Preface: I own a business that operates in several locations and I use document scanners on a daily basis. Over the years I have owned quite a variety of these types of machines and have had some good ones and bad ones. Out of all of them, my Fujitsu Scansnap s1500 has always been my favorite. This has just changed!I LOVE this scanner:
Installation:
Popped in the disk, installed the software, plugged in unit, hit scan button = 5 minutes from unboxing to results. Fast and easy.
Software:
When you run the software "ControlCenter4" for the first time, you get a choice to default to "Home Mode" or "Advanced Mode". Typically with software this is just a way programmers use to hide extra buttons that might confuse some users. In this case, however, they are two COMPLETELY different interfaces they don't even look like the same software.
*Before going further with the interfaces, let me stop by saying many people, myself included, will rarely use the ControlCenter4 software. When I use document scanners I want one function: press the button and have it dump a PDF into my predetermined destination. It does this perfectly out of the box. The ControlCenter is when you have an occasional job where you want a different outcome (i.e. scan a stack of 4x6 photos into JPG's)
Home Mode:
Choices are: photo, text and graphics, monochrome text, custom. Custom mode allows you to change resolution, color, simplex/duplex scanning (1 or 2 sided)
Advanced Mode:
Buttons are: image, OCR, E-mail, File. When you right-click on one of the buttons, you can change all the settings and program them to that button. Settings available are: file type, target application, destination file path, resolution, scan type (color bit depth), document size, and simplex/duplex. Once you set them, the settings are sticky so they will remain the same the next time you use them.
I guess I must fall into the "Advanced User" category, because I really prefer this setup to the "Home Mode"
Scan quality:
The quality of the scans are great. This is true of most scanners, so I expected this.
Speed:
During my tests, I was quite surprised at how fast it seemed. Sure enough, its faster than my the Fujitsu: 24ppm vs 20ppm.
Build:
The scanner is larger than most, but not huge. It is a nice-looking machine and feels solid and well-built.
Features:
This scanner has a unique feature I have never seen before. On the scanner is a USB port. If you plug in a memory-stick, the scanner has a button that allows it to scan directly to it. This would be great in a scenario where you needed to bring the scanner with you on-site and needed to scan some documents for later.
My only gripe: Like the Scansnap, it has no power button, but instead of turning off when you close the lid, the scanner just "goes to sleep" after 15 minutes. In the configuration, you can change the amount of time to something smaller, but I still would have liked it to just turn off when the lid is closed.
Conclusion:
Overall, I think this is a FANTASTIC scanner. It does everything I want it to do and it does it well. The interface is the least-clunky interface of all the scanners I've used/owned and the results are great. It's fast, well-built, and looks good on my desk. And finally, at its current price, it is quite a bit cheaper than its main competitor, which should make this an easy choice.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Installation: Both units, as you would expect, are well packed by their manufacturers and arrived safely. UPS crunched the Brother's outer Amazon box, but the scanner's box was intact inside. Installation follows the normal process...hunt for and remove the packing tape, power it up, install the software and finally connect the scanner to the USB port. A 6' USB cable comes with the Brother. The instructions say not to go over 6', but it's working fine with a $5 10' cable...6' is too short to reach to my computer. Both units come with a neutered version of PaperPort 12. I recommend installing it and immediately upgrading to PP14. (The upgrade is almost always on sale from one store or another for roughly half list. Since I already had PP14 installed, I skipped the installation of PP12se.) Both scanners have TWAIN and WIA drivers, so they can be used by practically every scanner enabled software package.
Both scanners have wedged-shaped bodies. The Epson is about 1-1/2" taller and blockier; the Brother is more sloped and sleek looking. The Brother is also a bit deeper and the tray protrudes about an inch more...not enough to make a difference in any practical sense.
Performance: To test the two scanners, I set the scanner drivers to similar settings and ran different types of documents through them. To summarize the results, the Brother scanned documents significantly faster at 300 dpi. The scanners approached parity at 150dpi, while the difference in scanning speed was dramatic at 600dpi.
