VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand Portable Scanner

It has been way too long since anyone made a really usable hand scanner. Ive been looking for one for years. So I was very excited when I saw a review of the Magic Wand on one of my news feeds. This product does the trick. You have to be fairly slow and steady to get a good scan, but hey... its a hand scanner! So no surprise there. The scan quality is quite acceptable for a device of this type. Not what you would get from a flatbed scanner, but hey... its a hand scanner! Print is readable, photo quality isnt fantastic but might improve as my scanning skills get better. The scanner is bundled with ABBYY Screenshot Reader, which extracts text from an image. ABBYY is one of the major producers of optical character recognition (OCR)software. I have a document scanner that came with and ABBYY OCR program. But I have never seen a screenshot reader before. This product allows you to select an area on your computer screen, and it will extract text from that area and put it in your clipboard. So when you scan an image with the Magic Wand, you can connect the scanner to your computer with a USB cable (included); open the image in a picture viewer; and use Screenshot Reader to capture the text. You will probably have to do a bit of touch-up after you paste the text into another application. I have yet to see an OCR program that does perfect text conversion. One trick that helps a lot is to zoom in on the text to make it larger. OCR programs work better with larger text. I am very pleased with the Magic Wand. I keep it next to my laptop in the living room (yeah, Im a multi-computer geek, and I do side surfing while Im watching TV) so I can quickly scan things out of magazines or books. And its small enough to toss in my computer bag when Im on the road. Along with my Planon Printsitk portable printer (

I have been looking for a way to scan my pilots logbook for some time now and finally came across this. I gave it a shot and it works perfectly for this application. I have found the B&W Low Resolution mode to be perfect for scanning text. It almost never has an error when using this mode. However, in high resolution or color, and even more so when both are selected, the scanner has trouble keeping up. Unfortunately there is no way to tell if youre going too fast unless the red light comes on, in which case its already too late. It would be great to have a yellow led as a warning. I found for scanning across the spine, a $10 piece of lexan from Home Depot works wonders. I just put whatever I need to scan under it and have at it. Great scans every time and I dont have to worry about it being unreadable in the middle. Perfect for oversize scans.

If all you want is to scan an article or recipe, where the quality of the scan isnt so important, this would be a useful product. I purchased it to scan images from antique books that would be damaged if placed on a flatbed scanner. I found the product extremely disappointing, for the following reasons. 1) The scanning portion of the wand is recessed at least 1/2 inch at the end of the wand, which means that if youre trying to fit it against the inner margin (gutter) of a book, youll end up losing much of your image. Basically your margin has to be about an inch wide for it to work. You can try rotating the wand, but if you scan over a surface that is not COMPLETELY flat (e.g., an open book), youll get distortions. 2) Distortions. Again, if the surface isnt completely flat, if you dont scan completely straight, if you jiggle the scanner at all, youll get distortions. If there are curves to the surface of your page (again, common in an open book), theyll show and distort the image. Youll find that a square picture will come out skewed. So if an EXACT reproduction of a page or image is what youre after, this isnt going to do the job. 3) Going off the edge of a page... This scanner works pretty well if you can scan a flat document on a solid flat surface (e.g., a single piece of paper on a tabletop). But if youre scanning a large book, you have the problem of the scanner dropping off the edge once you reach the bottom or side of the book. You may not have reached the end of the portion you wish scanned when the scanner itself runs out of room. 4) No ability to remove screening. If youre scanning photos or color illustrations from a book or magazine, there is no mechanism to get rid of the moire patterns that result from scanning a screened image. Most flatbed scanners have a descreening option that enables you to get rid of this. Since its just about impossible to get rid of a screen moire AFTER the fact, this greatly reduces the scanners usefulness. 5) No ability to view the image as it is being scanned. If you want to see how it came out, you have to stop work, plug it in, go look at the picture, then click on the remove device icon to remove it, go back, scan again, and so on... It would be helpful if you could plug this directly into your computer and see the scans as you make them. I havent quite decided if Im going to keep this product or just give up and try to resell it (the return-by date being long gone), but again... it depends on what you want it for. If youre a student and you just need to be able to scan in material to study, but it doesnt have to be a perfect reproduction (just readable), I think this would be very helpful. But if you need a high-quality image, its going to be very, very frustrating.

