Features:

  • The Flip-Pal mobile scanner is the world's original scanner for photos, large and fragile documents, and cherished memorabilia that does not require a computer to operate. Battery powered and stores files stored on an SD card.
  • Transform images into endearing stories. StoryScans software combines the recorded voice of the storyteller and the scan into a single file that is both small and High Definition. *Download and activation may be required.
  • Keep your memories safe using patented flip-and-scan technology. Fragile documents are treated safely on the flatbed rather than fed through a sheet feeder. Take the lid off, flip the scanner over, and use the window to frame the original.
  • All sizes, small to very large, can be scanned. The included EasyStitch software automatically reassembles multiple scans of larger originals such as portraits, art, documents, and quilts. Small objects such as coins and stamps have high detail.
  • Quick and easy operation. Just 7 seconds to scan 4 x 6" at 300 dpi. Simply turn the power on and press the green scan button. The software is stored on the SD card. Save hours of removing photos from their album. Do your first scan in minutes after opening the box
What a great product!

I read several reviews of the Flip-Pal on various sites. I started scanning old photos as soon as it arrived and the FlipPal is as easy and as great as everyone said it was. My dad was a tail gunner in England in WW2 and kept a mission diary. I am putting together a book of his experiences by incorporating his photos with his text. Many of the pictures were faded, but the color restore feature made them much easier to see. The "stitch" feature is amazing. By making several scans of a large photo, the easy to use program "stitches" them together seamlessly. It helps to leave a good size border around the multiple scans so it makes a crisp edge on the final picture. I will watch to see if this company makes any other products in the future because this one is amazing.

Great portable scanner

I purchased the Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner to help with a photo scanning project for my grandparents' funeral. And while I was familiar with the product previously I was amazed at how simple it made scanning photos. I have yet to try the stitching option for photos but for smaller photos the one touch button scanning was super fast. I had recently purchased a new printer previous to buying this and it was taking forever. I love also that it gives you a preview of the photo. And while the preview is so small you cannot see definition of the photo it makes it nice to tell if you have the photo at least straight. I also have a wand style scanner but the Flip-Pal beats it hands down! The fact that it came with the USD card with software loaded on the card was a great bonus as well. My only wish was it came with the protective carry case for a cheaper price. I recommend buying it separate on Amazon rather than buying the kit that contains the scanner and carry case. It would also be nice if the scanner came with an option to plug it in for power rather than just batteries. So word to the wise, carry extra batteries with you just in case. I was lucky enough to be at home where I had extras on hand. In its defense, though, the scanner did come with batteries and they did seem to last through most of what became an entire day of scanning. If you are looking for a fast portable little scanner you cannot beat the Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner.

Awesome Mobile Scanner - Hope for Larger & Higher Quality Options in Future

This works great for scanning photos when you are on the go. Greatly surprised with how easy it is to stitch several pictures together into one photo. Updated Review: I have scanned lots and lots of photos for my genealogy family tree. I love being able to take this on trips to see family members or to visit research facilities or churches. Many photos are old and delicate so I love not having to run photos through anything. I can place the scanner directly on the photo and scan without harming the photo. I wish I could buy a larger scanner - 5 x 7 or 8 x 10 to save on time having to scan the same photo numerous times. I also wish I could purchase a higher quality scanner. While the current product is great, I hope to see a new and improved version in the future. While I can easily scan several times and stitch the photos together fairly easily. It takes time to scan the photo several times. I have been disappointed on a few occasions to return and find out I did not overlap the photo very well and now have to make a lengthy trip back to get a new scan. Or sometimes a return trip may not be possible. I have brought this scanner on the road with me and love that it is light and enjoy the carrying case for it. Make sure to use the scanner cover to prevent light from getting to the photo. I have held the photo on the scanner with my hand and then found that I can see a shadow of my hand on the photo. Plus the light in the room negatively affects the photo. If you need to take the cover off and scan the photo face down, make sure to put something over the scanner viewer as the light will get to the photo and cause the scan to be of poor quality. I have put a black piece of construction paper on the back of it once I have the scanner placed on the photo.

