Ambir Technology Inc - AMBIR Photo Scanner with PictureStudio Software - Black

This is an amazing photo scanner. I struggled to scan low resolution photos on my one year old Epson WF Pro 3820, but this is soooo much faster. I used to work on my computer while images scanned, but this scanner completes even 8x10 at 300 dpi in just a few seconds. This scanner is small enough to fit on my desk between my secondary screen so I can use my pull out keyboard. I don't even have to get up to scan and work on the images with the PictureStudio software. I would like more options to have sub Albums for the photos.

Recently lost sib and had many photo albums to share with other siblings. This was perfect! Just made folders and emailed to everyone. Not a dry eye in the house. Very easy to use and picture perfect! Can’t wait to scan all my own old photos and get rid of those crusty albums!

This scanner came with the cable connecting the device with the PC/laptop (no power cable included nor needed as the scanner is power by the laptop via the connecting cable. The cable is long enough to position the device even from some distance from the laptop. One end of the included cable has a mini USB ending (the one going to the scanner) and the other end is USB-C. Separately the USB-C to USB-A adapter is included. In addition in the included paper folder there are aligning sheets, the cleaning sheet and the clear plastic photo cover sheet to protect photos that might not be in a best shape. This protective sheet can accommodate up to 8 1/2 by 11 inch photos. There is no power on or off button, just by connecting the unit to the computer via the mentioned cable the unit powers up. You know that the unit is ready by the light on it in the top left corner. Also the software will confirm that there is a connection between the scanner and the laptop. In order to use the scanner the manufacturer provides the free software to be downloaded from their site. The software seems to be robust if it comes to editing the scanned images, with several filters to change the color theme of the photo. It also allows for more advanced corrections like exposure, white balance, saturation, brightness and so on. You can change the aspect ratios into several common presets, resize photo manually, add a tag to it. If it comes to the scan parameters you can select either 300 or 600 dpi, color or gray scale, choose file type between jpeg, png and bmp. Also you can select to either start the scan automatically once you load the photo into the scanner or manually from the software. You can select either one sided scan or on both sides. Scanning a 4 by 6 picture on 600 DPI took about 11 seconds to complete, on 300 DPI about 4 seconds. If it comes to sending the captured image files into other locations than the software folder itself (more about it later), the options are Facebook, Pinterest, Dropbox, Google Drive and Photos, Flickr and Microsoft OneDrive. Personally I have decided against using this feature due to privacy concerns, as the permissions require agreement that their PictureStudio not only has my login credentials but also access to all files there with ability to create and delete any files there. Not for me. What I decided instead was to send the pictures to a select folder on my laptop and then from there copy and paste them to the cloud myself without the software getting involved. And here we had a small hiccup. When you scan photos the images will be saved within the software itself. You cannot tell the software to send the images to the folder outside of the software. For me it was easy to overcome. First I created a new destination folder within the software with a unique name, then I used the search within Windows to locate it, subsequently created a shortcut to it on my desktop and from there I could grab all the new images and copy them and paste them to any cloud location at will. If it comes to scanning, you need to put the picture into the tray with the image facing away from you and upside down in order for the new image to come up properly. If you forget to put it in upside down you can then flip the image within the software after the scan is completed. Once you put the photo into the tray from the top the scanner starts working automatically pulling the photo in. There is no need to align the picture ideally in the center, even if you insert the picture on the side the result will be the same. Also, there is no need to put it in ideally straight. I purposely put it crooked to the side to see what happens and the image came out straight with no cut outs. The reason the image comes out straight with clear cut lines is the software feature called Auto Crop/Deskew. It works very well but in my experience it somewhat changes the actual ratio of the photo by squeezing the image from the sides slightly. The result is that the faces are slightly more oval than they actually are on the real photo. If you disable this Auto Crop/Deskew feature then you will get the right proportions but will have to manually crop each image on both sides. You can only load one photo at a time. The top left light will tell you when you can insert the next photo (light off means busy working, green light means ready for the next photo). I was able to scan about 50 pictures in one load with no hiccups and all images loaded properly, the scanner did not get stuck. For my needs, meaning scanning thousands of old pictures into the image files, this scanner will do the job. It works properly, no need to worry about the inserted photo alignment, the images come out right (except that minimal squeeze from both sides, which I think I can live with). The quality of the images is decent and really dependent on the quality of the scanned photo. Once I move the scanned images to my cloud I can use other more sophisticated tools to make any necessary image adjustments.

