Upon initiating a scan, the LED flash goes off three times and the camera takes multiple shots at different exposures. The TopShot then selects and amalgamates the best parts of these pictures, creating a composite image. The thick glass bits on things like this necklace sometimes lacked detail. (Chad Sapieha for The Globe and Mail)
The scanning process takes less than 20 seconds, and matte elements, such as the body of a game controller came out nicely. (Chad Sapieha for The Globe and Mail)
The effective area of the scanning bed is only a little larger than a letter-sized piece of paper, and the camera hangs just 20 centimetres above it. (Chad Sapieha for The Globe and Mail)
The overhead camera does a decent job of capturing text documents and even blu-Ray cases, and you can easily scan several small items – like business cards – at once. However, it struggles with documents of greater visual complexity, especially photographs. (Chad Sapieha for The Globe and Mail)
I tried scanning several 4-by-6 photos at 300 dots-per-inch, the TopShot’s highest capture resolution, and the resulting files were grainy, pixelated and had mottled colours. (Chad Sapieha for The Globe and Mail)