Pandigital Photolink One-Touch PANSCN05 4-Inch x6-Inches Photo and Slide and Negative Scanner (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

After having my local Walgreens turn four sets of film negatives in to Photo CDs, and having three of the four CDs missing images, I decided I could probably do it myself and save money plus actually get all my photos scanned.After some searching, I came across this product on the Bed Bath and Beyond website, and the demo video won me over. Amazon got my order when I realized they had it for half the price of BB&B. I was not expecting much at this low price, which may explain why I am so impressed.This was super easy to use. Plug up the power cable, pop in the included 1GB SD memory card, snap in the negative adapter tray, then start feeding in negatives. It will slowly pull the strip (of 4 photos) in, then process for a few seconds, then be ready for the next strip. It goes quite fast, though you want to verify the images after scanning because they don't always scan correctly (see later in this review).There are several ways to get images in to your computer:1. After scanning, the SD card can be taken out of the scanner, then put in to a computer and the photos can be copied off. Easy and fast.2. There is also an included USB cable which lets the scanner act as a card reader. (And, it supports various card formats, not just SD. You could scan to other types of media as well!) But, I found that if you have the scanner connected (at least on a Mac), every time it scans it disconnects from the computer (causing a warning about removing the disk without ejecting it first), and then it remounts after the scan is complete. This caused it to have a MUCH longer delay between scans. I found it better to unplug it from USB until done with all the scans for that memory card3. There is PC Windows software available, which I have yet to try. Although I can fully run Windows and Mac stuff on my Mac, I never needed to since using the SD card itself was plenty convenient.The scanner will scan 4x6 photos in 300 or 600dpi, and scans negatives or slides at 1200 dpi. Slides must be removed from the paper frame. I have not tried any slide scanning, but will be borrowing some soon to test, and will update this review later.Image quality is decent, and perhaps I can post an example of the same negative processed by Walgreens on their industrial equipment, and this scanner. Scanned negatives are nowhere as detailed as pictures from a modern digital camera. I am not sure they are even as good as my year-2000 Sony digital camera.Now, THE DOWNSIDES:1. The scanner tries to be clever with negatives, and will attempt to read the numbers on the edges of the negative to determine if they were inserted upside down or backwards, and flip the scanned image file accordingly. This does not always work, so it's best to put the negatives in the correct way (else you may end up with inverted photos and not realize it unless you see some writing in the picture that is backwards).2. The scanner uses friction feed, so even though negatives have the sprocket holes, they are not used. Some old warped negatives may not move through the rollers very well, causing images to stretch at times. I got in the habit of scanning a roll, then previewing all the images to make sure they turned out. I expect someone makes a nicer, deluxe negative scanner that is more accurate, but likely much more expensive.3. The scanner will try to detect the gaps between negatives and spit the images out in to separate files. This works great about 95% of the time, but if images have dark or light borders, it may not be able to tell and sometimes will mis-cut the image, having part of the previous or next image attached to the image file.4. The scanner also tries to autocrop -- to avoid scanning in the sprocket holes and such. It seems to crop out a bit of the image I may have wanted scanned. I noticed this when a picture I took of a building had only the bottom half of the sign showing in the resulting JPG image. I did not see any way to turn this off.So really, #4 is the only big problem I have. I would like as much as possible of my image to be scanned. The rest of the issues can easily be worked around.It's an amazing value overall. And running photos through was faster and easier, so if you are looking for a photo scanner, this does a great job at that. I wish I would have known about this device years ago.

