First User Reviews of the ScanSnap S1500

Looks like the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 is in the wild and the first user reviews are starting to show up.

Fujitsu sent Sam Glover over at Lawyerist a S1500 and he has done a great review of it, including a comparison of his old S500 with the new S1500.

Like I said in the video clip, the S1500 is a great upgrade. It feels like the same scanner as my old ScanSnap, just better. And since I had no complaints, and lots of good things to say about my old scanner, that is a very good thing.

Even better, he’s put together a review showing the two ScanSnaps side by side.

ScanSnap S1500 first look from Sam Glover on Vimeo.
Also, over on Amazon, the first review has shown up by BookMan. Again, it’s very positive other than a little issue with Rack2Filer.

Overall, I’m thrilled with the Fujitsu S1500 – there is no question that it is the best one I’ve had (and I’ve had many) and is well worth the money (the S1500 is also the most expensive scanner I’ve ever purchased). I would recommend this to anyone who needs to scan documents.

Do you have an S1500 or S1500M ? What do you think so far?

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About the Author

Brooks Duncan helps individuals and small businesses go paperless. He's been an accountant, a software developer, a manager in a very large corporation, and has run DocumentSnap since 2008. You can find Brooks on Twitter at @documentsnap or @brooksduncan. Thanks for stopping by.

Leave a Reply 8 comments

Alex Clark - December 25, 2021 Reply

Thanks for sharing more info!

tjcarter - May 26, 2009 Reply

@racerx90, did you find what you were looking for?

I am pleased to report that I did a basic install of the 3.0 software on my Mac right on top of 2.11 for my 300M. Not only does the 3.0 software support my 1500M goodness, but I plugged the 300M in to see if it still worked. It does.

The 3.0 software looks a lot more like the Windows software. It's a bit less Mac-like in that respect, but since you only deal with it when you're editing a profile, it's hardly worth a complaint. Well okay, quick menu, but who uses that? 😉

racerx90 - May 26, 2009 Reply

@tjcarter:

Unfortunately, no – I haven't been able to to find V3.0 yet. I've been looking for it for sometime now, but without success.

I really wanted to see if I could get it working with the other ScanSnap scanners (personally, I own the S300). Although, it looks like you've tried the S300M, so that's a really good sign the original driver code is still present (since the code paths for S1500M/S300M are completely different – one is software firmware loaded and the other isn't.)

In addition, I wanted to see if there was support for the PC-based scanners by default. I spent a considerable amount of time binary patching ScanSnap Manager V2.2 L11 and releasing an automated patch for people to use with their PC-based scanners (S300, S500, S510, fi-5110EOX/2/3), and I was hoping the 3.0 release would essentially render the need for additional patching useless. (There's more information here:
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?p=52… ) Wishful thinking – I know! 🙂

Anyway, if you know of where I can get a copy of ScanSnap Manager V3.0 (just the application, not the add-on software) – I would greatly appreciate it (please email me at racerx90{at}gmail{dot}com). Thanks!

Brooks Duncan - May 26, 2009 Reply

I actually had someone email me just this morning. They are in Japan and can only get the Japanese language version of ScanSnap Manager.. Fujitsu won't give them the English one. They're hunting for the English ScanSnap Manager 3.0 too. Pretty weak Fujitsu!

racerx90 - May 26, 2009 Reply

I agree. I never understood that. The Japanese and English versions are always kept separate (even the multi-lingual version of ScanSnap Manager doesn't contain a Japanese translation.)

The funny part is they also have a Japanese version of CardMinder for the Mac that comes with the S1500M, but the English version comes with Cardiris instead. I actually, started doing a port of CardMinder for the Mac into English, but due to lack of time on my part has prevented me from finishing it (it is available from the Japanese Fujitsu ScanSnap web site though in case anyone wants to finish it up! I can provide directions on how to extract it and the start of the English.proj for Xcode! 😉

SiliconLunch - August 26, 2011 Reply

Just got the S1500M in Japan, and noted the Japanese version of CardMinder bundled. I'm a developer too, have Xcode etc., so if you give me some pointers on where to pick up where you left off, would be interested in completing that English port…

arva - September 13, 2011 Reply

Racerx90 provided extraordinary help to many mac + ScanSnap users. In the interim, Fujitsu has released and upgraded the SS Manager for Mac in ENGLISH which is readily available and excellent. Sadly, no 'official' or 'unofficial' version of CardMinder MAC has been released in English, although reports indicate availability of an En lproj file in Japan. You can use Xcode to translate one box at a time, but the sheer number of items to translate exceeds the capability of anyone with other work to do. (Both Racerx90 and I ' ran out of available time'. Even if accomplished, the effort could be rendered worthless with a version upgrade…… Snippets of information suggest v. 1.1.30 for the Jp version, but Fujitsu continues to peddle the WORTHLESS ReadIris for Mac users outside of Japan. Japanese Bean-counters apparently ruled against upgrading the Mac version in parallel with the WINDOWS product – – inclusive of CardIris. Even communications with them re practical marketing issues hits the Kanji Wall. Best bet would be to locate an adroit Mac user in Japan having skills to locate an En localization behind the FireWall of the Japan Market and privately provide. Fujitsu seems obsessed with spending money to prevent access for the Mac World outside of Japan. Careful searches have not located any En localizations at any of their plethora of marketing locations where En is the predominant language. CardIris is worse than nothing re their marketing.

racerx90 - April 19, 2009 Reply

Anyone know where to get ScanSnap Manager V3.0 for MAC (the version which supports S1500M)? I looked all over Fujitsu's website, but I can't find a link anywhere. Thanks in advance.