Similar in concept to the ScanJig that I recently reviewed, but notably different in design, the StandScan Pro Power Bundle offers a slightly different way to turn your phone or tablet into a better scanner. Compared with the ScanJig, it gets extra points for offering its own LEDs instead of depending on ambient light, but it also costs a little more, which puts the two products on equal footing overall.
The argument for the StandScan Pro relative to traditional scanners is the same as for the ScanJig. As I've pointed out in any number of scanner reviews, taking a picture with a camera phone or tablet is fully equivalent to scanning. That makes both phones and tablets excellent alternatives to portable manual-fed, simplex (one-sided) scanners, like the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100 and the Epson WorkForce DS-30. Like the ScanJig, the StandScan Pro makes it easier to get good quality scans with a camera, and it also speeds up scanning for multiple pages.
Like the ScanJig also, the StandScan Pro solves the problem of trying to hold the camera absolutely steady while also filling as much of the frame as possible to take best advantage of the camera's resolution.
Basics
The StandScan Pro is basically a box with a trapezoidal cross section, one open side, a peephole on the top for the camera to look through, and a base that's a little larger than a letter-size piece of paper. The open side lets you reach in to put the scan target in the base or take it out. In addition, there's a strip of LEDs on the inside of the top, providing consistent lighting.
The StandScan Pro actually comes in two versions. The StandScan Pro itself comes with a battery pack for a 9-volt battery. The StandScan Pro Power Bundle also includes a second battery pack for eight AA batteries plus an AC power adaptor. The difference is significant. With the 9-volt battery I measured the brightness at the center point on the scan bed at only about 500 lux with a fresh battery. With AC power and with the AA battery pack, I measured between 1,319 and 1,363 lux, with the reading varying over time.
The range from 1,319 to 1,364 lux isn't enough to see a difference. The drop to 500 lux is. More important, it makes a significant difference in how well an optical character recognition (OCR) program can recognize text in the resulting file. In my tests, using Abbyy FineReader 9.0, the program managed to read text on our standard scanner test pages as small as 6 points for Arial font and 8 points for Times New Roman font without a mistake for images taken with AC power. With the 9-volt battery pack, the accuracy dropped. The smallest size the software could read without a mistake was 10 points for both fonts.
More Basics
As with the ScanJig, there's a fixed distance between the camera and the document with the StandScan Pro, so the field of view for some cameras may not be big enough to include an entire page. Rather than name specific supported devices, the StandScan Pro Web site suggests that you hold your phone 31 centimeters above a letter-size page and make sure it can see all four corners of the page. If it can, it's compatible with the StandScan Pro
In my tests the StandScan Pro worked well with a Samsung Galaxy S III and with an Apple iPhone 4S. However, I couldn't see the entire page with a Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX, an HTC Droid Incredible, or an iPad 2. Another potential issue is that the top of the StandScan Pro box may not be large enough to let you balance your tablet on it. Quite aside from not being able to see a full page with the iPad 2, I had to hold the tablet with one hand to keep it from falling off the box.
Keep in mind also that, as with any scanner, what you can actually do with your scans depends on software, and the StandScan Pro doesn't come with any. There are plenty of apps you can get elsewhere, but the point is that you have to get them separately, and, in many case, pay for them. For my tests, I scanned using the default camera app in the phones and tablets I tested with. I used Abbyy FineReader 9.0 for text recognition mostly because I had it on hand.
The Unfolding Story
Setting up the StandScan Pro involves unfolding it, bending pieces along various creases, and positioning the sides so embedded magnets will hold the overlapping edges together. I found this a little hard to do the first time, mostly because I had to figure out which parts to bend. After doing it once, however, it was easy to break the StandScan Pro down to fold it into a flat, highly portable format, and at least as easy to unfold and snap it back into its working state.
The box is made from laminated heavyweight card stock, which feels a little flimsy when you're trying to put it together. However, it holds together well once all the magnets are properly aligned. The total weight is only about 11 ounces, making it light enough to bring with you without a second thought.
...And Scan
Scanning with the StandScan Pro is simply a matter of snapping a picture. As with the ScanJig, you can put a stack of pages on the document bed and work your way through them, one page at a time, fairly quickly. It took me about one minute to scan 10 pages, which is a match for the ScanJig and a lot faster than with most manual-fed scanners. As with the ScanJig also, scan quality will depend on your phone or tablet and the app you're using.
The StandScan Pro Power Bundle is the sort of gadget that the more you use it, the more you'll appreciate it. Having its own light source is a plus, but then again, having the light source is more important for the closed-box design than for the ScanJig's open design that takes full advantage of ambient light. These two products are so closely matched that choosing between them really boils down to personal taste. That said, however, the StandScan Pro Power Bundle is certainly a reasonable choice for anyone who wants to use his or her phone or tablet as a scanner substitute.
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