Its a very handy product, but the limitations are bit over the expectations. You will require practice to use this and which can be gradually achieved, but it is always best to scan the image more than one time, because the quality of the image depends on the surface , the and speed you move the scanner over the paper to scan. It does a good job while scanning on a flat surface no bumps at all. Scanning something least thick like a photograph even makes it bump at the edges and distorts the image. Sometimes results can be very disappointing, so like i have mentioned before scan the document twice or thrice, you wont know which one will turn up better. My suggestion will be to avoid the distortions while scanning anything bit thicker than paper is to place it under a glass and run the scanner above. Of course it is not possible all the time and doesnt serve the purpose of a portable hand held scanner, but if the situation demands, that could be an option.For those who have a glass cover placed on their office or study table this will be an easy option. I think the technology applied in the product is okay to the price $38 which I paid for it. Only thing I expect that it serves me for at least 2 or 3 years, which i quite think will not be something lame to expect.

THE SCANNER I GOT WAS USED ONCE OR TWICE. IT WAS ALL I COULD AFFORD. I HAD LIKE THE PRICE. I RATHER HAD ONE I COULD GOT BETTER BUT YOU HAVE TO GET WHAT YOU HAVE TO GET. THE SELLER SAID CAME WITH THE CABLES, SD CARD, AND A COVER BUT NO CLOTH, NO NEW BATTERIES. THE BATTERIES WERE DEAD. THERE WAS NO DVD , NO INSTRUCTIONS, NO WAY TO TELL HOW TO USE IT. IT ARRIVE ON TIME BY THIS SELLER AND IT WAS IN GOOD SHAPE. ONLY THE BATTERY NEEDED TO BE REPLACE. THAT WAS NOT SUCH A BIG DEAL. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND SO MUCH BUYING THIS BUT IT WORKS AND IT DOES NOT WORK BECAUSE IF YOU HAVE OLD PICTURES FROM YOUR MOMS HOUSE YOU WANT TO SCAN YOU NEED TO FIND A GOOD FLAT SURFACE AND FIND A LITTLE PIECE OF TAPE THAT IS NOT SO STICKY THAT WILL DESTROY THE PICTURE. IT WILL WORK THAT WAY SOME. YOU ALSO NEED TO TRY NOT TO SHAKE YOUR HAND TOO MUCH. I ALMOST THROWED THIS MACHINE OUT THE WINDOW TRYING SO MANY TIMES. BEST THINGS SCAN SAME PICTURE A FEW TIMES AND GET THE BEST ONE OUT OF IT. THE CABLES CAME WITH IT DID NOT WORK, I HAD TO USE THE PLUGABLE HIGH SPEED USB 2.0 CARD READER THAT I ALSO GOT FROM AMAZON. I KNEW ABOUT THIS BECAUSE MY FRIEND HAD A CARD READER LIKE THIS. IT HAS THREE SLOTS FOR DIFFERENT CARD SIZES. THIS WAS THE ONLY WAY I COULD SEE MY PICTURES CABLES DID THAT CAME WITH IT DID NOT . I DONT KNOW WHY MAYBE ITS MY COMPUTER. IF I COULD I WOULD OF BOUGHT ONE BETTER BUT IT WILL DO FOR A START BETTER THAN A DIGITAL CAMERA THAT I HAD THAT DID NOT WORK SO WELL ON PICTURES. THESE SCANNER PRICES ARE VERY HIGH. YOU CAN TRY TO USE THIS FOR SOMETHING IMPORTANT BUT A OFFICE SCANNER WOULD BE MORE SUGGEST ON BUYING. THIS PORTABLE SCANNER WELL THE VUPOINT IS GOOD IF YOU HAVE NO CHOICE. I HAD TO FIND MY INFO ON THE INTERNET THROUGH WEBSITES AND YOUTUBE SINCE SELLER GAVE ME NO INSTRUCTIONS. I DID MY HOMEWORK BEFORE BUYING BUT THIS WAS THE CHEAPEST I COULD AFFORD TILL I CAN GET A BETTER ONE IN FUTURE. WHEN YOU CANT BRING YOUR BIG SCANNER THAT IS ON YOUR DESK THIS IS BETTER A PORATBLES SCANNER IF YOU NEED GO MOMS HOUSE WHEN YOU KNOW YOU CANT TAKE HOME THOSE OLD PICTURES BECAUSE SHE HAS NO EXTRA COPIES. I SAY ITS LONG ENOUGH FOR A NOTEBOOK SIZE TO SCAN. I WOULD GIVE MORE STARS BUT SELLER LEFT ME IN THE DARK BUT I GUESS I READ NO INSTRUCTIONS WITH IT SINCE IT WAS NOT NEW. LIKE I SAY IT WILL WORK BUT IT CAN BE FUSTRATED JUST PUT A LITTLE TAPE NOT SO STICK, A GOOD, AND A FLAT SURFACE AND IT SHOULD WORK SOME . THIS SCANNER PRICE SHOULD BE MORE LOWER.

