Shirley Anson's recommendation of : Pal Mobile ScannerFlip
A few days ago I received a pre-production model of the Flip Pal Mobile Scanner from Rocky Mountain Ventures Company that will be released in October 2010.
I'm excited to share this with everyone!
Flip Pal is a small, portable scanner that can be taken with you where ever you go. It runs on 4 AA batteries and saves to a SD card (which is provided for you in the package).
Within minutes of opening the package I was able to start scanning photos. Flip Pal scans quickly, much faster than my larger desktop scanners. Given a choice of scanning at 300 or 600 dpi, I choose to scan at 600 dpi in order to get a quality image. I was grateful to see that the scanned item is shown on the small viewing screen so that I was assured that it was copying the image that I wanted.
Concerned about scanning larger photos I was anxious to try Flip Pal on some of my 11 x 14 prints. Following the simple directions it only took me a couple of minutes to scan and save the 6 sections of the 11 x 14. Taking the memory card and inserting into my computer, I choose the Stitching program that is built into the memory card, choose the 6 scans to "stitch" together and within less than a minute my 11 x 14 photo was pieced perfectly back together and I was able to save to my computer. It was amazing! Couldn't do that with my desktop scanner .... would have had to scan in sections and than take it to photoshop and piece it together and that would have taken about 1/2 hour or more.
Flip Pal is remarkable! I'm looking forward to using it in copying many of the historical photographs that are collected by the historical society!
[Click on highlighted Flip Pal Mobile Scanner to see demonstrations at their website.]
I'm excited to share this with everyone!
Flip Pal is a small, portable scanner that can be taken with you where ever you go. It runs on 4 AA batteries and saves to a SD card (which is provided for you in the package).
Within minutes of opening the package I was able to start scanning photos. Flip Pal scans quickly, much faster than my larger desktop scanners. Given a choice of scanning at 300 or 600 dpi, I choose to scan at 600 dpi in order to get a quality image. I was grateful to see that the scanned item is shown on the small viewing screen so that I was assured that it was copying the image that I wanted.
Concerned about scanning larger photos I was anxious to try Flip Pal on some of my 11 x 14 prints. Following the simple directions it only took me a couple of minutes to scan and save the 6 sections of the 11 x 14. Taking the memory card and inserting into my computer, I choose the Stitching program that is built into the memory card, choose the 6 scans to "stitch" together and within less than a minute my 11 x 14 photo was pieced perfectly back together and I was able to save to my computer. It was amazing! Couldn't do that with my desktop scanner .... would have had to scan in sections and than take it to photoshop and piece it together and that would have taken about 1/2 hour or more.
Flip Pal is remarkable! I'm looking forward to using it in copying many of the historical photographs that are collected by the historical society!
[Click on highlighted Flip Pal Mobile Scanner to see demonstrations at their website.]
September 24th, 2010
The more that I use Flip Pal, the more I love it. Besides demonstrating it over 50 times last Sunday at our town's Plattekill Day, I have carried it with me and showed it off to friends at lunch and at a small gathering of crafty friends. Everyone is pleased with the unit being so lightweight and compact! They are surprised at how much faster Flip Pal scans compared to all our larger desktop scanners. Nothing to set up - just turn it on and it is ready to scan!
But the one thing that sets Flip Pal Mobile Scanner out from everything else - is the "stitching" program built into the program ToolBox - that one thing alone makes the Flip Pal invaluable! Using one large studio photo of my kids when they were teenagers, I scanned 9 seperate sections to get the entire photo - working from left to right as recommended - took the 2 GB memory card (included with the Flip Pal, and inserted it into my desktop and when the ToolBox appeared (within 15 seconds), selected the last 9 scans that were taken - clicked on the Stitching Program and within 30 seconds the photo appeared as one whole picture, pulled back together perfectly!
Whenever I've showed this, there is a slight gasp from those watching and then big smiles along with the comment "I want one of those!"
We've really put it to the test using different items and documents to see what limitations Flip Pal has that aren't obvious.
We've scanned an old survey map that had the old style dark blue background and white lines showing the border - did that in 6 scans - I didn't think it was going to work because of the darkness of the background - but it did - and now we have the old survey map stored on the computer.
We've decided to have my husband start scanning his receipts for supplies that he picks up all week at various places (and then loses on a regular basis!) - this way all his receipts are handy on the memory card for me to be able to match up at the end of the month.
Another use - my son, who works with blueprints all the time, is testing Flip Pal this weekend on a set of plans and we'll let you know how it stitches together really large blueprints. As it is now, his office takes them out to be scanned because their office scanner isn't large enough to handle the size - then they go back and pick up the plans and the DVD - by doing this in the office and not having to run back and forth to drop off and pick up, besides the $40 charge for putting on DVD - that will be quite a savings over time.
Finding more and more uses for Flip Pal!
October 8th, 2010
Good Morning!
I'm still putting the Flip Pal Mobile Scanner through all kinds of tests .... and most of them work!!
Afraid that scanning the blueprints at my son's office, didn't work. It took 40 scans to do one page of the blueprint and it was just to many scans to stitch together. So be aware that something as large as a blueprint may be pushing the limit for this small scanner.
