Customer Ratings & Reviews

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.

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.

If you have a lot of old photos that you’ve put off digitizing, the time has come to tackle that task with the help of the Ambir Photo Scanner. In the short time that I have had this photo scanner, I have been nothing but impressed with it and its included Picture Studio software. The scanner scans photos mind-blowingly fast and the software processes them quickly as well. I love that the software has an “auto-scan” option, that if left on, the scanner automatically scans any photo placed in the feeder. The speed of the scanner and software paired with the auto-scan feature make it so you can feed one picture right after the other, allowing for many photos to be scanned in a very short amount of time. The Picture Studio software included with this scanner is of enormous benefit to the user. I was very impressed by the amount of editing features it contains. The software automatically makes initial adjustments to the scanned photo, which is a feature that can be turned off but I found it to do a very good job so I choose to leave it active. After the initial adjustments were applied, I only had to make small adjustments to further improve the appearance to my liking. There are several AI editing tools included with the software too. One of these tools is the colorization tool which takes black and white photos and applies colors to them. It’s not a perfect tool, but it does a pretty good job and it’s a really fun feature to have. The other highlights of the software is its ease of use and the included photo organization features. The only slight disadvantage I found with this scanner is that its compact size means that you are limited to scanning photos no larger than 8.5” in width. For me, 99% of the photos I scan are under this size limit so it’s not a huge issue for me. I do have some very old photos that are glued into paper frames that will have to be scanned with a flatbed scanner, but again, this is only a minor inconvenience. The only complaint I have with the software is how the saved photos appear when accessed outside of the software. The folders created within the software are saved on my computer as well, which is super nice, but I noticed that the folders on my computer show ALL saved versions of edited photos, rather than just the final edited version. Additionally, when I rename photos in the software, the name change doesn’t transfer to the computer file. It’s possible that there is a setting feature that corrects these issues, I just haven’t figured it out yet if so. Lastly, I would like to make a point to acknowledge the excellent customer support provided by Ambir. Incredibly impressive. When I first set up the scanner and software, the software wouldn’t recognize the scanner. I tried troubleshooting the issue myself, with the help of the company’s online FAQs and tips, to no avail. I submitted a request for assistance through the website late in the evening and received an email the next morning from a customer support member. After I responded to their email, they immediately called me and quickly resolved the issue I was having in less than 3 minutes. (They had to remotely reprogram aka “flash” the scanner.) The customer support member was extremely polite and helpful, and I honestly cannot recall the last time I have had that exceptional of an experience with a company’s customer support staff.

This is a great scanner for digitizing old photos. It scans quickly, the scans look great, and they’re easy enough to edit and organize in the PictureStudio software. The box includes the scanner, a USB cable, and some calibration and cleaning sheets. The scanner has a Mini USB connection and includes a Mini USB to USB-C cable, as well as a USB-C to USB-A adapter. The scanner construction is pretty basic and the only moving piece is the front cover that I assume is for clearing jams. Photos load at the top and the scanner can accept sizes up to 8x10. The PictureStudio software is downloaded from their website and is the primary interface for the scanner. It enables the scanning and has some basic editing capabilities built in. I had originally tried to install this software on my Surface Pro 11, but was not able to get it to recognize the scanner and I suspect it’s due to an incompatibility with Windows on ARM. So I moved on to another laptop and was able to install the software and recognize the scanner without any issues. The software is nothing that special, but it does allow you to scan photos quickly with its autoscan setting. Loading photos into the scanner is simple and doesn’t require you to be too careful with the placement to get a good scan. I was generally happy with the quality of the scans and only occasionally had to rescan. Scanning a photo takes about 10 seconds and the scanner doesn’t bend or damage them. Photos are automatically stored in your Pictures folder on Windows and can be organized into albums and tagged in the software. You can also connect the software to various cloud services and export them there, though I was not able to find a way to set any folder paths either locally or through the cloud. I can forgive most of the flaws in the software because the main thing it does for me, which is scan and save photos, it does really well and I can take those files and organize them however I want anywhere else. I don’t have much else to say about the Ambir Photo Scanner other than it does a great job at scanning photos and has just okay software, but overall the scanner is what you’re here for and this lets you digitize a lot of photos in a short amount of time. I’d definitely recommend it to anybody with a lot of old photos they’re looking to preserve.