Clarification on bottom glass - doesn't matter if dirty or scratched! (love my Flip-Pal)

Just recently got the Flip-Pal and am really amazed. So much faster than using a large scanner and just as good. Doesn't have to be on a table - I can hold it in one hand while I scan - thumb holding the lid firmly in place. There is a marked corner on the glass face for lining up the photo. Many reviewers have expressed concern about the bottom glass being exposed all the time and thus subject to fingerprints, dirt, and scratches. But good news - the bottom glass is NOT part of the scanning process, so nothing bad will happen if it is dirty or even scratched. It is there for one purpose only: to see through when using the Flip-Pal upside down. The only glass we need to keep clean is the one under the lid. The SD card is very sturdy, so there are no issues moving it back and forth. (And there is a usb converter if you need it.) Most of my photos are old and therefore small, so I haven't tried out the Stitch function yet. Very very happy with the Flip-Pal. Fyi, Windows Live Photo Gallery is a great default photo viewer and editor. It is a fast easy editor for Cropping and bringing old photos to life with Auto Adjust and sharpen (Adjust Detail), etc. The only feature missing is Straighten - I use Picasa for that. (It has been discontinued, but it is still possible to find a download file via google search.) Note, no matter which editor you use, when you are editing the .jpg file-type, pixels are lost each time it is edited and saved. It is advisable to do all the edits at one time if possible, so that too many pixels aren't lost in the Save process. (On the Flip-PaI I use 600dpi to scan, to have a pixel-rich image to start with. It is still fast, and you can lift the lid as soon as the image is complete, even if the scanner is still humming.)

Indispensable! Easy to Use, Good Quality Scans, Fast

Wow. I love this thing!! It works great - just as advertised. It is fast and the image quality is great. It is SO handy when visiting friends or relatives who have the old printed pictures - or when visiting newspaper archives or libraries. Genealogist NEED one of these. You don't have to use someone else's computer to scan or you don't need to borrow the pictures to take home and scan. I scanned about 50 pictures in a matter of minutes while carrying on a conversation with my cousin recently. The "stitching" technology is a bit slow, but it "stitches" the picture together amazingly well. I would only "stitch" when absolutely necessary or when you have time to "stitch" between doing other things. Overall, an OUTSTANDING device. I am SO glad I purchased this!!

Digitizing my old nrgatoves.

I am an amateur genealogist who wants to place pictures with the names. Upon discovering old family negatives I went looking for a scanner that could carefully digitize these items. The Flip Pal enables me to place the negative on a light table for scanning. Imaging software allows me to turn the negative image into a positive. It works so well that I now am contemplating scanning all our negatives to convert to digital images.

Comparison to flatbed scanner

Overall Rating: 9/10 What I was looking for: I was looking for a fast, convenient way to scan old family photos (both loose and photo albums -- over 1000 total). What I considered: 1) Epson Perfection 2450 Photo. This is an older legal-size flatbed scanner. Quality is superb. 2) Flashpoint personal 4x6 photo scanner. Cheap, scans directly to SDCard. However, these scanners are prone to horrible banding problems that (for me) render the scan useless. 3) Portable scanner (around $230-250 price range). These seem ideal for high-volume scanning, and I couldn't find any reports of the banding issues as seen with the cheap personal scanners. However, I chose the Flip-Scan because I will not have to remove the old photos from the photo albums and (very likely) damage some of the photos. How the Flip-Scan compares: As I already mentioned, it far surpasses the personal photo scanners. I then compared the scans against the Epson. I took several scans at 600 dpi on both scanner than then compared the photos at the pixel level. Resolution and detail were similar. The Flip-Scan appears to add just a bit of sharpening. The Epson appears to have a more muted appearance, but after color correction, it is very close to the scanned photo. The Flip-Scan scans are brighter, but colors are just a bit off. Not bad at all and only the a very discerning eye will see a difference. My wife and daughter preferred the Flip-Scan. Another bonus is that the Flip-Scan isn't as sensitive to scratches and dust and shows significantly less of both. However, the Flip-Scan introduces just a bit of "banding". This banding is actually very slight and really can only be seen at the pixel-level (remember, the photos were scanned at 600 dpi). Photos blown up to full-screen on my 1080p 46" television showed only the very slightest amount of "noise" due to this banding. Most people, myself included, would attribute it to the sharpening that the Flip-Scan applies (unless you have seen it at the pixel-level). Here are some photos for your comparison (copy and paste to your browser URL):[...] Overall, the scans are very, very good and more than suitable for archiving your photos! Scan times: A 600 dpi scan takes about 15 seconds. I find that I can scan about 100-120 photos per hour (this includes switching out photos). Other notes: - The software on the SDCard was not the newest version. Not really a problem as I don't plan on using it much anyways. - The scans are not auto-cropped or rotated. However, if you have a bunch of photos of the same size, you could easily batch process this (shameless plug: IrfanView is free and the best image viewer I've come across). - The scanner is pretty resilient to motion while scanning. Lightly bouncing/shaking the scanner while scanning a photo did not result in any distortion to the scan. However, this would not be true when scanning a photo that is bigger than the workspace. Overall: I love the fact that I can scan directly to the SDCard. This makes for an easy, convenient workflow. I can easily sit on the couch in front of the TV and scan away! The scan are more than acceptable and the scanner is reasonable fast. I spend about as much time switching out photos as I do actually performing the scans.

