Best non-DIY book scanners

[ilmarmors]

It looks like IVina Bookscan Station Pro contains rebranded or visually modified Avision scanner FB6280E. Document scanner in Bookscan Station Doc Center looks like Avision AD125.

Of course, scanner alone is not enough for solution, there is computer with full software stack in iVina Bookscan station. In other words - complete solution when you don't want do anything yourself.

There is also A4 model available from Avision - FB2280E. Actually Avision manufacture some scanners under different brands, so you can recognize low end scanners for some more well known brands in Avision Document scanner line.

I personally have used Plustek OpticBook 4800, Plustek OpticBook A300, Avision FB2280E and Microtek XT-3500 book scanners. I have been wanting to write review for long time on each of them, because there is some aspects you can see only in real life. In short - software that comes with scanners sucks But it is kind of fine, if you want just TIFF images out of them. And for that you can use other software - you need only TWAIN drivers that comes with scanner.

It looks like it is hard to get Avision scanners in USA, but they are available in Europe. FB6280E costs 1100-1600 EUR. FB2280E costs 270-320 EUR

Now I search for Ivina scanners on Google. It looks like all black Avision scanners - many models available. Actually I just found, that iVina is Avision brand

[newtopos]

It looks like those of us in the US can purchase the 2280E from Amazon UK, although there would be about a $50 shipping fee:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Avision-FB2280E ... on+scanner

Also, some Ivina models are available on eBay from US sellers like Beach Audio. I would be interested in anyone's impressions of, for example, the Ivina Bulletscan S300 versus the comparable Scansnap (iX500?).

[ilmarmors]

I have used Fujitsu ScanSnap S500, which I guess is ancient predecessor of Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500. One thing that you need to check is whether scanner supports uncompressed output, if that is important to you. For example, Scanscan S500 don't support uncompressed output. And it won't be enough if you can save somehow uncompressed TIFF, it will be just uncompressed compressed image, so not useful. And unfortunately Fujitsu screw owners of S500 (probably other models too) to get more money - S500 worked fine with Mac (although there was "special" Mac edition), but then they added check in software ScanSnap Manager starting with some version, so on Mac ScanSnap Manager wouldn't work with Windows ScanScanp S500. Of course, there were good guys in Internet, which fixed such stupidity, but from that time on I try to avoid Fujitsu scanners - there are plenty of alternatives.

[russca]

I have used Fujitsu ScanSnap S500, which I guess is ancient predecessor of Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500. One thing that you need to check is whether scanner supports uncompressed output, if that is important to you. For example, Scanscan S500 don't support uncompressed output. And it won't be enough if you can save somehow uncompressed TIFF, it will be just uncompressed compressed image, so not useful.

I have Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 scanner. It is designed to save scanned files only in pdf and jpg formats. I usually scan 600 dpi in jpg with the lowest compression setting and process scanned files in Photoshop. I save post-processed files in TIFF before combining them in the final pdf file. In reality, jpg is not an issue for text scanning. I get clean and crisp letters after some Photoshop magic. See below:

fujitsu-scan-sample.jpg (342.96 KiB) Viewed 9665 times

[recaptcha]

Wouldn't the Fujitsu SV scanner involve more post processing, dewarping, finger removal, etc.?

[recaptcha]

I just contacted Avison in the USA. https://www.avision.com/motion.asp?menu ... 407&lgid=2

They sell the A3 sized FB6280E for $2195.00 (they have a refurb for $1500)

They sell the A4 sized FB2280E for $999.00 (they have a refurb for $499.00). New ones are out of stock.

They also sell the older style (A4 size) FB2080E, which has the CCFL lamp instead of LED. They have a special price on these for $60.00.

Shipping is crazy (at least to Canada) at $120.00


ilmarmors, I would love to read your review of all the flatbed scanners you mentioned you have used.

[b0bcat]

http://www.diybookscanner.org/forum/pos ... 14&p=18783

I have 3 Plustek OpticBook 3600s, one of which I bought new in 2010 from Amazom UK and the rest second-hand over ebay since then.
About 12-18 months ago the Amazon one developed something like the pixel fault, having previously (2-3 years after purchase) blown its AC power adaptor (which latter I replaced with a generic obtained from a specialist UK supplier of same - the all-purpose variable power bricks and switchable heads/plugs from the likes of Maplin did not fit the power socket on the back of the 3600, surprise, surprise). Of the two obtained used, one on return home with it turned out to have a dead lamp, but otherwise was in good condition so I removed the lamp/transport assembly from the other and installed that. Working fine since.
Hard to estimate how much scanning I've done with the Amazon one but it has been a LOT - most I can recall in one day was over 2000 pages.
Edge proximity scanning not that great, bit over about 1cm at best. But better for books than my old Canoscan 300 or other flatbed.

I'd been planning to get the Avision FB2280E for its 2mm from edge capability and relatively modest price but seems the last has gone from Amazon in UK:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004 ... 1_1&sr=8-1
so now looking at the OpticBook 4800 which claims the 2mm from edge capability plus LED for scan illumination. Pricey IMO at gbp430+

Scanning ancient books cheaply printed on acid paper I've found the 3600 seems to pick up an awful lot of noise in the way of ink flecks, smudges and so on from the original, and that this makes for a lot of cleaning up work in ScanTailor. Maybe that means the scanner is faithfully reproducing the originals... nevertheless it could be interesting to compare the output of the 4800 with its LED illumination.
Incidentally, that is scanning at the usual 300dpi and in b&w - I have noted that a scan in greyscale which is then output as b&w by ST produces a marginally cleaner look but still lots of work in ST.
One basic thing the OpticBook alerted me to which appears to be overlooked sometimes in discussions here about post-processing is the enormous improvement in image quality that can be had by inserting a blind/blank page behind that being scanned, particularly where the book's paper is very thin. This means slightly more time taken in scanning by positioning the blind page each pass, but worth it.

[rkomar]

I would add that, for acid-paper, scanning with the Plustek in black and white can produce a lot of noise if the pages are becoming brown. It appears that the scanner software just does a simple thresholding calculation when binarizing the output file. I got much better results when I scanned in greyscale instead, and then used an external adaptive method for binarizing (I use binarizewolfjolion). The greyscale files are larger and take longer to scan, but it's worth it to me.

[b0bcat]

Sounds about right - even for b&w text only I've learned it is indeed best to scan in greyscale and to take care first of all adjusting scanner options like brightness, contrast and gamma, especially with faded/yellowed pages, plus of course using a backing card when scanning thin paper with text bleed through as previously mentioned. Taking these steps saves an inordinate amount of post-scan software processing time.

I bought a Plustek Opticbook 4800 in May 2016 and it has just failed after 7 months, outputting only solid black / blank images even with default values. Issue looks as if it may be same as referenced in comment here

https://www.amazon.com/Plustek-OpticBoo ... B0059DZ4W2

Amazon UK contact / returns system is in a loop so I have filed a problem description with the Plustek website.

If it turns out there is the same 'chip failure' problem then it might be worth bearing in mind when choosing a unit. I see the AVISION FB2280E is around again, for about half the price.

[rkomar]

Ouch! That's a lot of money for half a year of scanning. I hope you can get it fixed.