This is a reasonably priced photo scanner that does exactly what it is designed to do and does it well. It looked great on my desk. There is no power switch. I used the supplied USB cable to connect to the scanner to my Mac Mini. When I did, a bright blue LED on the device let me know that I was getting power. I then downloaded the Mac Picture Studio software for my computer (Windows and Mac versions are available, of course), and ran through the set-up routine which took a few minutes. The software found my computer and allowed me to calibrate the device in order to print photos. You have the option of telling the software where to store your scanned files and the format you choose to use. I chose .jpeg, but .png, .bmp. and .pdf are also available. I had a shoebox of 4 x 6 prints to run through, and I must say that I am amazed at how quickly I could scan them in and have the resulting files ready for review and manipulation. Of all the ones I scanned, there was one stubborn print that had no obvious wrinkles or defects, but which skewed to one side every time it got pulled through the scanner which resulted in a skewed .jpeg. I finally got it to go through. Every other print I tired, went though the scanner perfectly. I had some that were smaller than 4 x 6 which scanned without issued, but did not have any 8 x 10 prints to test. The scanner can physically handle a print that large, if you have them. The Picture Studio lets you crop and manipulate exposure as well to make older prints look more acceptable. This software might not have been meant to replace some of the well-known professional and semi-professional editing software, but I submit that it was great for touch ups and minor corrections. The ability to tag people makes it handy to locate photos at a later date. The software also offers to load your scanned photo directly to social media. I did not use that feature out of privacy concerns. I did have one practical problem that the Picture Studio could not help me with. Few of the prints had the date recorded on the back, and left me guessing. I was surprised that we had not written the date on the back of these prints when they were made, and some of them were over 30 years old. The Picture Studio can help, however, in organizing the photos after the fact by adding tags and sorting by event. You will still have work in front of you to find and organize your aging prints, but this scanner and software make the process a whole lot easier, and faster. Time is money. Highly recommended!

I’ve scanned many photos using a flatbed scanner, but the process is less than ideal. You have to make sure you keep the glass spotless, and lining up and scanning each photo just takes too much time. For these reasons, I was interested in the Ambir Photo Scanner. It’s a sheet-fed scanner, similar to a document scanner, allowing you to load a photo into the feeder and automatically scan it into the included Picture Studio software. Setup is easy. It begins by downloading and installing the software from Ambir’s website (.Net Desktop 8.0 is required). Once this is complete, you are prompted to connect the scanner. Next, insert one of the included calibration sheets into the scanner. A few moments later, you’re ready to start scanning your photos. There are lines on the back of the scanner to indicate where you should place your 5x7 or 4x6 photos, but photos of many different sizes are supported. Available resolutions are 300 dpi and 600 dpi. This is usually sufficient for old family photos, but isn’t high enough if you’re looking for professional tool. Insert the photo face down, then click the scan button in the software. The scanner can also be set to automatically start scanning when it senses a photo being placed in position. The software is simple, but does provide some good options for enhancing your scanned images. The license for the software is authenticated by connecting the scanner, so it’s not possible to use the software on its own without at least connecting the scanner when you start up the software. Photo editing options include exposure, white balance, saturation, brightness, contrast, sharpening and blur. There are also a number of pre-set filters included, such as vivid, warm, cool, etc. You can remove red eye, dust and scratches, or change the tint and color levels. Overall, the software provides a decent set of tools for making basic changes and improving your photos, but it’s not a replacement for a full-featured photo editing package. Once you’re finished making changes, clicking “save” brings up the choice of output formats, but selecting one doesn’t bring up a button to finish the process. You’re left wondering how to make it save, only to find out that the file has already been saved. Once you know this, it’s okay, but there should be some confirmation of file operations. The software has a bit of a quirky user interface, but you get used to it quickly and can find your way around. I wasn’t expecting to get bundled software on the level of Adobe Photoshop, so my main interest was more in the hardware as a tool to provide an easy and fast way to digitize my piles of old photos. Unfortunately, almost all of my photos feature a glossy finish, and that finish turned out to be something that didn’t work well with this scanner. The scanner uses a rubber roller to grip the photo and pull it down and across the camera lens. It does just fine with photos that have a matte finish, but on glossy photos it does not pull the photo through evenly, resulting in skewed, distorted images (sample attached). There is also an included plastic sleeve, called the carrier sheet, that is meant to be used for photos that may be too damaged or fragile to scan on their own. This can be used for scanning glossy photos, but I sometimes had trouble getting the carrier sheet to feed correctly as well. Cleaning the roller with alcohol seemed to correct this, and the carrier sheet worked well after that, so the carrier sheet does seem to be an option. Ultimately, though, I have a large collection of glossy photos, and having to load and unload the carrier sheet for every photo would be much slower than being able to feed the photos through one right after the other. I want to give kudos to the team at Ambir. In addition to the issues with the feeding of photos, I also had trouble with the drivers for the scanner which rendered the software inoperable. I contacted Ambir for support, and I must say they were wonderful to deal with. They were very responsive to my emails, and then put me on the phone with a technician. They quickly shipped out a new unit the same day. They were trying to determine if the original unit was defective, and although I don’t think it was, I was very impressed with the level of service. They also sent me a pre-release update to the software that corrected my issue with the drivers, so I was able to run the software again. This kind of service is rare these days, and Ambir should be commended for providing such good service! Is this the right solution for you? If you’re scanning photos with a matte finish and don’t require a lot of complex editing, then yes, this would be a good solution. If you’re like me, however, with loads of slick, glossy photos, then this is not the ideal way to go. The Ambir Photo Scanner is reasonably priced and with a good set of features, but for me its most basic function doesn’t work well enough to meet my needs, and thus I can’t recommend it.

