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| Plustek Opticbook 3600 Book Scanner | 
 enlarge | Brand: Plustek
Category: CE
Buy New: $219.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Media: Electronics
Shipping Weight (lbs): 10.6
nv:Scanner Type: Flatbed
Scanner Element: Charge-Coupled Device (CCD)
Light Source: Cold Cathode Fluroescent Lamp
Hardware Resolution: 1200 x 1200 dpi
Interpolated Resolution: 24000 x 24000 dpi
Color Depth: 48-bit
Gray Scale Depth: 16-bit
Interface Connectivity: USB 2.0
Power Source: AC Adapter
Compatible OS: Windows 2000
Compatible OS: Windows 98
Compatible OS: Windows XP
MPN: SWOCR0015
Model: 3600
UPC: 854149061015
EAN: 0854149061015
ASIN: B000A27YIO
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Thanks to Plustek's patent pending SEE Technology, any book can lie completely flat on the scanning glass. The result is a perfectly scanned image with no annoying book spine shadow and no distorted lines of text.Whereas professional book scanners are targeted mainly for large libraries, archive museums, and corporations with big budgets, OpticBook 3600 is an affordable solution for all libraries, copy rooms, students, teachers, universities, SOHO, law offices, publicists, and work groups.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 Great book scanner July 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I liked this scanner so much that I bought a second one. I've had both for more than three years. I've installed them on both Windows XP and Windows 2000 (English and Japanese versions). I have never had a scanner install and work so flawlessly. Despite what some of the other reviews say, I have found the software to be stable and totally crash-free. Previously I have used Epson and HP scanners, and in my opinion the OpticBook 3600 offers comparable scan quality with software that is more innovative and less intrusive, if primitive looking in spots. The software does what it's supposed to. Most notably, it allows you to scan each page of a book with just a touch of a button on the scanner, automatically rotating every other scan if you so specify in the settings.
My scanners came with a light version of Abbyy's FineReader OCR software. I purchased an upgrade to the professional version (for which a free trial is available on Abbyy's web site), and I have found it to be excellent (well worth the price of the upgrade). I chose Abbyy over OmniPage because Nuance doesn't provide a trial version (to my knowledge) and its software activation policy struck me as too intrusive.
One issue that I've had is that occasionally the scanner lamp inexplicably fails to turn on after the warm-up. This usually happens when I haven't used the scanner in a while, and the lamp always comes on after a reboot (once it took a couple of reboots). Scary the first time it happened, just a minor annoyance thereafter.
Overall, a very well designed product. If you have any need to scan books, I think you will be impressed with the innovation that went into this scanner and its software. There's nothing comparable available that I've been able to find.
One word of warning. After I bought these scanners I bought an HP Photosmart all-in-one color printer/scanner/copier. When I installed the HP, I found that the OpticBook no longer worked. I eventually figured out that I could use the OpticBook again if I disabled the HP under Imaging Devices in Device Manager. However, even when enabled under Device Manager the HP will not work as a scanner with the OpticBook installed (it only works as a printer). I really only needed a printer anyway, and I've found the HP software to be so intrusive, bloated and annoying that I've vowed to avoid all-in-ones from now on. As soon as I get a chance, I'm going back to my trusty HP LaserJet, which has the added advantage of not prompting me to buy color ink cartridges every time I blink.
 Unreliable scanner. Unreliable company. June 19, 2008
This scanner may look nice, but hold your judgment until you use it around a year.
I was a big fan of this scanner until recently.
Opticbook scans books fast without damaging spines.
I used it very carefully.
I used another scanner of mine for non-book materials, because I didn't want to waste the lamp life.
The result: its lamp died after around 200 scans.
I used it intermittently, so I was out of warranty when the lamp died.
I've used scanners of several manufacturers, and this is the first time that a scanner lamp died on me.
After mine died, I got another reason to hate this scanner. Service of the company is horrible.
I sent several emails about my problem, but never got answers.
Whenever I called, I didn't get anyone either.
In sum, spending $300 for 200 scans and bad customer service is not recommendable at all.
Great book scanner May 27, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a GREAT scanner if you need to scan books (either entire or pages). There are better photo scanners out there for less money, so don't waste your money if this is your goal. It is NOT a all in one device, Plustek designed it with one goal in mind, and if that is what you need it for you will not be disappointed.
 Negatives are always so easy to write... March 22, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
... but when something works it seems less people take the time to say so. I've had my 3600 for over 2 years. Teamed with Omnipage Pro (I said Pro) and Acrobat Pro (Pro, again) it has given me a nice searchable version of the significant books of my trade.
No, it's not a 500 page per minute $12k robot with dual digital SLRs. It's a flatbed scanner of moderate resolutions (it's not made for turning photographis into poster-size prints) made specifically to get into the nooks and crannies of Books.
As noted the scanner does its thing by having a very thin edge that your book hangs off of (and it is a thick scanner on purpose: to give your books room to hang down). Actually, it is a smart idea and it is simple to use.
Now, lets be realistic, there is a logical limit to how thin an edge can be and still have a bulb go back and forth in the chassis underneath so understand that it's not great for cheap little paperbacks and instead is best for real size books or at least trade paperbacks that have at least 1.5 cm between the glue and the text.
It has big user-proof buttons on the hardware and the software is kind of cartoony (not as in annimated characters.. more like Linux fare, big colored borders and just a kind of non-industrial-pro feel)
But it works. And it works fine for what it is... and it is unique in the marketplace.
For me it worked fine on XP and it's been working fine on my Vistas since the company put out the updated software early in 2007. BTW: 64bit too (I use it mostly on my Vista64 Ultimate Ferrari 4000).
Reality check: Each page scan takes between 5 and 6 seconds, that adds up for sure but that's the cost of a $250 machine. Books can take long to complete scanning and then you have to post-process them; so I have learned to live with and make the most of the reality. I do the scans while watching tv and/or indoor-cycling (I have a bike trainer "desk", so I can bike, watch tv and scan a book all at the same time but that's me). Expect a 500 page computer book to take 4 or 5 hours or a couple of nights ... but you'd just be watching tv anyway so consider it gravy that now you eventually get something done along with sitting on your butt :)
When a page is scanned, you flip the book over and press the big button again to get the next page, the scanner does the imzge flipping (unless you mis-scan a page as is easy to do once you get into a groove. If/when you get out of flip-sync the you have to scan twice to get back on track.)
Like I said I've had mine a long while.. and personally I've never had it once freeze my computer... sorry to the other reviewers, it's my experience but maybe I keep my machines cleaner of unrelated silliware and registry-slowers than some other folks.
Here're my tips:
1) Scan to individual high resolution jpgs or tifs, the unit will incrementally name them.
2) when done open them all in Omnipage Pro (PRO) and let it do the OCR.
3) export to PDF from Omnipage with graphic text and searchable text.
4) open in Acrobat Pro to rename the pages, tree the pages under the chapters and index. Save out to a lower resolution to save file space it desired
5) keep the high resolution PDF backed up somewhere like on an external media drive and keep all of the scanned page images for at least a week or two... just in case after really using the output PDF you realize that it could use some OCR or compresssion tweaking. Otherwise you have to start all over again and that is a lesson you don't want to learn yourself:)
Optibook Scanner Excellent December 19, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I scan lots of books. The Optibook is designed specifically for scanning books. I have low vision and must scan all my books in order to have my computer read them to me. The Optibook is easy to set up and easy to operate. I love the quick push button format that quickly scan your book pages. If you are looking to scan books, this scanner can't be beat.
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