With iPhones and Digital Cameras dominating the photography landscape these days people rarely take the time to print photos anymore. But I’m sure if you ask someone, they will tell you they have collections of photo albums or printed photos still at home waiting to be archived and digitalized. If you’re reading this review, it’s probably because you are wanting to do exactly that, take all your old family photos and put them on a computer to preserve them. But when most people think about scanning photos, they think of a slow, tedious process. Enter the Ambir Phot Scanner, a powerful photo scanner with included photo editing software to help simplify the process of digitizing your old photos. Initial Setup was straightforward and easy. The scanner comes with instructions in a folder that are very clear and concise. I think even if you aren’t a tech savvy person this setup will be stress free. You initially download software from their website and install it, it will prompt you to connect the scanner and finish installing the import and editing software. It will then have you insert a calibration card that is included in the setup folder. Once that’s done settings will pop up. I chose JPEG format, but they have PNG, BMP, and PDF. I also changed the DPI to the max of 600. There are also options to do Auto Scan and Auto Enhance, Reduce lines and streaks, import in color or grayscale on each import and then other options to clean and calibrate the machine. You also have the ability to link different social media accounts like Facebook and Instagram to easily share your photos. Importing the photos into the scanner is hassle free. You simply place the photo top down facing the scanner and off it goes. It takes about 5-7 seconds to scan the photo and another few seconds to finish the import. You can do another scan as the import is finishing so if you have a lot of photos, it cuts down on the overall scan time. I tried to find as many “bad” photos as I could. I scanned older photos, washed out photos, and off color photos to really test the scanners capabilities. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the scanner. I have an older photo of my grandfather that scanned perfectly. Once imported there’s some different tools you can use to enhance the photos such as color restoration, auto enhance, filters, red eye removal, auto dust/noise removal, and colorization along with exposure and brightness and sharpness type settings. The colorization tool is useful for very old photos, it uses AI to colorize the photo and bring it to life. I’ve included an example of the colorizing in my review! It does mention this feature is a work in progress and will likely get even better as further updates to the software are made. It’s worth mentioning that I am a professional wedding photographer and I have extensive photoshop and editing experience so I have high expectations when it comes to post processing software. With that said this software does a good enough job of allowing the average user to manipulate color and different settings but is limited in fixing flawed or damaged older photos. For example, with my Grandfathers photo there’s no way to reduce the cracking or spots in the bottom of the photo. That’s something that’s easily fixed in Photoshop. But if you’re looking to just enhance and clean up your photos this software does a great job. Most people that will be buying this type of scanner will probably have a lot of photos they want to import and organize. The software has some great options for Batch Tagging during import to quickly put the photos exactly where you want them to go. You can also create tags for location, people, and dates and easily search through your albums to find the photos you’re looking for! There’s also the ability to backup photos automatically to the cloud. I have Dropbox, linked my account, and now the photos backup to my account every 24 hours. Overall, the Ambir PhotoScanner is a great solution for anyone who wants to quickly be able to digitize their old photo collection. The scanner is high quality and efficient and the software is easy to use and straightforward without being overwhelming. I highly recommend it!

When I saw this and looked at the reviews, I had to try it. I have had several scanners over the years and tried at times to digitize my old non-digital photos from years ago. I have never been happy with any of those options. Even the older ones with the feeder vs. the flat scanners never really seemed to work well at all. Enter the Ambir Photo Scanner, it’s a reasonable sized unit and out of the box could not be simpler to install and setup. You first pick your system to use for it. I have a small desktop mini PC that I do love but also have a newer Asus Zenbook that I love and it has a 1TB SSD on it. I decided to use it because the portability is very advantageous. The nice thing is this is a single cable that plugs from the scanner to the USB-C on the Asus. So I literally can quickly move this anywhere I need it. For example, I started in my den, just sitting on my couch scanning pics but quickly picked up and moved to our dining room when some of the family showed up. Now, out of the box, the first thing you do is go to either the Google or Apple store and download and install the PictureStudio Software. This was super simple and easy. Once installed, it will have you plug in the scanner so that the software can find the scanner as it’s installed. Again, this worked without issue at all. Once installed, it will ask you to calibrate the scanner. The scanner comes with a very nice folder/packet which has calibration sheets that you will be asked to feed one into the scanner and it uses it to calibrate it. There are a few more pieces that I haven’t used yet, so they seem to give you adequate supplies. One thing that would have been helpful would have been a quick video to show exactly how to quickly start scanning, setup of an album, etc. It is intuitive to do but I can see where someone not used to doing this type of work would struggle a bit. The software is powerful and very functional and even intuitive as I have mentioned. I played around with it a bit at first but then realized that I needed to go into the settings on the right hand side and setup my defaults as I wanted, for example, I changed the DPI from 300 to 600 which increases the resolution but also the size. After scanning a few 4x6 pictures, and then editing them (cropping, rotating), I learned you can enhance the picture on the right-hand side of the app by adjusting the Exposure, White Balance and Saturation. This is very helpful for older pics (I was doing some 30+ year old pictures). A tip that I figured out was that the faster method is set up one or more albums based on the group of photos you are going to scan (I did by people), then just scan the photos in. It will allow you scan the next as it is still processing the last one. Scan a bunch of photos in and then go in and do an edit on each if needed. Once done, then you can “select all” and then put them all into an album that you select. This is key because this is where the real value of this Ambir Photo scanner comes in. For the first time ever with a photo scanner device, I honestly felt like I could move many photos in a short period of time and again, this is where the value of this device is. So other features of this device are that you can leverage are ability to move to many different cloud options such as email, Facebook, Pinterest, Dropbox, Google Drive, Flickr or OneDrive. I am choosing to ensure that Google photos and Amazon Photos will backup and copy those new folders that PictureStudio creates for my albums. That way I have them double backed up in both clouds and now these 30+ year old memories will now be preserved forever. Priceless. I would highly recommend this to anyone. The software is solid and works and my hope is that it will only get better over time. Regardless, this was an excellent purchase and will serve to preserve many precious memories.