First off, let me say that if you currently do not have any type of scanner or photo editing software, then the AMBIR photo scanner will probably be all you'll ever need as long as you aren't doing large batches of scans. That being said, I got this because I have a HUGE scanning project ahead of me and I was hoping that this would help speed up the process, but I don't think it will. My father-in-law died a few years ago and my wife and her brother were the only living relatives here in the US. Her brother was still a young guy and didn't want all the photo albums and said he would never care about them. Well, fast forward almost ten years and he's now married and has two boys and would like photos to show his kids. His death also really drove home to me the absolute waste that comes with cleaning out a life's worth of stuff. I want to streamline our own photos so that when we pass, no one is left with a metric ton of photo albums (which are horribly bulky and heavy). I would like to make digital archives that I can distribute to family and friends and it won't take up any more than an external hard drive. I have a scanner at home built into my printer but it is not the best for photos. I used to have a flatbed scanner dedicated to photos but even that would have been a pain. The AMBIR Photo Scanner seemed to be a better way to speed up the process with automatic feed/scan and digital correction. In practice over the last few days, it has been just as much of a pain as my dedicated photo scanner would have been, and the software is not up to what I was hoping. Let me go into a few things I like and don't like about this scanner. Good: 1. Picture Quality: Better than the scanner built into my multi-function printer, but not better than my dedicated photo scanner at the same settings. 2. Software: Easy to use with dedicated buttons for red-eye removal, auto-correction, adding color/tone, and framing to the photos. It also makes it easy to upload your projects to a ton of different online repositories. You can also easily tag individuals in your photos if you want to make them searchable for specific people. Could be a valuable tool for someone who needs that function. 3. Compact: Doesn't take up a lot of space on my desk and allows plenty of room for stacks of photos to be ready to be scanned, and to collect after scanning. Also, with its single cable for power and data, you don't have to worry about cables going everywhere. Don't Like: 1. Single Scan At A Time: I don't know why, but when I was initially looking at this scanner I got it in my head that I would be able to drop a stack of photos into it and it would scan away, but I was wrong, and that's on me. That being said, the fact that you have to drop each photo individually into the scanner, even with the auto-scan feature on, makes this not much better than placing a bunch of photos onto a flatbed scanner, or better yet, having a scanner that will feed from a stack. 2.. No Guides: The other problem with the feeding mechanism of the scanner is that there are no guides like you would see on other printers/copiers. Now the scanner doesn't seem to be all that picky about getting the picture in the exact center but with the auto-scan on, the scanner has repeatedly pulled the picture at an odd angle. Now the software seems to do a pretty decent job of straightening things out for the final image but I've noticed that when it has to auto-rotate like that, artifacts tend to pop up in the photo. 3. Initial/Post-Processing Quality: Like I said in the intro, if you don't have ANY other scanner or photo editing software, or the skill to use a dedicated photo editor, you will probably be fine with the results from the AMBIR system. I used to be a semi-pro photographer and while I was not going for super fine resolution and the ability to enlarge photos, I WOULD like the photos to be relatively free of artifacts on the initial scan. If the scans aren't clean from the start, you either need to run them again (which sometimes does help with the AMBIR system), or you are stuck with photos that are probably not going to take editing well. While the software that AMBIR packages with the system is serviceable, it is not up to the quality that can be achieved with a dedicated image editor. And while I was impressed at how well the software removes red-eye and can even use AI to colorize a photo, again, if the base image isn't the best, then neither will the final image. If fact, there were a lot of times (probably more than half) when the auto-enhance was noticeably worse than the original. Conclusion: If you have a ton of time on your hands and aren't looking for super fine quality in your scanned images, then this system will probably help you out. If you were hoping for something to speed up your workflow and you have more than a passing ability with photo-editing, you will probably be disappointed in this system.