Recently received this item and can tell it was originally designed to sell for far more. Mine came with a power adapter, SD card, calibration/cleaning pads, negative attachment, photo protector, and computer cord.It's a very nice unit, and as some videos I saw showed, you can pretty much feed photos into this unit as fast as it will take them. This, by far, is faster than my old way of laying them on a flatbed, scanning, waiting, taking them off the flatbed, and repeat. This way, I just feed, and go.I like that it will take the larger photos and that it seems to know if they are square or rectangle. I put through a lot of different photos, old and new, without any issues. I would be wary of anything torn or damaged, as no way to know how that will react on the photo when between the wheels (use the photo protector for those.)I tried a few negatives. They don't seem to feed as fast, but the strip I tried was a little curved. I love how it auto converts them into single photos. Less work for me! And they were much clearer than I could have ever imagined. One negative got stuck because I forgot to trim off the tape at one end. The book recommends doing that (for obvious reasons).One problem with this unit and many others is that I have some old mounted slides I wanted to convert. I had blown up my old ION machine and forgot to check when buying this one, but it only scans UNmounted slides. Why any manufacturer thinks I want to a) destroy my slides to do this or b) stand there for hours stripping them out of the cardboard, I'll never know, but most "slide" scanners expect you to do that. (The ION didn't, but for some reason, it did not scan the whole slide!) I did unmount two and tried them. Since these are now very small (about the size of one negative) the first one went through fine, but the second got stuck. After some oh-god moments, as I didn't want to lose a precious vintage photo, I turned off the unit then back on, and it spit it out. In a second attempt, I pushed through the first slide, following it immediately with the second, and that seemed to work better. I'd be highly cautious about putting through a slide that was curved, torn, cracked, or damaged, as they are so small, they kind of disappear into the machine and there's no way to easily remove them if they get stuck.If you get this unit, you can pretty much turn it on and use it with little direction. However, if you delve into the very fine print of the manual, you'll find extra options for resolution and other effects that happen while scanning.Overall, I'm thrilled with this unit. I just wish it would have scanned the slides mounted. I'm pleased with the quality and happy that I can now digitize the rest of my collection.

The functionality works great. Still can't figure out why it cannot connect to my laptop(no big deal). The only issue I have is some of my photos the background displays faint white lines and the photo is very clear. It is very inconsistent with these lines.

Great works really well.

At first I was disappointed in the image quality until I realised that the second press of the power on button made it scan more slowly and clearly. I guess I should have read the manual! While the picture quality isn’t that of a top end flatbed scanner in best quality mode I think it strikes a perfect balance between very adequate for casual viewing of pictures on a media system verses time to scan. I did try using a flatbed scanner and gave up very quickly as you had to keep cropping the pictures. While you can scan to the provided memory card and unconnected to a PC, you miss the real time feedback as in the case where some dirt gets in the scanner and caused white streaks on following images. I preferred to scan with PC connected as you see each picture as it arrives in the default file folder. This also gives you the chance to rescan if something went wrong such as not feeding the picture in straight. After a few pictures you quickly get the knack for feeding them in strait. I also did not need to use the provide sleeve but I think you would if the leading edge of the picture was damaged such as for damp swollen pictures. Other than when you feed the picture in crooked it does a great job of clipping the image to the exact size of the picture. It also has a nice touch in that while you wait a few seconds for it to process the image, it will pull in the next picture a few millimetres so you can let it go for it to be scanned when ready. The unit is small but well-built and I only occasionally had to clean the rollers but that was due to feeding it dusty pictures. All in all, great value for money and perfectly suitable for making all your hardcopy pictures available for viewing online. In my case I was scanning to a Windows PC and I used standard file properties (select all, right click properties to set “details” and “Tags”) so that I can track any picture back to the original hard copy batch in case I needed to rescan on a flat bed for very high resolution blow ups for example. Of course you can also use Title, Subject and Tags to catalogue your pictures to make them searchable. This is a brilliant gadget, as I have been waiting years for an opportunity to make all the old pictures available online quickly and efficiently.

Very easy to feed all your old photos through, all photos scan quickly and to a good quality directly onto your computer or on to the memory card. I was amazed how easy and fuss free it was! Very useful "envelope" to help you feed through any small photos you might have. It would get a full 5 stars from me if I was able to scan a negative and it reproduced the photo for me - maybe it does and I haven't played around enough yet - I had hoped that this scanner had this capability, it seems to just replicate a copy of the actual negative you've fed through!! As I say though, I haven't really dedicated much time to sorting out the "negative" issue - once I've used the scanner more and hopefully discovered how to do it (if possible!!) I will change this review to 5 stars. I am veyr happy with this purchase though.

I have a large number of old prints in shoe boxes that I have been keen to scan.Frankly I was not expecting much from this unit given its price.I have to admit to being surprised. The unit is quite small with a 6” slot front and back.At the back is a slot for an SDD card, a USB socket and a power socket for the supplied plug power unit. The unit functions on its own without being connected to a PC, in fact all the PC does is read the SDD card (one is included).There are 2 levels of resolution, it defaults to the lowest so read the instructions. Changeover is done by a single tap on the on/off button and is indicated by a LED.Overall for the price this a recommended buy.