Worth 1000 Words: Pandigital Scans Photos Sans Computer
If you’re older than 20, you’ve probably got a fair number of old photos lying about that have never been scanned or stored digitally and that are slowly decaying. You know: the dusty photo albums, containing actual printed 4×3s and 5×7s from a time before digital photo frames and Facebook and DSLRs. The solution, clearly, is to finally get around to scanning them. Now, we’ve seen our fair share of interesting ones- from business card scanners to barcode versions and even all-in-one printers that do a pretty good job with photos. But what we have on hand today is fairly unique- no computer is required!
Pandigital is a name you might not have heard of- they are perhaps best known for their various digital picture frames. But they also make the Pandigital Photolink One-Touch 5×7 Scanner, a small and portable photo scanner that offers built-in storage options in the form of memory card slots. Most major formats are accepted- SD, MS, MS Pro, MMC, XD- and we had no issues popping in our memory card, plugging in the scanner to our outlet, and throwing some photos through the device. Handily, a 512 MB SD card is even included, which is enough for quiet a few photos.
The upgraded model (the PANSCN04) offers 600 DPI, which likely won’t suffice for professionals or archivists. On the other hand, it’s pretty speedy, and much easier than using a flatbed scanner. The feed mechanism doesn’t handle multiple picture unfortunately, which means that you’ll need to manually put each one in. We liked that it could handle 5×7 images; some scanners cannot. A small amount of cropping did occur, but since the vast majority of pictures have a border of some kind, we rarely noticed (and it was even often a good thing). There aren’t a whole lot of options available, perhaps a downside for those who may want better scratch removal or straightening handled more automatically. We also wish a battery-powered option were available, since the portability of the device is a real bonus and sometimes outlets are hard to reach around the photo storage areas.
Overall though, it’s a great unit for mom or grandma, as they really don’t need to worry about a whole lot except for feeding the photos through correctly. And anyone with a stack of photos that they simply haven’t gotten around to putting on their social network or website will certainly find the price appealing- $90 is pretty good, considering the durability and capabilities! Available directly from their online store.