If you have a lot of print photos and want them digitized and organized, the Ambir Photo Scanner and PictureStudio software bundle is a great place to start. I'm going to talk about the scanner itself first and then discuss the bundled software. The scanner is a little less than half the size of a typical home inkjet printer. the feed tray accepts and scans photos of all sizes up to 8.5 inches wide, even though the markings on the tray make you think it may be limited to 4X6 and 5X7. The unit is powered by a reasonably long micro-USB to USB-C cable, though it comes with a USB-C to USB-A adapter. The scanner features resolution up to 600 DPI and an automatic single-photo feeder (both of these are in the software's settings menu). There is no ejection tray, so when a photo is finished being scanned, it is just spit out of the bottom of the unit. Scanning 4X6 photos takes only a few seconds, and the unit is very quiet while scanning. In this review, you'll see with the attached images that I scanned many types of photos--from Polaroids to photos from the early 1970s. Note that the scanner does not scan film or slides--a different Ambir scanner is required for those media. Setting up the scanner was hit and miss. I downloaded the software from the PictureStudio website, but my AntiVirus software pegged it as potentially harmful. After disabling the AntiVirus temporarily, the installation continued. When running the PictureStudio software for the first time, it requires that the scanner is plugged in. However, the software would not recognize the scanner. That was odd, since the device showed up in my Device Manager without errors and other photo editing software could access and use the scanner. I contacted Ambir's support team and they were in touch within 24 hours. With a short phone call, they reflashed the scanner through a remote session and then everything worked as it should with the PictureStudio software. Note that to activate the license for the PictureStudio software, the scanner is required to be plugged in, but after that, it is not needed. There is no need to take up desk space with the scanner if you are only using the software for photo editing and not using the scanner. The quality of the scans is fantastic. The unit automatically identifies the size and crops / straightens the photo if it is fed in crooked, and (for older or torn photos), there is an included transfer sheet to protect them. For pictures that have borders (Polaroids, etc.), the border is maintained. In the images I have attached to this review, you will see the actual printed photo and the result of the scan side-by-side. You will also see the touched up photos printed on photo paper using the PictureStudio software, also side-by-side. I was impressed at the color enhancement of the photos in digital form--what a difference from the printed originals! The software for photo editing is pretty easy to use. It has a good number of filters and enhancers that are intuitive. Some are automatic, some are manual. For the "very red" photo, the auto enhancers and colorizers did not work very well, so I did the modifications manually (specifically exposure and saturation), which resulted in a much better end product. In the attached images, you can see the difference between the AI-enhanced result and my manual result. It seems to me the AI-enhanced result focused too much on restoring "peachiness" to faces rather than balancing the color correction / addition for the entire photo. The software also has a pretty easy method to organize photos into albums and to tag people / items / pets in the photos. I would recommend downloading the 30-page reference guide from their website, as it is simple to follow and get a basic idea of the main features of the software and how to use it, including constructing slide shows and collages. The software also allows you to import existing digital images (from your device or some cloud services), enhance them, and then save them in the album structure you desire. It also accommodates sharing with email and some cloud services. Files are by default saved in your Pictures directory (Windows). I do like that the software saves both the original scan and the final product in the file system. I show that in one of the attached images. However, the software does not allow me to rename the file in the software unless I do a purposeful export. Overall, I was impressed with the scanner and software suite. The scanner is reasonably fast and flexible, and produces initial digital images that are quite an improvement over the original prints. The software is intuitive to use and has all the basic and intermediate features expected in a photo editing package for those of us looking to preserve old photos.