B&W documentfifty pages 300dpi
....Epson GT-50 4:07.1 sec
....Brother ADS-2000 1:56.4 sec
Multi-page form 8 pages double sided, flip vertical 300dpi
....Epson 45.8 seconds
....Brother 20.3 seconds
Multi-page form 8 pages double sided, flip vertical 150dpi
....Epson 22.0
....Brother 21.8
Multi-page form 8 pages double sided, flip vertical 600dpi
....Brother 42.2
....Epson 1:47.8 sec
Multi-page form 8 pages double sided, flip vertical 1200dpi
....Brother 40.6 sec
....Epson Not Available
(Note: the optical resolution of the Brother is 600dpi. 1200dpi is via software interpolation)
I ran two tests to check color scanning ability. One test consists of a light blue grid printed on ten different colored sheets of paper. Ideally, the surrounding color shouldn't affect the scanned image of the blue lines. In practice, both scanners showed some impact from the surrounding colors; however the Epson fared much worse, especially with the bright red and orange backgrounds...the blue lines turned to a muddy red and orange respectively. Scanned images from the Brother were a much closer match to the originals. Both scanners maintained a nice even spacing of the horizontal lines. Slight changes in paper feed rate (which you don't want) would have caused the line spacing to vary slightly.
For the other test, I scanned a printed color test card that's primarily used to test cameras and lenses. This test doesn't measure how fast the scanner can switch between colors, like the first test, but rather tests color fidelity. Compared to the Epson, the Brother produced somewhat more saturated colors and more closely matched the original. The difference, though, was slight and easily correctable in any image processing software. (I use Adobe Lightroom 4 and/or Photoshop, depending on what needs doing)
OCR: The Epson uses Abbyy FineReader 6.0 software for character recognition. I'm not sure what Brother uses. Both work decent if you feed them a block of text (typed document, newspaper article, etc.), but the Brother bombed rather spectacularly when I tried to OCR the 8 page form that I used to test scanning speed. With different type sizes, typefaces, boxes with labels inside of other boxes, numbers with commas, background screened colors and all kinds of other fun things, it was unable to reconstruct the form using anything other than the Scan to PDF setting...and even then it was pretty pathetic. The Epson, using the Abbyy software, did a much better job.
The Brother has the following output file formats: Scan to Word 2K (or W97) RTF, searchable PDF, Excel (2003 or 97) XLS, TXT, HTML 3.2 or 4.0, and WordPerfect 8, 9 or 10. Note that the "new" (Office 2010) Microsoft file formats (docx, xslsx, etc.) are unavailable. It works, but it's obviously dated software.
Both scanners can scan both sides of a page in one pass and can be set to skip the blank pages in the output file. Settings are also available to automatically rotate upside-down pages, crop the scan to fit the document, remove punch holes and other useful functions.
Both scanners can scan business cards and embossed credit cards. Either one would work in a medical office to scan ID cards.
Both scanners come with software to control what happens when you push the front buttons. I never use the buttons, preferring to drive the scanner from my computer...I'm usually scanning many documents at once and want to rename them as I go.
The Epson uses a separate power supply. The Brother uses a standard cord. I prefer the cord. It's one less thing kicking around under my desk.
Which would I recommend? It totally depends on your needs. A couple of years ago, when I compared the ScanSnap s510 to the Epson, the Epson came out on top. Now, after a month, with the Brother sitting next to my Epson GT-S50, I find myself almost always using the Brother. It's faster and I almost never need the OCR function. If OCR was a primary requirement, I'd probably still use the Brother along with a separately purchased copy of Abbyy FineReader 11. For scanning photographs, I recommend a flatbed unit that's designed primarily for that purpose. These will both work, but the automatic dust removal software included with photoscanners will save you many hours of touch-up work. If you just occasionally need to scan documents, both of these scanners are complete overkill and a good all-in-one should work fine...just make sure that it can do two-sided scanning.
The scanner hardware deserves five stars. I'm dunning it a point because of the old drivers and the poor OCR performance. When/If that gets updated, this is clearly a five (if not six) star device.
