Customer Reviews

Visioneer OneTouch 9520 Photo scanner (95201D-WU)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Over the years I have a number of visioneer scanners and I like the PaperPort software they come with.
Combine that with the mail in rebate and this was a great deal.
Scanner works very well and the Paperport software can scan directly to .pdf files as well as other formats.
It just works well, and it works with Windows 7 too.

I normally do really in-depth research before buying any product but totally missed it this time.

This scanner is strictly for PC's and isn't compatible with Apple computers. I almost returned the scanner once I realized this fact but since I have a PC at present, I decided to keep it until I purchase a Mac computer in the coming year. Only the great sale price I received made this a viable option.

For the price I paid, this is a decent scanner. I had a very old HP that quit working so I needed something quickly and the price was right for this scanner. I've only had it for a very short time and have not used it much because of the holidays. If I find other pros or cons, I'll update this review.

Pros - set up was simple (I have Windows XP). The PaperPort software is very good once I got the hang of using it. The scans are good for what I need (scanning photos and artwork). I've always used PhotoStitch software for combining photo scans but really like the stitching software that came with this scanner - it does a good job and is easier to use than PhotoStitch. I didn't install any other software from the CD so can't comment on anything other than PaperPort and the ArcSoft Scan and Stitch Deluxe.

Cons - It's only for PC's, not Mac computers. USB and power cords are shorter than I really needed. "Hole" for scanning negatives is a pain when not scanning a full sheet but scan can be cropped to remove it. (I currently have a piece of paper over the cut-out which also works.) It's pretty noisy when scanning.

I don't think I would pay full price for this scanner but for what I did pay ($59 plus shipping and tax), it was a very good value. I might have rated it higher except for not being able to use with an Apple computer which is my main complaint against it.

1st this unit is light weight, love the feel and design. I needed a good quality scanner without paying top dollar. After reading other reviews I'm not upset to say the least. The scan isn't super fast, but scans in seconds and at least there isn't any warm up time. So far had to adjust reds on one scan and brightest on the other, fairly easy with the bundled software. Also could not manipulate cropping from the touch buttons, maybe within a month I will figure out. Cropping is very easy from within the bundled software. After setting up the unit to scan slides it took me about 20-30 minutes to realize I had to restart the computer. The scanned image from the slide came out excellent. I can't believe I almost purchased a more expensive unit. I highly recommend this unit! Purchased on mega sale for under $70.

This is a solid and reliable scanner.

The only drawback is having to download drivers directly from the website to use the device on a Windows Vista machine.

This is my second Visioneer scanner. My first was purchased over 10 years ago and still works like the day I bought it. Unfortunately, it was built before the days of USB (yes, it's that old) and is not compatible with Windows 7. So, I thought it would be time to upgrade and move in to the 21st century.

I found this scanner at a local warehouse store. Installation was pretty straight forward, the software that is packaged with it does the job.

But, and I kid you not, the bulb blew 32 days after I bought it. Knowing the store where I purchased this from is very strict with their return policies I didn't even bother to try to coerce them into a return.

My wife called Visioneer to go through the return process with them. Here are the highlights:

1.She waited on hold for nearly an hour. When she finally did talk to someone he had her plug the scanner in to a different outlet and try to scan a document. That didn't work. The operator gave her an RMA number and, since she waited so long, advised her that she would have to call back tomorrow to speak to customer service again to process a warranty return.

2. In the meantime I research the warranty to learn that IF YOU DON'T REGISTER THIS SCANNER WITH VISIONEER THE WARRANTY IS 90 DAYS! Seriously? 90 days? How little faith do you have in your product?

3. I call back the next day and get the standard return info - fax a receipt, you will get an email with instructions to return the scanner, we'll evaluate it and process your return and exchange...

4. Three days go by and I receive an email with some very, VERY detailed instructions on how to return this scanner. There are different instructions in the email and on the return label you are supposed to use to ship the scanner back so read and follow them to the letter. Here is my favorite part:

"When you send your defective scanner back to us, please be sure your RMA number is written on the address label provided below as well as on all sides of the package. If the receiving warehouse fails to see a visible RMA number the shipment will be refused and returned to you."

You literally have to write your RMA number on this package a minimum of SEVEN TIMES. If you don't you are providing them cause with which to deny your return.

5. In the emailed return instructions Visioneer takes the opportunity to acknowledge that their products fail so early so often that THEY WILL SELL YOU AN EXTRA WARRANTY TO PROTECT YOU FROM THEIR FAULTY PRODUCT. Again, I quote:

"You could speed up the process of this RMA and any possible future RMAs with the Advance Exchange Warranty. If your scanner was purchased within the 90 days from an authorized reseller you may be eligible to purchase a Visioneer Advance Exchange Warranty.