Ambir Technology Inc - AMBIR Photo Scanner Summary: A basic photo scanner that does a job. Use: We have stacks upon stacks of old photos. I once tried digitizing them using my various MFC devices. They work well, but they are slow. Many just aren't designed for high volume scan operations of non-letter sized objects. That's okay. I had hoped this unit would make short work of these various stacks. It will undoubtedly do that, but really only with marginal time savings due to the terrible software. This unit also supports various cloud targets for direct photo uploading and storage. However, it does seem to require more expansive permissions than I'd like to grant so I opted not to test this feature. This decision was solely based on the impression the software gave me (see cons, below). Would I recommend this? Probably not. It's one of those devices that borders on expensive and cheap for what it does. I think it was a nice concept, but the execution is poor. Pros: * Functions. The device does what it says it will do. * Simple. A scanner and a cable. I don't think it can get simpler than that to connect. * Simple. This unit definitely scans photos faster than my regular multi-functional printer/scanner device. It's not just the speed of the scan, but also the number of maneuvers required to get the photo placed. * Light. The unit is light. For what it does, it's no surprise. But it is a snap to move wherever you need. * Cloud capable. This unit supports many of the populate cloud stores for data: Google Drive, One Drive, Flickr, Pinterest, and Dropbox. Cons: * Software. The software is terrible. I should have been concerned when the unit's software required a direct download from the vendor site versus being available from the Windows Store. The software is frequently unresponsive. Sometimes you can scroll through settings, for example, sometimes you can't. Some interface elements are clickable while others are not and there isn't an indication of when/which/why so you just fumble around until something works. Examples: moving a photo from the Inbox to an Album doesn't always work. Modifying an image using available toolkit (filters, etc.), may or may not work. While it can work, at this price point I expected a much more polished UI and, at the very least, a consistently functional one. * Controls, or lack there-of. Perhaps the unit is too simple. I'd have appreciated a physical "scan" button to be able to press. The auto-detect feature works, but not 100% reliably. The software is even worse. * Single Photo. No multiple photo scanning option. I had hoped with the bulk, that this unit would be able to scan a small stack of photos. Nope. You must scan each photo individually. * No guide rails. The top-side feeder doesn't have adjustable rails you can move in-and-out to adjust for picture size. There are just painted on guides. The scanner seems to work okay and the software does allow for the adjustment of angle/skew, but rails would undoubtedly made such corrections unnecessary. * Size. Though particularly huge, it does seem unnecessarily large. I feel like the unit should be able to be collapsed when not in use. Instead, it has that triangle shape and occupies a lot of unnecessary visual/ storage space as a result. * Build-Quality. This is a double-edged sword. On the one hand the unit is light and portable. On the other, it feels so light as to border cheap feeling. Not sure what that means to most people. But I have concerns about the longevity of the single moving part this unit has as a result.

While the product itself is good, downloading the software took over an hour and I have the highest speed internet. Also, navigating the dashboard is a bit less intuitive than I'd like. Takes a bit to get the hang of it.

