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191 of 192 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
DocuPen R-700 - a fax machine inside out, September 23, 2005
This review is from: Planon Docupen R700 B&W Pen Scanner (DPENR700) (Electronics)
Bottom line first: DocuPen is a very good device if you do not have too high expectations and use it only for what it was designed for. You have to realize: this is neither a copier, nor a scanner; this is a fax machine inside out. You will get exactly the same quality as from a conventional fax. If that's what you need, than DocuPen is a perfect device for you. Otherwise - don't bother.
The images scanned with DocuPen look almost exactly as if they came out of a conventional fax machine. The pictures looked pretty bad (if heavy graphics/pictures are what you need don't even think about DocuPen) and some of the text lines were stretched in a way a fax machine does when the paper gets a bit jammed. I am sure, with some practice it will get better but not too much as it's humanly impossible to keep moving the hand up to 8 seconds with precisely the same speed.
However, if the text and some light drawings are what you need than this device is for you. I, personally, do historical research and need to copy some articles from old newspapers. DocuPen works great with text. Just make sure you always use 200 DPI even if you don't really need to. The reason is that if you mess something a bit (say, your hand shakes or so) with 200 DPI there is a chance to fix the image later on or at least to be able to read it. At 100 DPI it's pretty much dead end.
The two major drawbacks of the DocuPen (at least for me) are the small memory and inability to work with a PDA. DocuPen's internal memory is only 2 Mb which in my opinion is ridiculously small. And there is no way to increase/upgrade it. Don't believe the ad that says you can store up to a 100 pages. You don't want to scan at 100 DPI, and with 200 DPI 50 pages is the max. What they don't tell you in the ad, is that if any of those pages contain heavy graphics the number could go as low as 12 (!) at 200 DPI (that's what the manual says). That sounds like almost nothing to me.
The small memory issue would not be that bad if the DocuPen was compartable with any of the PDAs. As long as I could download those few pages and start scanning again I would have being OK with that. However, I don't always carry my laptop with me and it is sort of a hassle to bring it to the library every time. On the other hand, my PDA is always in my pocket. If I download those scanned pages to my PDA not only to clear the memory but also to check how they turned out (and re-scan any if necessary) that would have been great. But the DocuPen DOES NOT work with any of the PDAs !!!
I actually made a call to DocuPen's tech support (BTW the guy who works down there was very nice) and talked about this issue. Apparently the problem was not the compartibility but the lack of drivers. The company supports Windows 98/2000/NT/XP (and, I've heard, some of the MAC's OSs) but not Windows Mobile or Palm OS. So, they simply don't know what's going to happen if I connect the DocuPen to my PDA (provided I find the correct cable or make one myself). So if anybody out there feels like writting a driver for the DocuPen to work with Windows Mobile please let me know :-)
They also told me that in six months (Spring 2006) they plan to launch a new model of DocuPen which would have a slot for SD card (yes-s-s !!!) and would scan in full color. Personally, I don't think that DocuPen's upgrade to color scanning is such a good idea. The quality of its images is low enough in b/w and the addition of color would just make things worse. It will also enlarge the size of the device and, of course, the price will go up.
For now, your choice is either to buy the DocuPen R-700 and deal with its small memory or wait six months (at least) and pay more for pretty much the same device (again, I don't believe in color on the "world's smallest scanner") to be able to save your scans on a SD card.
Two other things that I would have changed about DocuPen are fairly minor and are really more inconveniences than major issues. The button that turns the device on is very hard to press. Every time I do that it feels like I am going to break the whole thing. Also the carrying case that comes with the DocuPen does not provide the adequate protection. I wish they made some sturdy metallic tube/box instead of this fluffy pouch. But may be that was the point. The sooner your DocuPen breaks, the sooner you get another one :-)
Overall, I did like the DocuPen and I would recommend it to anybody as long as you clearly understand what you need it for. If you plan to use it for copying a few book articles at your library, class notes from your friend's copy-book or some simple hand-drawings it will work great for you. But if you need quality graphic images of pictures or complicated blueprints and/or plan to scan a large number of documents at once DocuPen is NOT for you. Try to get HP's CapShare 920 instead.
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75 of 78 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
DocuPen is the perfect tool for the road warrior, October 14, 2004
This review is from: Planon Docupen R700 B&W Pen Scanner (DPENR700) (Electronics)
Easy to install and easy to use.
I used to have the older model (DocuPen BW) but after knowing that the new model featured rechargeable batteries I decided to buy it (my son inherited the BW and now uses it at school)
Since I bought my DocuPen R-700 I have been carrying it around with my mobile and my notebook and it is almost like having my whole office on the road.
The scan quality is good for my purposes (it is 100 dpi, not a 1600 dpi flat bed scanner OK?) and the best part is that I don't have to look for photocopy machines anymore.
I have heard some complaints about the installation but it worked perfectly to me and have not found any problem (I use XP). If you follow the instructions on the screen you should not have any problem at all
Anybody working on the road should have one.
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51 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Poor scanning quality, frustrating controls and software, September 23, 2005
This review is from: Planon Docupen R700 B&W Pen Scanner (DPENR700) (Electronics)
I am a student and I bought DocuPen thinking I could scan library books or part of books, convert them to PDF and have my own collection of readings, with my annotations and highlights on them. Fat chance...
First of all, it looks very cheap and not very solid (very cheap-looking plastic, poor finish).
Second, the controls are incredibly frustrating - everytime you scan you have to press a button (twice, if you want hi-res), and the button is pretty much burried in the scanner and tough to press. Why do I have to press it every time and hurry to scan (it shuts down quickly, unless you start scanning, I do not know).
Third, the 2MB of memory is a joke. I guess you could fit 100 not-too-large low-res scans on it (as the product claims), but who wants 100 dpi scans? Why, when flash memory has dropped so much in size and price, the Docupen has a measly 2 MB?
Fourth, the software interface and transfer mode are atrocious. Why is not recognized as a USB Mass Storage Device, but instead you have to install its software or use another image-acquiring program? Moreover, the transfer speed is horrible, and you have to download all the images in its memory before choosing which to actually keep.
But, most important, unless you have a very steady hand and are very careful when you scan, the quality is very poor and there is no hope of OCR (by the way, the bundled OCR software is slow and not very accurate). I guess they should have the rollers on the bottom of the scanner measure the speed you're going, the way they do in ball mouses, or have measure the speed the way optical mouses do, and thus compensate for variations in scanning speed across the page.
I have had much better OCR results with snapshots of books taken with a digital camera (done carefully, in bright sunlight) and a professional OCR suite, such as Abbyy FineReader, than with Docupen scans (using the same OCR software).
Last, but certainly not least, it costs a lot (but that could be a problem with most handheld scanners, since the cheapest I could get a used C-Pen on ebay one year ago was some $ 120).
The only good things I can say about it is that it comes with a leather-like case, good for protecting it against scratches while carrying it around, and that one of the led lights on it blinks when you're scanning to fast, thus offering some control over your optimum speed.
All, in all however, this seems like a good idea that steel needs some technological progress before it can actually be useful (higher DPI, speed-variation compensation) or at least some simple and sensible improvements possible at present (more ergonomic and simple controls, higher memory and transfer speeds, and implementation of USB Mass Storage protocols instead of the clunky TWAIN interface).
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