MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Anyone use the Magic Wand scanner from VuPoint?

graycyn · 02-14-2011, 04:09 PM

I am using a VuPoint Magic Wand scanner that I picked up used off eBay for just over $50 shipped. I LOVE it! It works great!

CAVEAT, if you plan to leave your books intact, it is only going to work on those books that have sufficient margins. (About 5/8" near the spine is good, wouldn't want to try it on much less unless the book was very thin. You might could get away with a half inch, but it will be VERY tight and doing the scanning much more difficult.)

I usually get over 600 scans (300dpi and grayscale) on a set of batteries. (It takes 2AA bats.) The 4GB card is plenty for my purposes.

I am currently using it to scan some older kids paperbacks and it is working very well, because they *have* the needed margin area. The included Abbyy Screenshot Reader does a pretty good job on the OCR, but it is cumbersome and I am going to upgrade and get the Abbyy Finereader Express for my OCR needs instead.

If you have basic, mass-market style paperbacks, it's probably not going to work unless you cut the pages apart. I've got some of those, older sci-fi titles and I'm going to have to decide whether to sacrifice the book or not. Hardbacks will also depend on available margin area near the spine. I have some that will work, others that will not.

If you don't mind taking apart your books, then it should do the scans with no trouble at all, but of course, if you were willing to do that, then a flatbed scanner would be the better option or you could use a copystand with digital camera. I did do a test on a flat page and when you can scan flat, the VuPoint scans are even better. No skew.

Surprisingly, even though sometimes scanning book pages does result in a fairly skewed scan, the Abbyy handles that fairly well. I get more OCR errors if the scan is skewed, but I'm proofreading everything anyway, and it's nowhere near as bad as I expected from a skewed scan.

Anyway, I love mine, but I knew about the margin thing going into the purchase. In my case, most of the books I want to do will work. And some that won't, I'll be willing to take apart. For me, it's very easy to use, takes up little space and I can scan books on our coffee table while watching TV. It's all in what your needs and wants are. I may try taking it to the library and see what I can find for books I can scan there.

I'm not having many errors at all, but every great once in a while, the scanner does produce a scan that is reversed. I just rescan the needed page then. If you have enough margin, you don't really have that much skewing of the scans. I put a piece of black cardstock under each page that I scan. I also use assorted magazines, newspapers and other books next to the book being scanned to support the cardstock so that I can roll the scanner smoothly off the end of the page.

Good luck!

02-14-2011, 04:09 PM	#3
graycyn Wizard Posts: 1,496 Karma: 11250344 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: NE Oregon Device: Kobo Sage, Forma, Kindle Oasis 2, Sony PRS-T2	I am using a VuPoint Magic Wand scanner that I picked up used off eBay for just over $50 shipped. I LOVE it! It works great! CAVEAT, if you plan to leave your books intact, it is only going to work on those books that have sufficient margins. (About 5/8" near the spine is good, wouldn't want to try it on much less unless the book was very thin. You might could get away with a half inch, but it will be VERY tight and doing the scanning much more difficult.) I usually get over 600 scans (300dpi and grayscale) on a set of batteries. (It takes 2AA bats.) The 4GB card is plenty for my purposes. I am currently using it to scan some older kids paperbacks and it is working very well, because they have the needed margin area. The included Abbyy Screenshot Reader does a pretty good job on the OCR, but it is cumbersome and I am going to upgrade and get the Abbyy Finereader Express for my OCR needs instead. If you have basic, mass-market style paperbacks, it's probably not going to work unless you cut the pages apart. I've got some of those, older sci-fi titles and I'm going to have to decide whether to sacrifice the book or not. Hardbacks will also depend on available margin area near the spine. I have some that will work, others that will not. If you don't mind taking apart your books, then it should do the scans with no trouble at all, but of course, if you were willing to do that, then a flatbed scanner would be the better option or you could use a copystand with digital camera. I did do a test on a flat page and when you can scan flat, the VuPoint scans are even better. No skew. Surprisingly, even though sometimes scanning book pages does result in a fairly skewed scan, the Abbyy handles that fairly well. I get more OCR errors if the scan is skewed, but I'm proofreading everything anyway, and it's nowhere near as bad as I expected from a skewed scan. Anyway, I love mine, but I knew about the margin thing going into the purchase. In my case, most of the books I want to do will work. And some that won't, I'll be willing to take apart. For me, it's very easy to use, takes up little space and I can scan books on our coffee table while watching TV. It's all in what your needs and wants are. I may try taking it to the library and see what I can find for books I can scan there. I'm not having many errors at all, but every great once in a while, the scanner does produce a scan that is reversed. I just rescan the needed page then. If you have enough margin, you don't really have that much skewing of the scans. I put a piece of black cardstock under each page that I scan. I also use assorted magazines, newspapers and other books next to the book being scanned to support the cardstock so that I can roll the scanner smoothly off the end of the page. Good luck!