The Visioneer Advance Exchange Warranty, sold directly through Visioneer, offers great additional Benefits including:

* Extended Coverage (1-5 years)
* Priority Call Response
* Toll Free Technical Support Number
* Overnight Shipping of replacement RMA (Ship ahead of RMA available with credit card deposit)

If you have any further questions regarding the RMA process, or would like information and pricing on extended warranties, please contact Visioneer Customer Service at 925-251-6399 Mon.-Fri. 7am-4pm PST."

6. Now, the coup de grace of this whole experience. In the pathetic standard warranty for this scanner (and you'll notice in the for-a-cost "Visioneer Advance Exchange" Warranty) the cost to return the scanner is not covered. IT COST $42 TO SHIP THIS SCANNER BACK TO VISIONEER! What do I do, call and scream? They aren't going to care. Them's the rules...

That is money straight out of my pocket that I will never get back. For about 18 bucks more I could have saved myself the time and effort, thrown this piece of crap in the garbage and bought a new scanner.

Epilogue: Like I said in the beginning, I was very happy and (apparently) lucky with my first Visioneer scanner. But this one has been a joke, and the expense, effort and potential pitfalls of returning a product that barely made it through a month of very light use has just not been worth it.

Most people don't buy many scanners in their lives. I don't know how many more I will buy before I kick off of this earth, but I know how many more Visioneer scanners I will be buying...

So I will leave you with this: when buying something like this scanner keep in mind the potential costs associated with the purchase. Had I known that the return process was going to be both ridiculously restrictive and insanely expensive it would have given me pause. I don't know if I would have still bought this scanner and rolled the dice that it would operate for years and years like my last one or not. But now that I am in this morass I regret this purchase. And I would not recommend Visioneer to a friend.

I do a lot of scanning in my home business and when it came time to upgrade my first computer from XP Pro to Windows 7, my old Visioneer 7100 scanner was not compatible and had to go so I replaced it with this model..
Never been a fan of Visioneer's software as I always used XP Pro's Scanner and Camera Wizard to scan my documents, but with Windows 7, it was required to load the software to get the driver needed to be recognized by Windows 7 and then having to use the new Fax and Scan option just made using this model finicky as it would throw scan error messages up during the preview scan.. Does not automatically crop the image in Windows 7 (or I have not yet figured out how to get it to do an auto crop yet) and have to manually crop the image I wish to scan.
The 35mm option is useless to me..
It does work in Windows 7; that I can confirm, but I may look for another model that's 'friendlier' to use with Windows 7..

Setup was pretty easy. I'm not super crazy about the software it uses but it's ok. Needless to say like anything else these days it doesn't come with a user manual. The defaults are set to save things in formats that are not the most widely used (like TIFF instead of PDF) and it took me a little time to figure out how to change that. The photo default is set to "something or other VIVID". When I scanned a photo I was horrified! I thought this thing is crap it's going right back! Of course with no manual I had no idea what was wrong or how to change it. Luckily I don't give up TOO easily and figured it out eventually. Also, I think "one touch" is a bit misleading.

There are 2 things that I really don't like about the equipment itself. The first is that it doesn't have a power button. If it's plugged in, it's on. I'm not crazy about that at all so I just don't keep it plugged in. I don't know why a manufacturer would make anything without a power button. The second is the plug itself. I'm not exactly sure how to explain it, but the prongs on the adapter go in the opposite direction. I know that doesn't sound right. It's sorta like instead of going up and down they go side to side. You probably still can't picture what I mean so let me just say that if you have it plugged into a surge protector or power strip it will cover 3 outlets (another reason not to keep it plugged in). When I use it I have to pull other plugs out to make room for it. However you could plug it directly into the top outlet of a wall outlet and it wouldn't cover the bottom outlet. The adapter will stick out to the side instead of the bottom.

I deducted two stars for no power button, the plug, no printed manual, and the goofy defaults. (Acutally I would have given it another 1/2 star but I couldn't figure out how.) I haven't really used it much, mostly just scanning a couple of pics and documents just to test it out and make sure it's ok, and as far as I can tell the scan quality is pretty good, once you change the photos from the vivid setting. For $60 I think it was a good deal.

(BTW 5+ stars for the purchasing experience from Tiger Direct through Amazon!)

