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C Pen 800C Handheld Scanner
C-Pen is a mobile information collector that reads, remembers, processes and transfers printed text to your Windows-equipped PC and PDA products. C-Pen is in essence an electronic highlighter that...read more
$219.99
Average Customer Rating
4 out of 5 |
Product Features
- Remarkably light translation tool, ideal for travel
- Includes address book and memory for saving many pages of text
- Transfer data or text directly into your PC or Palm
- Downloadable dictionaries available in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Swedish
- Reads, saves, translates, and sends text within seconds
Product Description
C-Pen is a mobile information collector that reads, remembers, processes and transfers printed text to your Windows-equipped PC and PDA products. C-Pen is in essence an electronic highlighter that saves the text you are marking. Carry it with you wherever you go! Make it a habit to take your portable text collector with you, and you are always ready to read and save text from books, papers, brochures or business cards. You can easily record price-lists, timetables, wine tips or witty quotes. You don't have to tear out pages any more. With the portable dictionary you can translate and look up words immediately without carrying around a printed dictionary! Your saved text files can later be transferred to your PC. It is also possible to use C-Pen to read text directly into a Windows application in your PC. ....read more
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Product Details
Brand: C TechnologiesModel: DC051078
UPC: 697311000685
Product Code: DC051078
Product Accessories
9 Responses to “C Pen 800C Handheld Scanner”
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NO SUPPORT
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
Let’s be honest.
This product ain’t cheap. It’s not something you can just throw away if it decides to stop working.
I bought mine at cpenusa.com. Delivery was fantastic, only took them a couple of days. But, my c-pen cable was hurt. The connector to the c-pen was, for some reason, cut in half. Without it, you can’t recharge or connect the c-pen to the pc.
I called their main office all the way in Sweden during the office hours. NO RESPONSE. I sent three e-mails to cpenusa. NO RESPONSE.
I don’t care if the product itself is fantastic(I’ll never know now, will I..). If you’re unable to receive support when you need ‘em, you’re screwed.
If you’re just interested in electronic equipments, just want to try things out and don’t really care if you’re on your own, go ahead and try it. Let me know how this thing really is. Otherwise, buy a product that you can trust on with respect to after-sales support.
Thoughts on the CPen 800c
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I’m just going to chime in with a few random thoughts on this product:
- Since it appears Amazon no longer carries the product, I got mine from cpenusa.com. I ordered on a Thursday night and it shipped the next day. It arrived at my door the following Monday, so I have no complaints.
- Another reviewer said that the device did not come with a US adapter for the European charager, but mine did.
- The CD that came with mine had the latest drivers for Windows XP on it
- You’ll need either a serial or infrared port on your PC, else you’ll have to get an adapter, because there’s no USB on this thing. My PC has a serial port and I had no problems getting the device to talk to the computer
- My CPen would not power up when I took it out of the box. So, as advised by the manual, I stuck a long paperclip into the reset hole and PRESTO – it powered up instantly
- AFAIK, there’s no support for Mac OSX
- Don’t expect ‘instant gratification’ with this thing out of the box. It WILL require you to spend some time with it (I’d guess 2 or 3 hours at the very least) in order to get a feel for how to hold/angle the device for best results. Don’t be discouraged if your accuracy is pretty close to nil the very first time you try it, as I reckon this is pretty normal. After a couple of hours, I was up to about 70% accuracy with it.
- When you first take it out of the box, the first thing I would suggest you do is switch the device from Automatic to Manual mode. In Automatic mode, when you try to scan, usually 1 of 2 things will happen 1) The CPen will beep at you and ‘Nothing read’ will apear on the screen or 2) The thing will simply stop trying to scan halfway across the line
- If you’re right handed, I would also suggest trying to scan from right-to-left
- If you’re visually impaired like I am, the Gameboy-like LCD may be hard to see, even with the contrast adjusted appropriately
- If you’re one of those people like I am who can’t go a highlighter in a straight line, don’t even reckon about getting this. Trust me, trying to use a bookmark or ruler is more distress than it’s worth, because the device is too wide for that. I have an eye condition known as a stigmatism where things ‘jump around’ if I stare too hard/long, so this greatly affected by ability to scan in a stright, smooth motion. I’d get about 3/4ths across the line, then the pen would drift so I would end up with 70% perfect text and 30% gibberish. But, if your eyes work better than mine, I don’t anticipate you’ll have this difficulty.
- Because of the above two difficulties, I chose to return mine. After I sent it back, my money was refunded in less than a week.
