Bookeye 4 V2 Review | A2 Book Scanner at Great Price in 2022

The Bookeye 4 V2 is probably the most popular book scanner currently available on the market. We have seen thousands of successful installations all over the world and if there is a large digitization project, most likely you’ll find a Bookeye 4.

We think this A2 format scanner is a great product, given the advanced capturing technology it’s using and also the competitive price. It works for just about all bound documents up to A2, and now you can also get the Bookeye 4 V3 Kiosk model, which is designed for A3+.

Models and options.

This scanner comes in 5 different setups:

• Bookeye 4 Office – These are the entry-level bound document capturing solutions for offices. It has a USB flash drive connected to easily save your documents onto USB sticks.
• Bookeye 4 Kiosk – Well suited to a library lobby where you can use it for walk-up book scanning. It works as a standalone device and files can be saved onto a USB stick or uploaded to an FTP server.
• Bookeye 4 V2 Pro – This scanner is designed to be used for entry-level book archiving. The hardware, software and other features, will let you reach unrivaled performances in digital book archiving.
• Bookeye 4 V2 Pro Archive – It’s identical to the PRO model but also includes a flattening glass. The software options are identical on both scanners.
• Bookeye 4 Semi-Automatic – The flagship model in which the flattening glass moves automatically up and down. An operator is required just to turn the pages.

All feature an identical scanning bed or book cradle, which can be opened at 180 degrees for flat documents, and at 120 degrees for V shape book scanning. The only exception is the Bookeye 4 Semi Automatic book scanner, which has a self-aligning book cradle.

Features

The book cradle of this scanner can be adjusted according to your desired needs. While it will sit comfortably at 120 degrees for more fragile books, it can be opened flat at 180 degrees and it can scan A2 documents such as maps or other large format or wide format paper. At that moment these scanners can be turned into A2 flatbed scanners, performing this task quite succesfully.

While the Bookeye 4 V2 starts as a manual scanner where the user only has to turn the page, there are upgrades to this model. You can even get semi-automatic Bookeye 4’s. In those cases, the scanner features a scanning glass that moves up and down automatically, while the user only has to turn the page.

Just like any other professional book scanners, the Bookeye 4V2 comes with a flattening glass. But there are a couple of things you should know before purchasing such a device. The first is that the glass comes as an option on the Basic, Office and Professional Versions.

The Professional Archive model has the V shaped glass as standard, but the operator will have to move it up and down. On the Bookeye 4 V2 Semi Automatic, that same glass is motorized and the user only has to turn the pages. As an option to any model, there is a special flat glass, for originals that need to be manually flattened at 180 degrees.

We would suggest using the low end models as wide format scanners, as the semi-automatic is more suited for production book scanning.

Technical specs

The Bookeye 4 Professional Book Scanner has a scanning area of A2+. This means that the books you will be able to scan can have a maximum of 18 in by 24.4 inches or lower. When you consider this size, please note that it means the open book size or flat documents that are up to this dimension.

If you look at the scanning speed, there are 2 values you should take into account. First, we have a fast scanning mode, which provides normal quality levels for 300dpi. With a scan time of 1.6s and around 4 seconds between cycles, you should be able to scan around 1200 pages every hour.

The other scanning mode is called quality and the scanning speed will increase to around 3 seconds plus another 4 between cycles. This will result in nearly 1000 pages every hour, which means that you can create a large digital library using this equipment.

As you would expect with a book scanner, the connectivity works through a Gigabit Ethernet connection, providing the highest speed in data transfer. While a lot of technical data is important, the gigabit connection is critical from our point of view and is more important than other elements.

Image Quality

This scanner will achieve a true 600dpi optical resolution. The scanner resolution is achieved naturally, without any interpolation. It really uses a sensor that is that big.

We like the fact that it has a linear CCD sensor that will provide better quality and a lot better color accuracy. This is a true scanner and not a scanning table with DSLR’s.

As we already mentioned, the scanner features a highly impressive CCD sensor, combined with advanced optics and mirrors, to provide great geometric accuracy and really even lighting.

The scan output gets to 24 bit in color and 8 bit in grayscale. The internal color depth is much greater, up to 48 bit in color and 16 in grayscale.

File Formats and Software

I love the fact that this machine has integrated software that has most of the options you will ever need in a book scanner. For more advanced users and requirements, the Batch Scan Wizard software is the one to go for. If you have your own scanning software, the TWAIN library will let you control the scanner directly from your software.

In the past, you could have bought the Opus Freeflow and maybe seem like a wise choice. Nowadays though, the integrated Scan Wizzard is enough for most projects, and where that won’t do, you have the Batch Scan Wizzard application which can do the rest. All of them do automatic cropping, deskew and most other operations you would expect from a good overhead book scanner.

Last but not least we have the file formats. You can create just about any type of image file, such as Tiff, Jpeg and a lot of PDF, PDF-A and multipage PDF versions. Based on the software you are buying, you can also get PNG, BMP or even Jpeg 2000.

Accessories and Options

When it comes to accessories, this machine features a lot of optional extra items that will help you with the scanning. The flattening V shaped glass or the flat glass will help you scan more difficult books. Then you have different optical resolution levels, and of course what we mentioned before, the semi automatic option.

As you probably know, book scanners are not small devices. But the Bookeye has a decent size, of around 30in by 40in by 30inches.

The weight is also relatively low, at 120lbs it is much lower compared to other rivals and products from other brands. Image Access has really nailed it here, considering the high level of scanning quality and the small form factor.

The basic warranty is 1 year, but please be aware that you should ask your regional dealer as this will be different based on legislation and other procedural aspects.