Buy Brother ADS2000 High Speed Document Scanner, Black Now
The Brother ADS-2000 does a great job, though just doesn't quite live up to the price tag. I also have a portable Fujitsu SanSnap S1300, which has all the same features at a much lower cost, and also takes up much less desk space (in addition to being portable). The ScanSnap is a little slower and does have a smaller document capacity, so it's not a fit for everyone.The ADS-2000 has an "auto" mode to detect color and page size. The auto detection for color works great, saving space by picking out the pages with color and scanning the rest in black and white, reducing the file size. The auto detection of page size didn't work as well, adding around 1/4" at the margins, and a line at the top of the scanned image.
The scanned file size was initially huge. You can adjust the settings to reduce the size. However, the file size is over twice as large compared with the ScanSnap using the same settings (file type, dpi, etc.). One great feature is that the Brother has maximum flexibility in terms of file types and settings. It is unlikely this machine will be unable to perform a scanning function you need.
The Brother ADS-2000 uses ControlCenter 4 software. I was familiar with ControlCenter 3 through an earlier Brother product. The software is middle-of-the-road in terms of ease; it's not complex, but I wouldn't call it easy to use. The ScanSnap software is a little more difficult to use.
Overall, the Brother ADS-2000 is a good scanner. I would just take a look at the ScanSnap 1300 (less expensive than the ADS-2000) and ScanSnap 1500 (more expensive than the ADS-2000), compare the features, and decide what's best for you.
Read Best Reviews of Brother ADS2000 High Speed Document Scanner, Black Here
Brother ADS-2000 ReviewMacintosh, OS Mountain Lion, 10.8.2. MacMini with 2.7GHz Intel Dual Core i7. 8 GB of RAM
Wanted a faster ADF scanner. Reviews for this product looked good. Price was attractive
Home use. No more than 10 pages per day, black and white, 8.5x11 text documents saved as PDF.
As the manual warns==will not work on a USB hub despite it being powered by a external source.
PRO:
Fast. An 8x11single side text page every second or two at a resolution 300dpi for BnW, duplex.
Compact as running or closed
The Apple drivers in Image is VERY fast. A continuous flow of 8x11 paper pours through the scanner when in single-side mode
Brother web site for this scanner is well thought out and helpful. So is support. See below
CON:
Unsophisticated software and driver system. This software is an unsatisfactory port from another Operating System. If this port at all represents how this scanner functions are presented on the "Other Operating System", it is poorly thought out and confusing in implementation. See below
Software-Adjusting brightness/contrast sliders. Must move or click. Cannot enter a number in the value box. Sliding the adjust bar DOES NOT show value until it is released.
Software-File naming does not permit changing the date format.
ScannerEach page in BnW scans show a several pixel horizontal black line at the top every page @ 300dpi. EVERY ONE! Regardless of the software used.
SoftwareDeskew is marginal. Oft times, there remains measurable off-angles in portrait scans.
Received an "Error code CC1103". States a system restart is required and quits the driver.
Information sent to Brother Support. This problem is related to the manner the software is configured during setup. Make sure that you go over every part of the configuration AND the default scanner button. Once finished, the software is not at all picky and will accept modifications without upset.
Over all, usable but disappointing. A definite step down from my Fujitsu scanner and software (1300)
Ugh!
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I was trying to organize my stack of mail and paperwork in my house. In the process of setting all my network storage to sync with cloud storage, I thought I needed a high quality, fast scanner that can scan stacks of papers in seconds instead of 1 sheet at a time on my flatbed scanner. I was searching online and found several other products (some which are advertised on TV) and are almost as pricey as this scanner. I firmly believe you get what you pay for. After having good luck with Brother Products in the past, I decided to take the jump. I purchased this item and do not regret my choice for one second. I only use MAC in my house and that was a huge part it included mac and PC software. It's not FANTASTIC, but it does what it's advertised to do. The scan quality is really good for being so fast. The other product I was researching was a "Neat" product, but I felt going with a brand I knew was better. I can say I've had problems with pages sticking together (generally ones that were folded really tight in envelopes) but that just takes time to fan the pages out so they don't stick. My overall experience has been very positive, and I will be recommending this to several businesses I do consulting work for!Save 20% Off
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