After reading all of this, if you are still considering trying it, I would suggest you do so. Since returning it is pretty much hassle free (you only have to fill out a small form on their website), you really have nothing to lose!
Fantastic scanner, terrible Mac support
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
As most other reviews have noted, the CPen 800c and 600c are fantastic devices. They work well, and with relatively high accuracy. The interface is a bit complicated at times, but is relatively intuitive.
But, as other reviews have noted, the CPen support and technical systems are terrible. One must even pay extra for a USB converter, as the CPen only comes with a ancient-fashionaed serial port link. Tech service is virtually non-existent.
Even more striking is the fact that there is nearly no Mac support. As much of the publishing/graphic design industry runs on Mac and Mac-friendly software, this seems counterintuitive. For example, there is no way to install any of the software and dictionaries if you are using any version of OS X; only earlier versions of OS are supported. Neither can one run CPen software using OS X’s classic environment. Second, the driver software is on mini-CD and therefore won’t even work in Mac slot-loading optical drives, rendering it impossible to load the software! Silly.
Overall, the CPen itself is a fantastic device for scanning text–perhaps the best yet. But its support systems and software are Stone Age at best.
CPEN has no TECH support
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
The CPEN promises to be an brilliant product. If you can get the support and extras needed to make it work. The CPEN comes with an European charger. So, go out and get a US/European adapter in order to charge it. The CPEN does not come with a USB connection cable. It comes with a 9 pin serial cable. So if you do not have a Serial Port, go out and spend $40.00 on a USB-Serial Converter Cable. Wait, not done yet.. If your computer does not have a USB-Serial Controller Driver then you still cannot use the CPEN. Ok, Call Tech Support.. Every time you call you will get answering services asking you to leave your phone number. So, it’s a “Don’t call us….We’ll call you,” kinda tech support. Call Customer Service/Sales…THERE! You get an answer, every time. They don’t answer with “CPEN USA, May I help you?” They answer the phone like any residential phone line with a simple one time, “Hello?” So, question if you reached CPEN USA to be sure you did not make a mistake in dialing your number.
I’m sending mine back. Tech support and customer service is key in any delicate, expensive product.
Tony
Fort Lauderdale
Brilliant scanner
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought this item, since I always make a lot of notes from books and other papers, and don’t want to type it in manually anymore. This scanner, probably like any other model, needs a small training to get it right over the paper, but once done, it really works and quicker than typing!
I dont use the addressbook or options with your GSM but they are no doubt very handy.
I just scan in from papers, and beam it to my laptop. Both Infrared and the cable work. The cable is especially fantastic for using the scanner ‘live’on the screen: the scanned text appears on the pc as you type!
The dictionary also comes in very handy.
It must be a very complex product, but just like the Ipod or ZenXtra mp3 players: they work!
So buy one and save some time! Brilliant and recommended for anyone that needs to make notes, or studies, or just wants to stop cutting out pages in newspapers in a train e.g.
Better than Wizcom QuickLink Elite
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I’m measuring, first and foremost, ease and precision of scanning. Speed of scanning and ease of installation on the computer are, in my mind, about the same for both the Wizcom QuickLink Elite and the C-Pen 800C. They differ sufficiently, but, in the primary question of ease and quality of scanning. For the record, I bought both at the same time, with the intent of keeping the better of the two. You can just go ahead and buy the C-Pen 800C.
I have had one horrible experience with a pen scanner by Siemens, the “Pocket Reader.” It was truly useless. It scanned so poorly that I just place it aside. By the time I though to return it, Siemens was no longer making it, and I couldn’t get customer service here in the U.S.
The Wizcom QuickLink Elite is not so terrible. It’s serviceable. I don’t reckon it lives up to its 95% accuracy guarantee, but perhaps meets a 90% threshold, measured impressionistically. It’s interface is also reasonable and satisfactory.
But, the C-Pen 800C is even more precise, truly approaching 95%. Moreover, if you discount errors in spacing from this accuracy percentage, its precision is even higher. Whereas the Wizcom is just as likely to make a content error, misread letters, etc., the 800C’s errors are more likely to be the absence of a space when there should be one. A rare missed space doesn’t make you puzzle over the text when you come back to it two months later.
C-Pen is also lighter, and it’s rechargeable, so while it’s more expensive, in the long run, you’ll save on batteries.
