Planon Docupen R700 B&W Pen Scanner (DPENR700)
by Planon
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List Price: Our Price: $159.99 You Save: $40.00 (20%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Planon Docupen R700 B&W Pen Scanner (DPENR700)
Customer Review: Very Disappointing Product
Summary: 1 Stars
This product looks and feels very flimsy. Do not be fooled by the flashy, metallic-looking picture. The plastic shell of this device is the quality of McDonald's toys. One would think that for $300, the company would at least commission a manufacturer that did not leave plastic whiskers hanging off the rims due to bad cutting.
The buttons are hard to press. In order to turn the device on, you have to press very firmly, which is a risky thing to do considering the cracking delicacy of the shell.
The cable port for the DocuPen is also extremely flimsy, and you have to hold the cable firmly in place in order for the downloads to take place; otherwise, the connection will be lost.
I am a pre-medical student, and I very stupidly invested a lot of money in this product, believing that I could (for 8 seconds a page and 100 pages per disk) scan my science textbooks in the library, including the colored diagrams, and in that way, I thought I would make back my investment, since textbooks go for at least $100 each. However, I now see that this belief was naive, to say the least. The Docupen is extremely difficult to use. The words come out distorted, like a jammed fax machine, and although the free Paper Port software which comes complimentary with the DocuPen is rather useful for annotating PDF's, the DocuPen does not produce texts that are legible enough to annotate.
Furthermore, downloading is very slow (at least 15 seconds per page on my fast computer), and since you can't see how your scans have turned out until you load them into the computer, you will have to re-scan about 80% of pages due to stretches, smudges, blurriness, suspicious blank spots, and general illegibility.
I wish I had read some of the other negative Amazon reviews before buying this product. I would have saved myself a lot of money and time.
If you are a user who is only looking to scan pictures or a few flat documents, then this product may work okay for you, although a digital camera will probably deliver better results. If you have been harboring grandiose visions of going all-out "paperless" with this product, you will find yourself extremely disappointed.
Until PlanOn decides that this product is worthy enough to invest in a semi-decent shell manufacturuer, it will not a good buy. The idea is wonderful and has a lot of potential, especially when coupled with a Tablet PC. However, the execution of the idea needs improvement. I hope to see a far better version of this product in the next few years, at a price that is comparable to quality.
Customer Review: very cool tool, one of james bonds cool gadgets
Summary: 4 Stars
I found the R700 to great little scanner if you just need to scan black and white on the go, it has enough memory on it to store about 500 pages, great for keeping track of receipts which you can link with quicken to really get on the budget track, But if you want to scan in color you need to get the docupen RC800 which is a bit more money but well worth it Customer Review: Planon DocuPen Handheld Scanner
Summary: 3 Stars
I have to give the Docupen a mixed review. It does what it is supposed to do but is difficult to use. Under ideal circumstances, such as a document on a desk, it performs fairly well. I have more trouble with scanning a magazine page; my success rate to date after using the Docupen 6 - 8 times is probably 50%. I recognize that this will probably improve with practice but I think it will always be a little tricky and unpredictable.Customer Review: Great idea, poor execution
Summary: 3 Stars
Ok, I admit I love gadgets, but lack patience (3* only because I love the idea of an inexpensive portable scanner). With that in mind, I received the DocuPen as a gift, but after looking at a how-to video that I assume went with an earlier release of the pen, and trying to scan and upload the pictures several times without success, I called their support number only to be told to leave my number for a return call. Well, no return call yet, and as I examine the cheesy construction and contemplate their lack of clear documentation and amatuerish product suport,a fatal flaw in this day and age, I boxed it up and sent it back.Customer Review: Best thing available currently for portable scanning....
Summary: 5 Stars
Although I would like some type of "high-tech" mobile scanner like Kiefer Sutherland uses in the show "24"....that's a few years off...LOL. Anyway, this thing is pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it. As far as text is concerned the resolution is adequate for my needs, and probably the vast majority of users. With regards to graphics, it is the only hand/pen scanner that can scan graphics, but with a limited resolution (200dpi). Overall, this docupen is great. I did notice however that if you do alot of mobile scanning and don't necessarily have the ability to dump the info immediately into a computer...space becomes limiting. I've decided to get a "handful" of them (no pun intended), so that I'm never caught short of memory and space. I will let you know that I was able to easily scan about 50 pages of text at decent resolution with little or no difficulty (with alot of room left over). It saved the the hassle of looking for a copier where I was on-site working. One thing to know: there is supposed to be a "calibration sheet" enclosed in the package that "tunes up and calibrates" the pen. After looking around for it to no avail in the package, the customer service department let me know it was on the installation disc as a file that can be printed out and scanned for calibration purposes. Other than that, like I said, it's simple, effective and quite honestly the only product that's currently on the market that can scan and store text and graphics on the fly. If you need something that absolutely must have the flexibility of incorporating graphics this is the only game in town...and as I've already indicated I couldn't be happier (unless someone develops a tablet sized pc that has a printer and a scanner built right into the system).
Oh, one additional thing: people do give you a second glance or two when using one of these things.....they either think you are a: 1) Spy like James Bond, 2) Alien here observing humans, 3) Traveller from the future or 4) High tech geek (LOL).
I hope this product is as useful for you as it is for me.