Fujitsu ScanSnap iX1500 Color Duplex Document Scanner with Touch Screen for Mac or PC, Black

I have had a ScanSnap 1300 for many years. It was great when it worked, but paper feeding was hit-or-miss, often jamming with the paper going sideways or multiple sheets slipping through. The software for Mac was increasingly out of date, and it took a lot of search for work-arounds to keep it running. I finally bit the bullet and bought the ix1500. Wow! What an improvement! The paper feed is buttery smooth. The software is fully up to date. The ability to create custom scan profiles is terrific. For example, I created a custom photo profile that scans duplex rather than simplex, discards blank pages, uses "excellent" rather than "best" quality, and minimizes compression. The first two options captures writing that might be on the back of a photo but discards the back image if it is blank. The "excellent" quality is actually BETTER than "best" because it scans at 600 DPI rather than 300 DPI. The "minimal compression" option gives best JPEG quality while still being smaller than TIFF. Setting it up wirelessly was a snap, and for faster file transfer I simply plug it into my Macbook.There are only a few small issues I've discovered so far:- As noted, I had to discover that there is an "excellent" mode for 600dpi rather than the 300dpi "best" mode by trial and error - it is not documented (or at least not in an obvious place).- As far as I can tell, the unit is limited to 8-bit per color depth even in TIFF mode. Flatbed scanners go to 16-bit per color depth or even higher for TIFF. JPEG is limited to 8-bit, and I did not want the size of TIFF files, so this was not a deal-breaker. It could be a deal-breaker for someone doing serious archiving and wanting the highest color fidelity.- Wireless scanning fails if you are doing 600dpi "excellent" mode and have more than about 5 pages in the hopper: the scanner is too fast for the data to transfer to your laptop, and instead of pausing scanning, it just fails. I never had problems with wireless scanning at 300dpi "best" mode.- Other reviews have mention seeing streaks on the scans - particularly thin blue lines. This means that a speck of dirt is stuck to the glass scanner plates. Open the scanner and gently clean the class plates on both sides with a soft cloth and a 50% mixture of distilled water and isopropyl alcohol. Eyeglass cleaner works fine too, but I would not use a window cleaner like Windex that has a lot of other chemicals in it. Fujitsu sells a ScanSnap cleaner called "F1" that the reviews say these work well, but it is crazy expensive - $25 for an ounce. l. You use the same fluid for cleaning the various rollers in the unit. I have found it necessary to clean the unit pretty frequently, especially when scanning dusty old photos. The online documentation recommends cleaning the glass daily and the rollers every 1000 pages. This information should be made added to the the quick set up guide.

At first, I was hesitant to buy this as an upgrade to the prior ix500. There are so many negative reviews re: the user interface, operation, etc. However, I loved the wireless feature so it is easy to share among the household.Conclusion: This is a fabulous product. I'm IT kind of guy, an engineer by trade. I didn't 'get' the new user interface for about 30 minutes, but after a little work I am so happy with the result. Yes, if all you do is scan one type of document all day long then it takes two button presses to get going instead of one in the old 500. But I don't scan just one type. I have many different needs from photos, to photo duplex (for the handwriting on the back), to magazine pages in color and lately tons and tons of family historical data I am scanning. My fathers job reviews from the 40's are color jpg, his resume works nicely as color pdf, old photos I do duplex jpg to get the back and there are newspaper clippings (simplex), banquet programs, and so many many types of things to scan.To be able to do this at the scanner is a huge time saving; otherwise I had to reconfigure the can button or make other changes at the computer before each type of scan. So much that I grouped types of documents together by type and lost the timeline of the pieces in the past. Now, with the ix1500, I can stay at the scanner (mostly) and just choose the type of scan with the touch screen and keep on going.The key is to take a few minutes and define these 'profiles' in advance according to what you might use. I defined a about 12 of them with different variations of color, b&w only, gray scale, duplex, simplex, pdf, OCR pdf, jpeg and resolution combinations. Now I can work mostly from the scanner with whatever comes next.Yes, it's a change in user interface. I think it is a good change. For those opposed to change, I believe Fujistsu has released the old Scan Snap Manager software to work with the product for those that prefer the old methods. I almost was there until I unleashed the power of the new software.

First, let me say that this model is far better than the prior model some reviewers wish they still had!Although we had two of the IX500, the software was no less difficult to install and work with, so forget that: it’s a non-issue. This software not only has the same bundle, but now lets you scan directly to the cloud and does OCR on it, too. Learning the software, after dealing with the software on the 500, was simply one more step up—like moving from Windows 7 to Windows 10, sure you have to learn something new.The task is also far, far easier than it used to be because there are so many instructive videos out there. I watched maybe a half dozen and still refer to them when I hit a bump, but lets’ face it: getting more options—in fact far more—means there are more “forks in the road” than there were before.I also take task with the idea that this model is “flimsier” than the IX500, which still had plastic in the same areas. But in my opinion those parts are far easier to use and far less likely to break than they were before, and are far more functional. Otherwise, this little beauty is the same solid machine as the prior model.I was an R&D tech in development then became a designer and spent around 17 years doing that, and another 6 in the field installing, repairing (sometimes on-the-spot, jerry-rigged fixes) and still tear apart every new machine or tool I get for my workshop, fix it my way and reassemble it before using it, so I feel qualified to say that this is a very nice workhorse machine that will serve my legal work for years to come.