The Ambir PS-400 is a mixed bag as far as rating and usability. The scanner itself seems to be solid and functional, but the software is another story. That said I’ll address these issues separately. As mentioned, the hardware seems quite nice. It’s modest in size, well made. It’s USB powered by your computer using the included USB cable. I did find it surprising that it was USB C (with a USB B adapter) at the computer and a USB mini connection at the scanner. There are no controls on the unit. When you plug it in, it’s active and completely software controlled. You feed the pictures one at a time, and it’s comparatively accepting of photos with a little curl. It can be set to auto scan when a photo is inserted. Batch fed photo scanners often have feed and jamming issues with a stack of photos, so the single feed isn’t a negative to me. The software is PictureStudio by Ambir. You download it and install it on whatever computer(s) you wish to use, and it then asks you to connect the scanner. Once detected, the software leads you through the scanner setup including a calibration. This process went without and issues. If you’re used to other picture management and editing programs, the layout isn’t what you might expect. No typical menu ribbon. Instead, the various activities and functions are spread around but all on the home page. I suggest finding the User Guide download on the support page and reading through it. It will save a lot of searching around. A couple of instructional videos would have been a nice add. You can set file type (PNG, JPG BMP), resolution (300 or 600 dpi), auto enhance, auto feed, as well as maintenance, backup, and sharing options. There is no setting for where pictures are stored on your computer, but a bit of searching revealed that it creates a PictureStudio folder in your computer’s default Pictures folder. Any “Albums” you create are sub-folders in this location. There are several editing and correction features you can perform on a scanned picture, but there’s no batch setting. It's a one at a time process. What I found very unusual is that every scan produces two files. One is the original that the software never changes, and the second copy is one that gets revised with every edit. This is how the software can restore the file to original if you don’t like the changes. However, a restore goes back to this original. You cannot remove only the last change. This also means that there are always two versions of every scan. You’ll need to deal with this redundancy if you want to use other software to organize or edit your pictures. Considering this program is rather slow and lacks a good work flow, experienced users will probably want to use something else. You can access the scanner with other software. However, the features that make a photos scanner really useful like auto feed, auto crop/de-skew, scratch removal, colorization and such are not going to be available. My final take is that the scanner itself is solid, reasonably prices and deserves 4 stars. However, the software just isn’t there yet and I’d give it only 2 stars. Overall, I’ll just give 3 stars and hope Ambir improves the software. It may be fine for a novice only wanting to scan a few old pictures, but that's the extent of my recommendation.

Save your money and get the Epson bulk scanner if you have a lot of photos to scan. This scanner started malfunctioning after about 100 photos and would not evenly feed the photos through resulting in images that were unusable.

A few years ago, a coworker had the misfortune of a house fire. Even though insurance and donations helped her recover, her chief regret was the loss of family photos. Some of which had been in her family for generations. That lead me to consider the value of my family photos. I have half a dozen photo albums of my daughter alone. Albums that I intend to leave for her when I’m gone. This all lead me to consider buying a photo scanner to digitize those priceless photos. When this Ambia Photo Scanner became available, I jumped on it. Initially, I wanted to use this scanner with my MacBook Pro laptop, but my Mac would not allow me to open the file after downloading it. I got the error message, “Apple could not verify “PictureStudio_1.0.38.0.pkg 17-40-23-516.pkg” is free of malware that may harm your Mac or compromise your privacy.” Now, I’m sure the file is safe from malware, but as a rule, when my computer tells me not to open a file, I don’t open it. I know I can change my settings, but I have them set that way for a reason. So, I switched over to my Surface Pro 3. Setup took a little long, but after a while, it worked. As a suggestion, Ambia providing a downloadable app from the Appstore would simplify the process. The package contains: the scanner, a USB-mini to USB-C cable, a USB adapter and other ancillary items. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that type of cable before, and it’s not cheap to replace, so don’t lose it. A universal cable with standardized connectors one day would be nice. The scanner gets its power from your computer via the cable, so make sure you plug in your laptop or suffer fast battery drain. The scanner itself has a fairly large footprint. I don’t have the desk space to accommodate it full time, so I store it in the box when I’m not using it. The software is the real driving force behind this scanner. PictureStudio is a nice piece of software. I scanned my first photo, an 8x10 taken 45 years ago. I was pleasantly surprised how fast this scanner worked. At that speed, I can scan an entire album in short order. The software allows you to set Auto Scan or Manual. With Auto Scan, just place the photo in the scanner and it instantly begins the scan. Once the photo is scanned, a thumbnail of the photo appears in the software where you can do several things. My favorite is the ability to enhance the photo to improve the quality of faded photos. You can also set up digital albums. I use this feature to keep my daughter in her own digital album, and family events in another, and so on. You can also tag the people in the photos; rename each photo; and perform other editing tricks. This software, by no means can do what the more expensive photo editors can do, but for a bundled piece of software, it is quite impressive. Based on the speed and quality of the scanner, and the versatility of the software, recommending this Photo Scanner is a no brainer. The Pros far outweigh the Cons. You may not think you need one, but neither did I until I considered the loss of my priceless photo collection. Pros: Fast scanning speed Ability to enhance faded photos Auto scan feature Quality of scanned photos Ability to create separate photo albums Cons: Had an issue setting up the software on Mac Large footprint Non-standard connection cable