Scanner arrives in great shape, but there is no instruction booklet other then the install paper. Its pretty easy to setup. Could use a longer USB cable it barely makes it to the top of the table to be next to the monitor. Wont reach anywhere else.
Comes with software but no instructions for using it.
Winxp pro2 had to be rebooted for scanner to be recognized, no big deal but instructions say plug n play.
I am an advanced graphics designers and digital effect users.
Machine is for novice or semi-pro. Software beginners will become frustrated trying to know what to do. I only gave it 4 stars not 5 because there is no instructions.

The unit scans fast, real fast for this price range of 59.99. Beats Walmart prices.

Botton line, yes you wont go wrong buying this, but if you are a true novice you may find
it difficult unless you do not mind reading help files to figure out how to do ??

I have a 3.0 quadcore with 3gigs ram and a 1 gig video , running xppro2 and it does well on this fast machine. I would be curious how slower machines do.

Nice unit for the price you cant go wrong for a photo-scanner.
Does what it says it will do.

( update 4/21/2010 The scanner leaves a strip that must be edited out support didn't help and there is no book
so my rating has changed )

I bought the Visioneer 9520 with the specific objective to scan ancient 35mm slides. Installing this beast is no joy as it entails four separate software registration hoops to jump through. It does scan documents and photos on the flat-bed nicely. The software for other than slides/transparencies is OK. One big problem: there is no documented way to configure the software to scan slides using the Transparency Adapter that backlights the slides. The hardware is there to do it and the driver says it is possible but there is no documented software handle. The Visioneer tutorial to do so is demonstrated on the model 9320 with Paperport version 9. The shipped version of Paperport 11SE has no provision for 35mm slides. Paperport hints it may be possible if a $200 upgrade is purchased.
"Visioneer Knowledgebase 9: You want to know how to scan a slide or negative.
Scanner models ending in 20 have a built-in transparency adapter to scan slides and negatives, including the 9120, 9220, 9320, 9420, and 9520. Slides and negative scanning generally requires a higher resolution and backlighting built into the scanner lid. Click VIS1153 - Scan Slides and Negatives using PhotoSuite III for more information."
"[...]"
Go there and find the 9520 is not on the PhotoSuite III list.
It is possible to activate the Transparency Adapter and actually scan slides using the Photo Shop PRO X software included. I discovered this by accidental hacking with the totally undocumented software. But this is only possible with a lot of guess work after all the existing documentation and tutorials have been absorbed. So you put in the Transparency Mask as indicated and get scan error messages. By pure guessing I found it works if the Transparency Mask for mounting slides is placed on the flat-bed UPSIDE-DOWN so the slide openings line up with the lid light source. Once the slides are scanned much like the process shown in the Visioneer tutorial video they can be manipulated in the Photo Shop PRO X workspace instead of Paperport. I retired a few years ago after 40 years as an IT hardware/software specialist. I thought printers were always the most user unfriendly but scanners are a whole other level of nastiness. I have had several but this one is especially frustrating because the hardware is so nice and the software is so elegant but there is that one piece that always seemed just beyond my grasp. To make this thing work you need to install ALL of the software off the CD and go through ALL of the registration hoops.
To scan slides:
Open Photo Shop Pro X
On the top bar, Click the SCANNER icon
A window opens in the workspace for scanning photos.
At the window top left click "Scan Reflective Using" and get a drop-down
Click "Scan Slides Using" and get the slide scanning mask for 3 slides.
It's pretty intuitive from there.
There is so much embedding of software from different vendors on top of Windows 7 drivers it's a wonder it works at all. At least with my old SCSI HP PhotoSmart 10 scanner it was 100% HP with a minimum of tricks and hoops just to scan some slides.
Good Luck!!!

I thought this would be the best upgrade for my next scanner, but I think the makers/ designers should have made a simple addition. I love the opperating system that it uses and the clarity of the work, but there is one problem with this scanner if you just want to scan doucments and not just 8 1/2 X 10 all the time but smaller docs. There is that annoying long gap in the middle of the scanner of the inside cover to do 35mm photo negatives which leaves a large dark bar in the middle of your document scan. Now they say to put a piece of paper over your doc( which is a pain if you do alot of docs at a time), but my suggestion is that they should have included another top piece with no gap in it for doing such documents all the time. What a simple fix that would have been to just have 2 interchangable lid covers to attach to your upper lid inside so there is no gap anymore. You want to do 35mm negatives then put that cover on, if your not, which is most of the time, then use the other lid with no gap. Then here is anohter thought on this whole thing, how many people out there still use 35mm cameras with 35mm film and not a digital camera that uses a reader card. I know there are some old pictures out ther to be upgraded but then what to do when your done. Come on designers what are you thinking about when your doing your main job-- designing!!! I think they can still make another inside lid cover and send it out to every owner who wants one. Well that felt GOOD-- thanks!!!!!