Both have comparable single-language dictionaries, though Wizcom has more built in or for free (C-Pen allows you one free dictionary, including bilingual ones). Wizcom is a only a bit slower on the uptake, but significantly more likely to warn you “Scan too quick.” I’ve never had that from C-Pen, and again, the precision at any speed is appreciably better with C-Pen.
Both have comparable PC and PDA compatibility capacity.
Brilliant Service and Product
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
As a research historian preparing for law school I found the C-Pen 800 invaluable. The only thing better than the pen itself was the customer service and care from the folks at Solutionworks. Especial thanks to Kevin for all the tech support for someone who is a technological barbarian (that would be me!)
The pen itself takes a bit of getting used to. At first I tried scanning very slow and deliberately; this was a mistake. The C-Pen likes a quicker scan rate across the page.
Using yellow highlighter really seemed to help, as did the calibration feature.
I personally preferred using the manual rather than the automatic trigger due to the curviture of the page in thicker books. In the automatic mode if the trigger lost contact with the page part of a word would be broken off. In manual mode I seemed to have greater accuracy. Likewise I found using it without the cord, and then transferring data to be quicker. The cord always seemed to be in the way, and at the speed that the C-Pen likes for accurate scanning it was a nuisance.
For someone who needs to extract key pieces of information quickly and conveniently this is a fantastic tool.
Doug
Careful! Like Making Like to a Porcupine
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I like this thing, but I despise its connectivity! Which is mostly either lacking or an immense aggravation. So, be very careful about how you plot to download your data, or you will end up owning a very nice and advanced piece of techno-junk.
Getting the hang of the way to scan with C-Pen takes about an hour’s practice, but it is well worth it. At first I couldn’t get the C-Pen to read anything and I thought I had just thrown $200+ down the drain. Then I learned a few key things: if you are right handed, scan from right to left—don’t worry, the pen will automatically transcribe from left to right. Also, I needed to develop a feel for when the automatic trigger was properly depressed, how to keep the eye flat on the page while moving the pen, and the necessity of making sure the page is flat (something of a bother at time with, for example, stout books.) I still have occasional mishaps, but the edit function makes quick cleanup and re-read easily possible.
The OCR is as excellent as I get from my HP flatbed and I have absolutely no complaints, reading from a variety of texts ranging from early 19th Century texts to inkjet documents. Like all OCR products, one sometimes gets amusing results. If one is merely taking notes, fine. If one wants clean text, some editing will be required.
But — oi-v-voi — the download problem is major. The factory product (I got mine straight from the USA distributor) will not work with Windows XP. The system simply does not recognize the pen’s existence. Technical support (Sweden) advised me to download a patch from their website. My desk top twice aborted attempts to download this patch in mid-installation.
Likewise, the C-Pen and my Palm Tungsten C are from different planets and will not connect via infrared. The factory’s not very helpful advice was to please be sure that I had the C-Pen oriented in the right direction. Duh-uh! I have no thought what to do about this glitch, which is a major aggravation.
I am saved by the fact that my office operating system is the ancient Windows 98 and I was able to connect via cable. Throught hat connection I easily and quickly download my scans into Word documents. The downside is that I do most of my work OUT of my office, either at home or elsewhere and it is an incovenience and delay to have to come in here to hook the Pen up.
The bottom line is that — knowing what I know now — I probably would not buy this pen unless I were sure I could sucessfully download from it. I was accidentally saved from owning apiece of useless junk.
Best scanner available
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I recently bought this model and could not be more pleased. I was previously a C600 owner and also have the Iris Pen Executive.
The OCR is fantastic (98% accurate) and seems better than the C600 (although the recognition hardware is the same). The screen is the best and allows multiple lines to be viewed easily. The battery life is adequate and will get you about 2 hours of constant usage. The trigger at the tip of the pen is not that helpful and I keep it inactivated. It has a pretty excellent scan time and can keep up with normal highlighting speed. There is about a 1 second turn around (OCR) time between lines (not seen with the Iris Pen). The advantages of this pen over the Iris Pen is that the OCR will at least try to recognize letters (ex: h replaced by n) while the Iris Pen will simply give symbols (^^^^^^) which can make retyping notes tough.
I am not sure how it compares with the Wizcom products but I have looked at the Superpen and it seems more cheaply made. Also, based on the reviews of the Wizcom (alot of 1 and 2 star reviews) this seems to hold right.
This model is a bit expensive … and there may be a new model coming out in mid to late 2004.
Finally, I am not sure why Amazon does not carry this product as it is really at the top of its class.