The Ambir Photo Scanner is a very nice scanner which makes preserving your old photos simple and convenient. The scanner comes with the unit, usb c cable and adapter, quick start guide, and maintenance kit. Setting up the scanner is rather simple. First, you download the software, then while installing the software, it will tell you when you plug in the scanner, which is just a single usb plug, no power cord, which is very nice. Then you go through a couple more steps, calibrating the scanner with the included calibration sheets. It's all very quick and the software walks you through each step. Once it is set up, scanning photos is very simple. You just insert your photo into the scanner, and depending on your settings, it will either automatically detect the phot and begin scanning, or you click the Scan button. Scanning a 4x6 photo take about 3 seconds at the default 300dpi resolution, or about 8 seconds at 600 dpi. You can only insert one photo at a time, there isn't like a batch job option or anything. The quality of the scans is very nice. And the software allows minimal editing. It does a decent job of auto enhancing, but I would definitely save any intense editing for a proper photo editing app. This app really gives you the bare minimum, and sometimes, it was difficult for me to tell if the auto enhance really even did anything. The software also allows you to tag and organize the pictures. It wants to be your "one stop" for organizing and editing your photos. However, I already have like 3 different "one stop" photo solutions on my PC, and they all seem to be better suited to the job of organizing than the Ambir software. So in the end, I think I'm going to stick to just using the software to scan my photos and then use other solutions to organize and edit. Getting back to the actual experience of using the machine, overall it works as expected. I tried a variety of different picture sizes. I even tried some old polaroids. Most did a great job. But I realized that most of my photos all had matte finishes. I came across a stack of old photos that were 3x5 glossy. I think the glossy finish made these photos harder to grip on to, because 9 times out of 10, the photo would end up going crooked about half way through the scan, ruining the scan. Ambir includes a transparent sleeve for something like this. It isn't explained anywhere in the instructions, but wading through the FAQs on the website, I found out that this sleeve is to protect delicate pictures while scanning, but can also be sued for glossy pictures that may have trouble scanning. Perfect, I thought. So I went ahead and tried it, and it worked just as described. The pictures went through the scan process perfectly this time with no slipping or turning. However, when reviewing the image in the software, the scanner picks up the entire 8x10 image, regardless of the size of the actual photo. For one or two photos, this wouldn't be a big issue, you just crop the photo and be done with it. However, if you have a large stack of photos, having to insert the photos into this sleeve, scan it, remove it, and then fuss with cropping it in software, you can see how it becomes much more time consuming. I just wish the scanner or the software were better able to detect when you are using the sleeve and automatically crop the image. This is really the only issue that keeps me from giving the Ambir a full 5 stars. Because for all other photos, it really did work exactly as expected and did a great job. Overall, I am very happy with this scanner. It makes preserving old photos simple. The software isn't the greatest for organizing and editing, but for actually using the scanner, it gets the job done. And you might have some trouble with glossy photos. But overall I am very happy with the performance and usability of the Ambir photo scanner. I would definitely recommend if you have a bunch of old photos you need to digitize.

I needed to digitize several hundred old photos and didn't want to pay the excessive cost of using a digitizing service. The Ambir Photo Scanner seemed like a good option for me. When I received the device, I was instructed to download the Ambir software in order to set up the device. When I tried to download it on my Mac, I received an error message that the software was not from and "approved" Apple developer. I contacted Ambir customer support and tried to resolve the issue. Their customer support team was responsive to my issue. It took a few back and forth eMail conversations but I was finally ablel to change a setting on my privacy & security settings. After the software download was successful, I was able to start scanning photographs. For the most part, this is a fairly straight-forward process of inserting a photo into the feed slot and the photo goes through the scanning process. I was glad to see that I could scan small photos as well as 8"x10" photos. Some of my 8"x10" photos didn't feed through the scanner properly. It seemed like the back of the photograph was too slick for the feed rollers to move the photo through the slot. I had to gently push the photo down as it fed through the scanner in order for it to scan properly. You can feed photos through one by one and go through the process of getting the proper orientation, cropping and enhancements, or you can feed several several photos through (one by one) and do the orientation, cropping and enhancements once the photos have been placed into the folder. I wasn't impressed with the UX of the software. It was not intuitive to figure out how to enhance photos manually as I didn't trust that every photo could be automatically enhanced. I created multiple photo albums but it also isn't intuitive on how you can upload new photos into a specific album. Every photo I scanned was placed in the first folder I created despite having a new album destination open for a new scan in the Ambir software. You can share photos with several different channels including eMail, social media, Apple Photos, iCloud and more. To share photos via the social media channels, extra configuration is required to do so. It's a pretty clunky interface in the software as it brings up small a window (e.g. the Facebook sign-on screen) where you have to enter your Facebook username and password. I understand that Ambir needs to do this, I just think they could develop a more elegant solution. I also haven't found a way to save the photos as a JPEG file vs the default PNG file. I'm sure there is a way, but it is not intuitive. Despite the technical and UX issues, I was able to scan over 100 photos in an afternoon. The quality of the photos seems good. I believe this will be a better solution than using the scanning feature on my printer.

