Perhaps Pandigital introduced their Photolink One-Touch Scanner to the market a little too soon. The scanner offers consumers a practical tool, but unfortunately does so with too many obstacles. This device is designed to function along side Pandigitals’ line of digital photo frames; aiming to easily transfer traditional print photos to your digital picture frame. This small, one touch scanner allows you to easily slide photos up to size 4x6 into its troublesome feeder and simply transfer them from one device to the next.

The packaged contents along with the scanner include a calibration card, roller-cleaning sheet, sensor-cleaning swab, power adapter, USB cable, and user manual. The device measures just over six inches on its long side and less than two inches on its short side. It weighs in at just ½ a pound, making it a very portable and space saving product.

The scanner has a built in 5 in 1 card reader which works with CF, SD, MS, MMC, and XD media. Images fed through the scanner can be directly saved to one of the supported media card formats (no PC necessary). It also has the ability to connect directly with the computer via a supplied USB cable, allowing users to see each image as it is scanned. Each image scanned into the device is automatically saved as a JPEG with a maximum resolution of 1800 x 1200 for a 4x6 at 300 x 300 dpi.

Right out of the box, this scanner is ready to go. Slide the photo into the provided feeder sheath and then insert the sheath into the scanner. Within a few seconds, the scanner pulls the picture through and scans it to the media card. Although the scanner was user friendly and easy to understand, it displayed several issues that were of concerns:

1. Photos must be sent through the feeder with the provided plastic scanning sheath, otherwise they came through at an angle, skewing the scanned picture.

2. The scanner was at times hesitant to pull the picture through its rollers, creating an undesired level of frustration. I attempted all different methods of feeding the image through the scanner, but no one way seemed to work better than the other.

3. My biggest concern was that the scanner consistently produced a thin line that appeared on every photo. Although I attempted multiple procedures to alleviate this problem, I could not solve the issue. During the review, I had an SD card inserted in the rear card reader and the USB cable connected from the device to my computer. With each scan, the device would automatically disconnect from my computer, flash a warning and then reconnect, wasting not only time, but also my patience.

Although the Photolink was created as a user friendly and swift scanning device to be used in conjunction with your digital photo frame, its list of problems made it a tough sell. My initial excitement over this product was quickly trounced, thus flipping my opinion. On the occasion that the device functioned properly, the scanning process was quick and easy. In concept, this product is a great idea and would be a reasonable purchase for many consumers or sold alongside a digital photo frame. However, I cannot recommend this product and would urge those interested to wait for a new version to be released.
 

Manufacturer: Pandigital®

www.pandigital.com

Suggested Retail:$99.99

Street Price - Under $80.

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