This Scanner does exactly what it says it will!

What a great scanner! The first day I scanned 135 photos in less than three hours...and was taking my time. And all while sitting at my kitchen table! The scan is exactly the same as the original photo. All I've done so far is scan. I'm not sure I'll do anything else with it. Stitching is probably a bit beyond me. (You're looking at an 86 year old Old Lady here! Two small complaints: The enclosed batteries died after about 12 scans. The new ones I had are still fine, so it must have been the time they were in the camera while in storage. Also, I understand the reason for the type of on/off switch, but it's a nail breaker. I now use a strong paper clip to push the switch on or off. A push button there also would be a big improvement. You still get five stars!

Shockingly good. Far exceeded expectations.

Used this to make a digital copy of a Creative Memories style 12"x12" scrapbook. It took a couple practice runs to get the hang of it, but once I go t the hang of it, everything went smoothly, somewhat tediously, but smoothly. At 4 scans per page, it took a while, but it was well worth the trouble for the quality of the final output. The stitching logic it uses to create a single image per page is really phenomenal. I didn't see any artifacts. Every page looked like it had been scanned in a single pass. Highly recommended.

Awesome Product!

I saw the info on this in August at a Genealogy conference and wanted one immediately. I finally talked myself into waiting to see what the reviews were and all the "kinks" were worked out. All the reviews I read, both here and in other places were nothing but positive so I decided to take the plunge! I LOVE that the Flip-Pal is ready to go right out of the box! I was scanning within a minute of opening the package! I had 3 albums of pictures that I had attempted to scan at various times over the past couple of years but gave up because it was SO TIME CONSUMING--take them out of the album, line them up on the scanner (3-4 at a time), wait for them to scan, open the file up in Photoshop, align them properly, crop, name and save them, rinse and repeat! UGH! With the Flip-Pal, ALL I had to do was take off the cover, flip the scanner over onto the album, hit the button, and repeat for the next picture! The included USB adapter was a lifesaver I didn't even know I needed! Since I mainly shoot with an SLR that takes Compact Flash cards, I had forgotten that my SD card reader had stopped working. So after scanning all of my albums I went to load the pictures onto the computer and realized that I couldn't--I didn't have a working reader. JUST before I panicked, I suddenly remembered the little usb drive that I had so casually tossed aside when I opened the Flip-Pal--DUH! I was back in business in no time! I have used the stitch program on a 16x20 photograph that I scanned and it worked EXACTLY as promised! Since I have Photoshop, I will probably use its stitch function instead, but its nice to know that the included program works well (and I can use it when I'm away from home on someone else's computer). I have "sold" 3 of these to friends and family already and will continue to toot the Flip-Pal horn! I'm a shopper and this is my BEST PURCHASE in quite awhile! I hope they make a larger version soon!

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