The Ambir photo scanner and PictureStudio is a single photo scanner that can scan 300 and 600 dpi in to Jpeg, Bmp, Png. Plus you are able to create searchable folders. It has a small footprint so its good for those who don’t have a lot of space to start with. Build quality and feel is good. PROS: Makes backing up easy from 4x6, 5x7, 8x10. PictureStudio allows from some extremely basic adjustments. Searchable folders and tags on photos are a nice feature. Able to make slideshows with effects You can upload straight to email, or multiple storage sites. CONS: Pictures scan in Dark and over saturated, had to turn off auto enhance (on by default) Black and white photos scan in pixelated at 300 and 600 dpi. During setup unit kept pulling calibration card in sideways. Pictures tend to get pulled in sideways while auto feed is on, once off it was a little better. Picture quality not great at either 300 or 600DPI. Skin tones way off, most appear oversaturated even after using software to enhance. This unit, as I have said offers good backup potential, but don’t expect apples to apples scans. The software is very basic. You might be able to do better adjusting it a professional phot software, but that defeats the all in one purpose. You can only scan one pic at a time and have to use kid gloves with each photo so as to not get it crooked and have a bad scan. There are no guides to set pictures up for the scan feed just some marks on the scanner to set the picture. There should have been physical guides to ensure perfect feed and scan. This unit has potential but this model falls short of a great scanner, there are too many issues for me to give it a great review. Is it nice? kind of, but a major factor for me is the quality of the scan. I cannot recommend this model to friends and family.

I have been trying to archive my photo prints for the longest time but using a flatbed scanner was painfully slow. I’ve been looking for something that would scan quickly and would allow to speed up the process. The Ambir Photoscanner is here to save the day for anyone who can relate to the struggle I mentioned. First impression out of the box, it takes up much less real estate on my desk as opposed to my flatbed scanner. More space is always a plus for me especially since my desk already has limited space. Installation was pretty simple following the included instructions. Simply go to the website, download the version you need, either Windows or Mac, then plug in the scanner and install. The software interface is well designed with a nice easy to understand layout. I did see the software crash once when I attempted to delete a file the first time but have had no issues since. Scanning is a breeze and way faster than a flatbed by far. Simply place the photo facing in on the top of the feeder for the scanner and as long as auto scan is set which it was by default for me, the photo will scan and save. Very easy and fast. As for the included software, it does a decent job brightening and giving old photos more clarity. Don’t anticipate a full restoration because that won’t happen but the output from the scan will improve the image a bit. And it may take a few extra second but I recommend adding info to the photo such as a description and name so you can locate it at a later date. As someone with 1000’s of photos, I can’t stress this enough. The software makes it easy to do so take a few seconds to do it. Overall, I have not found anything I dislike about this scanner so far. It gives me the speed and quality I have been looking for and I am very happy with it.

I have been searching for a way to digitize my photos for the last decade. Nothing I have tried up until now has offered the ease of use and the time saving ability that this scanner provides. I wanted something intuitive, with high resolution, and that can get the job done fairly fast. It takes about 3 seconds a photo at 300 dpi. The Ambir Photo Scanner checks all those boxes and more. I use this device in conjunction with my NAS and it is an incredible system. Of course you can use this with any cloud based photo album like Google photos, Dropbox, Apple, One Drive your choice. I really like the auto enhance feature. It seems to correct a lot of bad lighting and even attempts to upscale the video resolution the best it can. Set up is very simple and I was up and running and under 10 minutes. The scanner scans whatever you drop in the tray, even my old 80s Polaroids. Use this scanner to save some money converting all your photos from your physical albums to digital over the course of a weekend or so.