This is a review for the VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand portable scanner. I rarely write reviews about products, only if it is really good, or really bad. In this case I am happy to say - this is a really good product. It works just as well, if not better then advertised. This was a Mothers Day gift to my wife from my kids (dad bought it, lol) and she loves it as well. By the end of the weekend, she had scanned every picture in every photo album we have, and we have alot of pictures!! I have read many reviews about not only this portable scanner, but others as well, and alot of them, the Magic Wand included had many negative reviews which I do not understand at all?? Possibly they got a bad unit? But the complaints they had are some of the things I like best about this scanner. It was said multiple times that if you dont keep your hand perfectly steady when scanning something, that the image comes out really bad. Im sorry b/c I know I dont have a steady hand, and the scans come out perfect 99% of the time. This device is so easy to use, my 10 yr old uses it all of the time to scan pics out of magazines, and stuff, and they come out really good. I have even started using it to scan stuff for work, like my job orders, and inspection papers. Again - perfect. The only thing that I would change is that it would be nice if it came with the micro SD card, and an adapter. Even though it doesnt, they are relatively cheap at a Wal-Mart or Target, etc.. I have an 8GB card in mine, and it has plenty of room - and then when you get close to full, just dump it onto your computer HDD. Overall, I would defanitely recommend this product to anyone. Great value, especially for the price!

So far I like this little scanner. I was looking for something low cost, simple to use. My main usage is for scanning documents to a laptop. Overall the scanning can be done so quickly with this device that its not a big deal if I have to repeat one because I did a poor job moving the scanner over the document. My only negative so far is the instructions that came with the scanner. I didnt get that I had to purchase or already have a microSD card--I thought that was an optional thing if using the USB cable to scan to a computer. (Plus, I had read a few customer feedbacks indicating their computers would not recognize the device, so since my computer wasnt recognizing the device, I was already thinking maybe mine was defective too.) Anyway, when I went to send it back, the seller asked me to contact the manufacturer first for support, and when I went to the website to try and do that, I found the manufacturer had better user instructions on their website, instructions that completely resolved my issue. All I had needed to do was buy a microSD card, put it in the scanner, and not plug in the USB cable to the computer till I was done scanning. Heres the procedure that works for me when scanning (I choose to use the USB port rather than transfer the microSD back and forth from scanner to laptop): 1. Make sure good batteries are in the scanner. 2. Connect USB cable to scanner but not to the computer yet. 3. Make sure MicroSD card is in scanner. (In my case, I bought a new one and I chose to NOT format it.) 4. Turn on scanner with button (hold till its on). 5. Push button to scan (once) and observe the scan light is now on. 6. Scan document. 7. Push button again to stop the scanning. 8. Plug other end of USB cable into computer and observe that the computer recognizes the device (sometimes this takes a few seconds). 9. Thats it -- the scanned files are now under the DCIM folder of the device folder of my laptop.

