The i1320 is one of four new scanners in Kodak's range.
In the Kodak i1320 box you'll find Nuance ScanSoft PaperPort, a great little document management product, and OmniPage which is an OCR package enabling you to convert your scans into electronic documents. You also get the USB cable provided and a few items to help clean your scanner. In the near future Kodak Capture Lite will also be provided in the box, but until then you are given a web address where you can download the software.
Straight forward setup - took less than 10 minutes from opening the box to scanning our first pages. The driver setup is very easy because everything is wizard based.
For the tests we scanned the sample documents in Adobe Acrobat at 200dpi black and white.
100 A4 Pages
Took 1 min 48 secs (excluding the time taken to refill) - Kodak have quoted that it will scan at 60ppm so it is infact a little slower.
Click here to see the 100 page file
Kodak scanners are well known for being reliable when it comes to feeding, and the i1320 didn't let us down. It only offers a 50 sheet input tray, so in less than a minute you'll have to refill it. That said, when you consider the fact this scanner is far less expensive than similar models, you will still be scanning at a faster rate than many comparable machines with a larger input tray.
The tilt mechanism allows you to select whether the scanner feeds upright or flat (ish). Kodak states that this allows you to do all sorts of scanning jobs, but we think it is more of a novelty factor rather than purely for functionality - although there is a slight difference in the 'through path' when tilted so double feeding should be reduced a little as there is less of a reliance on gravity. When in the upright position it does have a smaller footprint, which is always useful when little space is available. You will need space in front of the scanner to allow for the outputted documents.
We then did a test with a mixed batch of invoices - the kind of documents that the majority of users will be scanning each day. Everything went through fine; even a couple of small till receipts which were in amongst the batch.
The scanner made a half-hearted attempt to scan business cards. The first obstacle was the lever inside the input tray which tells the scanner whether or not there is any paper in there. This is situated quite far across on the left as opposed to a central point, so you have to position the business cards off-centre for the scanner to even know they are there. It took the first few quite happily, but then it double fed and then triple fed - and then it stopped scanning!... therefore if you're looking to scan business cards, use a flat bed or a different scanner.
The next test was to see how it reacted to stapled documents. We tried several attempts but the scanner didn't jam - instead, it just took the paper through as one sheet. Whilst this shows the scanner is pretty robust at what it can feed, it should stop when staples are present to avoid damage to the lenses and to be sure you know every page has been captured.
(IMPORTANT NOTE: please remove all staples prior to scanning!!... No manufacturers recommend you scan staples, paperclips etc - this will very quickly scratch the scanning lens and will not be covered in your warranty!)
It didn't seem to want to scan to colour - we first tried it in Adobe. The paper went through fine but it then failed to create the pdf from the scan and came up with an error message - "Unrecoverable error". We then tried scanning from the built-in Microsoft Office scanning tool and it failed to initialise the scanner. Worried that we had broken the machine, we then tried scanning in black and white again and all was fine. The Scanner Validation Tool, which is supplied with the unit, scanned fine in colour. It would seem that there was a problem with the software rather than the scanner/drivers. Perhaps put this down to user error!?
Conclusion
Very good scanner - the feeding was fast and reliable (as expected with a Kodak!) The scanner itself looks quite futuristic although the build quality is not quite as robust as the other Kodak's. You do get more for your money though - other scanners in that price range are generally slower and less aesthetically pleasing. For added piece of mind, Kodak also include a 3 year warranty - so they must be confident it will continue to perform!!
Please note that all of our reviews are based on one sample scanner and may not therefore be a statistically correct assessment of the model in question. Given the simplistic nature of the tests, in an attempt to keep the reviews comparable with other models, many of the features available to each model were not tested and we strongly recommend visitors to our website to view the official product specifications provided by the manufactures. Whilst all reasonable efforts have been made to ensure all information is accurate we accept no liability for any inaccuracies or omissions and any decisions based on information contained in this review are the sole responsibility of the visitor.
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