BUT in other tests Flip Pal outshown itself! Going to one research facility in Kingston last Saturday, I scanned over 100 photos using about 300 scans, since some photos required 2, 3, 4 and sometimes more scans to get the entire photograph. Now I wasn't allowed to remove any of the photographs there were hanging on walls - so they had to be scanned in place, which was a challenge - not for Flip Pal, but for me! The majority of them came out great! The only ones that didn't come out crystal clear were the ones taken through old glass. Since older glass is wavy to begin with, the scanner naturally picked up this imperfection! The other fact that I learned on this trip is to overlap - I lost a few of the scans because I didn't overlap enough to give the Flip Pal stitching program enough to stitch it together. So I advise everyone - overlap, overlap, overlap - doesn't cost anything extra and you can then be assured of getting enough of the photograph so that the built in stitching program can piece it together on your computer!
A friend and I had lunch the other day and she bought an old long ledger sheet with writing in the left column and numbers in the center and left columns - I really did not think that if was going to be able to stitch together. She scanned 3 scans across the top and then another 3 scans across the lower section of the page - making sure to overlap enough. She called me a couple of hours later so excited - went home and put the memory card into her computer (remember all the programs for Flip Pal are built right into the memory card - no installing any programs on your computer) - and within 30 seconds the Flip Pal Stitching Program had pieced the oversize ledger sheet together perfectly! She was delighted and so was I.
Really putting this unit through every test that I can think of! And enjoying every minute of it!
The Flip Pal Mobile Scanner should be released by it's designers some time soon - they advertised that it would be released in October.
If you haven't gone to their site and watched their demonstrations - be sure and do so! Just go to the top of this page and click on the pink highlighted FLIP PAL MOBILE SCANNER.
But the one thing that sets Flip Pal Mobile Scanner out from everything else - is the "stitching" program built into the program ToolBox - that one thing alone makes the Flip Pal invaluable! Using one large studio photo of my kids when they were teenagers, I scanned 9 seperate sections to get the entire photo - working from left to right as recommended - took the 2 GB memory card (included with the Flip Pal, and inserted it into my desktop and when the ToolBox appeared (within 15 seconds), selected the last 9 scans that were taken - clicked on the Stitching Program and within 30 seconds the photo appeared as one whole picture, pulled back together perfectly!
Whenever I've showed this, there is a slight gasp from those watching and then big smiles along with the comment "I want one of those!"
We've really put it to the test using different items and documents to see what limitations Flip Pal has that aren't obvious.
We've scanned an old survey map that had the old style dark blue background and white lines showing the border - did that in 6 scans - I didn't think it was going to work because of the darkness of the background - but it did - and now we have the old survey map stored on the computer.
We've decided to have my husband start scanning his receipts for supplies that he picks up all week at various places (and then loses on a regular basis!) - this way all his receipts are handy on the memory card for me to be able to match up at the end of the month.
Another use - my son, who works with blueprints all the time, is testing Flip Pal this weekend on a set of plans and we'll let you know how it stitches together really large blueprints. As it is now, his office takes them out to be scanned because their office scanner isn't large enough to handle the size - then they go back and pick up the plans and the DVD - by doing this in the office and not having to run back and forth to drop off and pick up, besides the $40 charge for putting on DVD - that will be quite a savings over time.
Finding more and more uses for Flip Pal!
October 8th, 2010
Good Morning!
I'm still putting the Flip Pal Mobile Scanner through all kinds of tests .... and most of them work!!
Afraid that scanning the blueprints at my son's office, didn't work. It took 40 scans to do one page of the blueprint and it was just to many scans to stitch together. So be aware that something as large as a blueprint may be pushing the limit for this small scanner.
BUT in other tests Flip Pal outshown itself! Going to one research facility in Kingston last Saturday, I scanned over 100 photos using about 300 scans, since some photos required 2, 3, 4 and sometimes more scans to get the entire photograph. Now I wasn't allowed to remove any of the photographs there were hanging on walls - so they had to be scanned in place, which was a challenge - not for Flip Pal, but for me! The majority of them came out great! The only ones that didn't come out crystal clear were the ones taken through old glass. Since older glass is wavy to begin with, the scanner naturally picked up this imperfection! The other fact that I learned on this trip is to overlap - I lost a few of the scans because I didn't overlap enough to give the Flip Pal stitching program enough to stitch it together. So I advise everyone - overlap, overlap, overlap - doesn't cost anything extra and you can then be assured of getting enough of the photograph so that the built in stitching program can piece it together on your computer!
A friend and I had lunch the other day and she bought an old long ledger sheet with writing in the left column and numbers in the center and left columns - I really did not think that if was going to be able to stitch together. She scanned 3 scans across the top and then another 3 scans across the lower section of the page - making sure to overlap enough. She called me a couple of hours later so excited - went home and put the memory card into her computer (remember all the programs for Flip Pal are built right into the memory card - no installing any programs on your computer) - and within 30 seconds the Flip Pal Stitching Program had pieced the oversize ledger sheet together perfectly! She was delighted and so was I.
Really putting this unit through every test that I can think of! And enjoying every minute of it!
The Flip Pal Mobile Scanner should be released by it's designers some time soon - they advertised that it would be released in October.
If you haven't gone to their site and watched their demonstrations - be sure and do so! Just go to the top of this page and click on the pink highlighted FLIP PAL MOBILE SCANNER.
