VuPoint Magic Wand Portable Scanner

I have one of these, purchased in China. Scan quality is okay, though colors tend to be a little washed out. It also depends greatly on how steady your hands are.

The real problem, though, is how fast these things suck batteries. They also draw power when they’re turned off, so you can’t leave batteries in them.

I recently got one at Goodwill (w/8g memory card still in), and overall am happy – but would strongly consider the other unit offered here with LCD preview and rechargeable battery. Price-wise, mine came with the original receipt from Officemax - May, 2012 at $80 (not including the memory).

It takes considerable practice and a solid scanning surface to get the motion ideal for best quality. However, if you’re doing quick grabs for reference and don’t care about glitches/wavy lines/perfection, you can be a bit more free. The LCD preview would be nice to have more clues whether the scan was good.

As with a flatbed scanner, you have some flexibility with irregular surfaces, along with framed prints, fabrics, tattoos, etc. – but highly reflective surfaces, especially if there’s a lot of ambient light, can get overexposed.

Color accuracy is quite good, from live skin to magazines, photo/poster prints, etc. Scans of print media such as magazines and newspaper have the typical problem with halftone resolution.

Even at these prices, you still have to beg the question of this scanner versus a budget digicam.