This scanner works great for scanning text from books. I am a graduate student, and I wanted an easy way to copy quotes (or whole sections) from books. I did a lot of research to find a scanner that could do this well. I have not been disappointed with this product. I have actually been amazed at how well it works. When I am scanning from a book, my biggest problem is keeping a steady pace. However, this scanner somehow overcomes even my slight jerks and hesitations when I scan. I have not used the OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software that came with the scanner. It seemed un-impressive. Instead, I use the OCR software that came free with my Canon printer/scanner. It is OmniPage SE 4.2. This software, combined with this scanner, make a great combination. For scanning text from books, I would highly recommend this scanner, but I would suggest finding alternative software if possible. Update: After using the product a few more days, I unfortunately need to update this review. I initially gave the scanner five stars, but Ive reduced it to three. This is because it often cuts off the last portion of each scanned image. For instance, when I scan text from a page in a book, it will cut off the portion of text near the edge of the page. Ive tried to solve this by continuing the scan well past the page edge, even and inch or more onto the surface below the page. However, for some reason the scanner still cuts off the last portion of the image. Sometimes (as happened when I first used the product) this does not affect the portion of text Im trying to scan. But many times it does cut off actual text I am trying to scan. It is as if the scanner is trying to automatically discern where the text ends, but it over compensates. This is very unfortunate and frustrating. This product works so well in so many ways. I wish VuPoint could offer a solution for this. I would gladly give it a five star rating, if it werent for this issue. Update #2: I found out what causes the scanner to clip off the last portion of images. There is an excellent, very detailed review of this product at [...] I highly recommend this review. In the review the author explains that when the rollers on the Magic Wand stop rolling, it stops scanning. Thus, portions of a book near the edge of a page (e.g. the last few lines or page numbers) get cut off. That is disappointing but frustrating. Im now giving this product a four star rating. The problem of cutting off the ends of scans doesnt seem like something that is an easily fixed problem (e.g. through a firmware upgrade). It is just how the product works. The website listed above offers suggestions for working around this problem. I would still highly recommend this scanner.

I saw this in an ad and bought it almost as an impulse buy---at Staples---but it is cheaper at Amazon. If you have tons of paper to keep track of (I do) you will kiss this item every day. You need a micro sd card (unless you want to use it with the cord to connect to your computer---you can do it that way, but its a hassle to keep track of that cord). The card is $9. I slip it in and push the button to turn it on (you can choose with another button whether you want it to be high or low resolution). A green light will come on and you slide the wand over your paper. Thats it. Then push the button and turn it off. That creates a file so that when you pop the SD card into your computer, it will show up as a storage device. You click on it and it will have each thing that you scanned in a separate file. Then you can save that to MS word as a document and rename it. When you open it, you have a scan of the document (JPEG) and this is the best part---you trash your original. I went through a pile of bills and bank statements, which I would normally file---grrrr and never be able to find if I need them. Now I tear them up and have the file right on my computer. I just went to the bank to deposit some checks and I scanned each one before I handed it to her. Soooo awesome. And if you get those flimsy receipts that fade in a month, scan them immediately and trash them. Its just so awesome. It comes with a CD so I thought there would need to be some sort of software put into my computer---no. I do already have MS word, so you need that if you are going to save it there, but they give you a lot of other ways to save the document. You also have some sort of a white sheet of paper you have to run the thing across to white balance it. I did that at the get go and had this terrible feeling (what with the CD) that it was going to be a nightmare to get this thing figured out. But its cake. And the results are so amazing, you will want stock in this company. I LOVE MINE---best thing I have purchased this year!!! and I buy a lot)

For what it does, I dont think there is anything out there that does it better, but really that isnt saying too much. I bought this scanner as a substitute for a textbook since it the text book cost over $200, and this thing only cost about $100, after I got the case and Micro SD card. Unfortunately, not only was scanning the pages tedious, but a lot of the times the scanner didnt line up right and the scans were horrible, also there is only about a 1/2 inch on each side of the scanner where it wont scan, but that 1/2 inch bit me in the but to no end. And though it is marked where the scanner will stop, it is just a complete pain working around it when scanning a book or even notebook; especially if they are the more expensive notebooks, like five-star, and have a big ring holding the pages together. Honestly, after 2 chapters of scanning the textbook I bought the thing for, I pretty much gave up and just bought the thing. I didnt feel like returning the product so I kept it around for copying notes from classmates when I miss class or for sending in handwritten homework via e-mail, but honestly these are very rare occasions. On the plus side, you do get better at scanning, and if you are scanning a single document on a flat surface it should work flawless, but this is just rarely the case. So if you dont mind not having the last inch of a page when scanning a notebook or textbook, or if you are just going to use this to scan documents on a flat-surface, then I can recommend this product; otherwise it would be best to steer clear until something less fallible comes along.