This is the fifth 3D scanner have owned over the past 12 years. It addresses all the limitations I had with previous scanners while being easy to use. Lots of options to maximize the quality of the scan while minimizing scan time for the wide range is objects we scan. The versatility is beyond what we had hoped for when we backed the kick starter project

THREE is a powerhouse, plain and simple. I've been scanning professionally for almost 5 years now, having used offerings from Artec, Einscan, and Faro. Its ability to capture surfaces that most other scanners struggle with, the detail retrieval, ease of use, flexibility and painless processing, are all worth noting on their own. But putting all of that under a prosumer price point makes this powerful little scanner something to behold. Plus, the synchronized turntable is a cherry on top of the sundae that is THREE.

This review is of the initial release and there are areas lacking like texture capture, but it can be improved on the user's side with decent lighting. Amazingly, this is the only real gripe I've had with it and it's minor. There were concerns on reddit before its launch that the 16GB of storage would be too little, but after scanning everything that was scannable on my desk at the highest density possible, I'm 22 projects in on the scanner and the storage is not even half full. I'm not sure how they are doing it, but it seems they have tapped into quantum physics and are storing scan data in a pocket dimension (don't quote me on that).

In summary, I am exceedingly happy with what THREE can do and I look forward to scanning literally everything I can get my hands on!

The Matter and Form Three was always on my 'to buy' list as a canadian, but I kept putting it off since """technically""" I could get a better deal buying an otter, or a raptor, or a metroX, or this or that. At the end of the day, I got all of those scanners as they didn't satisfy my expectations. They're all great in their own ways, and decent scanners by all means, but I just wanted something that was able to tackle objects the size of a coin (model kit parts, reverse engineering, etc) to objects the size of a person, full colour, high res, etc, without all the setup.
I eventually cracked and got the Three and I couldn't be happier. It's the only scanner I even use anymore, unless I need to scan something black or I don't have any spray on hand. It's colour scanning, specifically the mapping, is best in class. The colour is often a bit off, but the way it outputs textures its SUPER easy to adjust or fix blemishes. Scan resolution is amazing. I was able to scan gunpla parts and resin kit parts and the scanner was able to accurately capture details under 1 mm! I scanned some parts with pegs and holes, and after resin printing them they just fit perfects together with each other and also with the original scanned parts. Absolutely spectacular.

The turntable scanning is really the standout feature here. The revopoint MetroX has a comparable resolution in turntable mode, but scans take so much less time and setup on the Three. Plus, the MetroX turntable can not seamlessly stich it's scans together by angle (apparently their turntable just is not accurate enough), requiring feature tracking or markers, which just does not work for tiny tiny parts often. The turntable scanning on the Three seems annoying since you have to calibrate each time, and it's one of the reasons I skipped the Three for so long, but it's not bad. You only have to calibrate if you use the turntable, and if you don't move the scanner you don't have to calibrate it between scans. It also only takes a minute total to set everything up and calibrate, which is about a 10th of the time it takes to set up any of my other scanners.

The team working on the Three are doing an amazing job listening to user feedback and tweaking the device, and it's getting better and better each day. The perpetual support is probably the best feature overall. You just know the product you have will be even better a year from now, instead of getting worse.

The only negative thing about the MAF Three is it's most unique trait. The fact that it has an SOC and is self contained. While the MAF Three can scan with insane resolution and capture lots of detail, it takes a good long while to process the data. It's improved since i got my scanner, but it's the only sticky point left. I used to get crashes remeshing my scans at anything over 1million faces, but now I can go up to 2million faces or so, it just takes a long time. Easily over 10 minutes to process, maybe more since I usually just let it run and go make dinner or something in the meantime. Maybe this is something that will continue to improve, and maybe (I'm praying, I'm begging), there can be desktop client you can run to at the very least process the scans. I'm fine with capturing and cleaning the data on the scanner, but just the processing takes so long.

I wasted some time playing with photogrammetry before buying the THREE scanner. I'm extremely impressed with how fast, accurate and easy to use the THREE scanner is. I initially balked at the concept of buying a quad core CPU and GPU in the scanner that might only be used for 200 scans, but it's the smart way to do this job. Matter And Form only needs to create and support software that runs on their hardware, so it's optimized for that hardware and it's reliable. I'm not worried that a new operating system on my computer or a new graphics card will break the scanning software. The other scanners require a Windows or Mac computer. I have Linux computers and the web based interface to the scanner works with any operating system... even Android.

The web based software interface is intuitive and the turntable does all of the work for me. I typically have THREE make eight scans 45 degrees apart (the default), then I flip the object and repeat to get coverage on all sides. Scanning each side takes a couple of minutes and I spend maybe five minutes to process the scanned images into a 3D object. It's amazing that most black objects are accurately captured by the structured light scan. For smooth shiny black anodized aluminum, transparent or reflective objects I need to use 3D scanning spray but for black plastics, black painted objects, black nitride steel finishes, et cetera, the THREE scanner works well without needing to spray the objects.

I'm scanning objects to import into CAD so I can design mating objects, mostly to be 3D printed, and the 3D scan resolution is 5 to 10 times more accurate than I need. I usually scan on low resolution, and then reduce the polygons when rendering the solid object that I export as an STL. I don't need the color surface texture but I tried it and it's very impressive to have a nearly photo realistic 3D object that I can rotate on my computer. This could be very useful for 3D art, video game design, etc.

I honestly didn't think 3D scanning would be this quick and easy. The THREE scanner is an impressive bit of kit that works very well for my needs. THREE can scan larger objects from several single scans while mounted on a tripod. I'm looking forward to scanning the rear subframe of my motorcycle to design mini pannier racks that fit, and I'm sure it'll do a great job, but THREE is at its best when using the turntable to automate the accurate scanning of smaller objects. Now that I have a 3D scanner, I'm finding many more uses for it than I had imagined.

Overall I am very pleased with this scanner. I used it to scan a bust of Shakespeare to 3D print and the detail it was able to pick up was excellent. There are a few improvements that can be made however. I do wish that the turntable cord was longer, in order to scan larger items. I was able to complete the scan in two sections and merge the scans, but it would have been nice to be able to do it all at once. Also, I hope that the software/website continues to improve and update. Overall, I am pretty happy with it. It is intuitive and easy to use, but going from one process to another and back again is a slog. The entire file has to load again each time. Even going back from taking a scan to editing the new scan. You have to wait for all your previous scans to load again and again before you can see and edit your new scans. I also wish there was a way when editing scans to only select the data points actually visible in the display, rather than going through the whole model. I can't tell you how many times I accidentally deleted part of a scan because I wasn't paying attention to the points that were behind what I was editing. All that being said, I am very pleased with the Three and look forward to using it for further projects!