Speaking of Scanners:

[HUSKER55]

Has anyone ever used a hand held portable page scanner that they thought was worth the money for books and making notes?

The ads promise alot. I am questioning deleviry.

thanks

[wilderness]

Had one of the very early handhelds and it was dismal.

Saw the early wands used and there were bad as well.

I've not seen or used any of the newer models, however scanner texhnology
has not changed a whole lot in 20-years due to the lack of demand.

The smaller models might be ok if you were looking to scan a paragraph, note or business card, however working with a multi-columned-multi-page article would be frustrating.

For larger images, you'll need to locate an image software (a real issue) which will allow you to merge different pixel sized images together.

FWIW, its difficult for me to imagine going "smaller" in a scanner, as most desktop scanner surfaces are 8.5 X 11.0" and many pages are larger than standard size. The bigger scanner surfaces 10 X 14" increase drastically in price and only a couple companies make the larger sizes.

[JustRalph]

It's come a long way. The more appropriate question today might be 'why are you using a handheld'

Are these doc's something you cannot get in digital form ?

The new handhelds are nifty but require a steady hand, the new ones that look like a pen vary in quality based on the price of course. I have used a couple and it left me deciding I would rather try to find a digital copy of the document. Or use a full page scanner. I use a full page scanner often. Full page scanners are fantastic and cheap.

[HUSKER55]

I have several antique books that I would like to copy and save on my computer just to have.

I would try a full page scanner but I am afraid the back or binding might fall apart.

I am not sure I can do what I want no matter what without damaging the books. I figure my best shot is page by page.

Thanks guys for the reply

[Dave Schwartz]

Is this a book that might be available in Google's book project?

[wilderness]

If the book is more valuable to you than the scanner, your wasting your time at any malformed attempts that are simply going to provide bad results.

The first thing I do in scanning is remove all bindings so that I may scan the pages properly and individually.

There was a company selling some nice stands with lights and two Canon Cameras for approximately $4,500.

[wilderness]

Is this a book that might be available in Google's book project?

Or "Project Gutenberg" or "Making of America archives"?

[JustRalph]

Is this a book that might be available in Google's book project?

beat me to it. Google is doing fantastic work with this project.

post an example of a book.......let's see if it's in the project, if so, you can have your cake and your binding too......

[wilderness]

BookDrive Automates Book Scanning (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1908360,00.asp)

I've no idea which model is which. Their website does not offer any pricing.
I've a notation for 35k, however no clue what model that price was.

BookDrive Mini (http://mini.atiz.com/)

BookDrive Comparison (http://www.atiz.com/whichbookdrive/)