once you get the hang of it, it isn't a big problem. I think the only limitation of the c-pen is it's memory. I can only put one dictionary at a time depending on the size of the dicationary. I have the webster which takes alot of space. One more thing that I thought was kind of annoying was I had to buy a infared device for the use of my c-pen 800. I guess it was my fault because I didn't look at the information carefully enough but if the pen is a C-pen ###C, it means that it can use a cable. If it is C-pen ### and it doesn't have a C, it means it uses a infered device. Besides that I think the pen is great.

When I got this product, I was a little disappointed with its scanning accuracy. But later after a firmware upgrade, I found it to improve dramatically. It does take some time to getting used to. But once you know all the features, it is very easy to use. I gives very good accuracy for text with standard fonts. Non-Standard fonts and very small(fine prints) does create some problem. I do not think that OCR need to be perfect, it just needs to be consistent(and not gramatically correct like quicklink). What is more important is the easy to use editing feature. With C-Write(If you are already a palm user you will love this feature), editing is a breeze. Infact the graffiti is more natural(than even palm) and is consistently accurate(if not as fast as palm). I do like the selective cut/paste feature. You can also find some interesting free s/w like JNotes(which allows you to scan any handwritten text to an image) or the barcode scanner(which supports various formats). The memory is sufficient for normal purposes. The advanced calibration feature is quite useful for capturing lighter text or text from colored paper(It also helps get a clearer image in JNotes). In overall, I would strongly recommend this product to anyone planning on serious ocr from hardcopy texts. It would have been nice if the lcd display had a backlight, for lowlight conditions.

My friend has one of these and I am going to order one as soon as I find some money lying around. I scanned a page of a textbook and it only got a few letters wrong which I consider really awesome considering that my two-hundred dollar scanner and five-hundred dollar OCR software gets at least 50 characters wrong per-page. If you have massive ammounts of homework like I do, get one of these and you can just scan all the answers straight out of the book. I promise, this product is worth every cent you pay for it.

I love my c-pen, this thing takes about 1 hour to get good with, the mistakes that it makes are rare but consistent, once you figure them out you catch them right away. I am a law student and this makes briefing and getting quotes exactly right easy! For the money this is the best little helper I have. The dictionary is a nice benefit and the battery lasts forever-like a week or two with frequent use.

No more clutter or mess, with all the business cards and no more trying to write everything into my Palm. Now all I do is scan the card and beam it to my Palm. I love it!!! I scan notes from others to take with me, I scan articles in magazines that I need. I even use it for the class that I am taking, to quick scan (highlight) points of interest in class books. I can share all my infomation with my Palm. Hey wouldn't it be great if you could get a Scan Pen/Palm/Cell Phone all in one. I know I would buy that. This a great little tool, for school, for work, for home, for play. I wish I had it years ago.

I purchased the CPen 200, which apparently uses the same recognition technology but is the cheaper model without the added features, and regret it. Accuracy is not good enough for most purposes I have tried to use it for and I have found it much quicker to type out text manually, or even write it out by hand, than to try and scan it in and correct the errors made by the CPen. The XTNDAccess infrared connection which I needed to purchase with the device is extremely temperamental on Windows 2000, and impossible to install on Windows NT Workstation - the tech support people were downright unhelpful and refused to direct enquiries to customer services. The battery life on the device is poor and I found I had run down the batteries in only a few hours of use. If I could return the device I would; buying it was throwing money down the drain.