Epson FastFoto FF-680W Wireless High-Speed Photo and Document Scanning System, Black

This scanner completely lives up to its billing as "the world's fastest personal photo scanner." I had thousands of old photos that, because we're moving, I wanted to store electronically while throwing out the paper copies. After doing a fair amount of research, I landed on the Epson FastFoto 680W. It's pricier than some other scanners but well worth it. In two days, I scanned more than 4,000 photos without a hitch -- the scanner worked flawlessly across all different sizes of photos. It even enhanced the quality of the photos as I scanned them. One caveat: keep in mind that the super-fast scans (no more than a second per photo) produce photos that are 300 dots per inch; if you want to scan at a higher dpi, the scanner is a lot slower. As a result, I decided to keep copies of a handful of very special photos, while still being content to keep only digital versions of at least 95% of them. After scanning several thousand photos, I switched to document mode to scan hundreds of paper files that I also wanted to get rid of and it was even faster than it was for the photos because it scans even two-sided documents in no more than a second. My days of paper copies are finally over. In fact, I'm keeping the scanner on my desk so that every time I get a document that I want to save, I instantly scan it and then discard the hard copy of the document. Overall, this is one of the best products I've ever purchased and definitely the best scanner I've ever used. Unfortunately, after I wrote that review, and for no apparent reason, the scanner suddenly stopped working with my computer (a fairly new iMac). The computer simply stopped recognizing the scanner and nothing could get it to work, even after I uninstalled and then tried to reinstall the software several times. The software won't re-install unless the computer recognizes the scanner, which it won't. And the Epson customer support people were no help at all. So, while this is a magnificent piece of hardware, the software seems like it's still a work in progress. I'm updating my review to increase it to five stars. After the computer suddenly stopped recognizing the scanner, I finally tried replacing the cable connecting the scanner to the computer. Presto, the computer recognized the scanner again. So it wasn't the scanner that went bad; it was the cable that I was using. The scanner truly is phenomenal.

Fast, consistently great scans. Very good software included. Game changer in quickly creating archives from stacks of old 110, 126 & 135 photos. Should not be used for antique photos - auto-feeder may be too aggressive for delicate photos - use flatbed scanner for those. Expensive, but worth it. Reliable - I have already done 1,000s of photos and still works as new. Unlike document scanners this is optimized for photos.

I had 40 years of photos already sorted into storage boxes. Over the years I tried scanning them myself with various devices and always gave up—it was painfully tedious. I also ruled out photo digitization services because of cost and because I’d still have to sort through thousands of photos first. I hesitated for months because of the price, assuming the FF-680W would still be time-consuming despite Epson’s claims. I was wrong. This scanner is fast—shockingly fast. The photo enhancement features (auto enhancement, color restoration, red-eye reduction) are impressively good and require little to no tweaking. The Epson software installer is quick and intuitive, and the folder system for organizing scans is clean and logical. There is a learning curve, mainly around workflow. It’s worth sorting photos carefully ahead of time so you can scan by category in bulk. You’ll also realize that many older, pre-smartphone photos aren’t essential to keep—scanning highlights from events is often more than enough. One practical note: the scanner needs more frequent cleaning than I expected. Old photos carry residue from albums and handling, and the scanner is sensitive to buildup. Cleaning is easy, and the machine alerts you when it’s needed. Bottom line: this saved me an enormous amount of time and frustration. If you have boxes of photos and have been putting this off for years, this scanner finally makes the job manageable.

Shocked is what I have to say. If you are looking for an extremely fast and compact scanner this is a no brainer. I got this for personal use and am very happy with it. The speed is unbelievable and to my surprise it, scans both sides of whatever you are scanning. I was not aware of this feature, but it is a very valuable feature and is automatically done. I guess it is called a smart scanner, and it fits that description.

Original Review: I had seen others comment about potential harm to glossy photos and so I was careful to test with some 4x6 photos I didn't care about. Well, I'm disappointed to report that feeding photos through does make faint, permanent vertical streaks through the glossy layer of photos. I tested with some 20+ year old Kodak 4x6 prints. It's not terribly obvious, but held at various angles to light, you'll see the glossy layer is marred and streaked from top to bottom all across the photo after even a single pass through the scanner. It's not horrible but it's still bothersome to know that it can so easly mar the glossy layer. Also, be aware that it becomes more prominent with more passes. This is with a brand new unit, ordered June 2020. Why? What's going on here? What is it about the feed mechanism that it's lightly rubbing/etching through the gloss layer? Update: I can now add that it doesn't happen with all prints. I've found that the older prints I'm going through now (from the 1980's) seem to have a different, lighter glossy layer don't end up marred at all. As for the image scan quality, it's pretty decent and certainly usable. I tested only the 600 dpi setting. The automatically-enhanced version often looks better than the untouched version, but it sometimes introduces issues like graininess from applying excessive brightness or contrast. So I'm using my desktop photo editing software to touch up all the unmodified versions with more care than the automated process. (Admittedly, this takes a lot of time and experience to do well.) What this device does deliver best is speed and ease of scanning. It's fantastic how quickly it will automatically feed and scan a couple dozen photos at a time. So nice and fast! It's so convenient I've decided to keep the device and my girlfriend has been busily scanning all her old photos without a care since she was planning to throw out the original photos anyway. I've started scanning some even older photos that are going through without getting marred at all and I've decided it is worth the potential risk of minor, subtle marking. Will be nice to have them all in a more accessible digital form, than their old albums or, worse yet, boxes of envelopes. Usage tip: Be aware that when you feed a stack of photos through the scanner, it will generate files that are indexed in reverse order and it will collate subsequent multiple groups from the same stack in reverse order as well. This was not mentioned in the instructions or the software, and it took a few passes to figure out what was going on. Here's the deal: say you have a stack of 100 photos and the top face-up one is considered #1 and the bottom one is #100. When you grab the top 25 or so and load them into the scanner face-up as you're supposed to, it will autofeed from the bottom up, scanning #25 first and #1 last but it will number the files so that the first one scanned will be named #25 and the last one scanned will be named #1. If you then feed another batch of 25 from that stack of 100 without ending the job, it will also reorder them so that the bottom of that batch, which is scanned next will end up being named #50 and the last in that batch will be named #26. And so on through all the batches from that stack. Once you tell it you're done with the stack, it'll spit them all out so that the top one will be #1 and the bottom one will be #100 even though they were scanned at various points in the process. It's certainly a helpful mechanism but they definitely should have pointed out what was going to happen so you'd know what order to feed them in to get them in the desired order.

I watched this model's predecessor stay at the top of reviews for years, until this updated model came out to replace it. I'm so glad I finally purchased it. The multi-photo feeder works flawlessly with standard-thickness photos. Thicker (card stock) or very small photos require individual scanning using the provided vinyl sleeve. That worked for the few old Polaroid snapshots and for the our son's extra-thick senior year photos. The included (downloadable) software worked perfectly on my MacBook. There are versions for Windows and Linux too. Though I'm not interested in a photo capture business, with this model you could certainly do that as a side or part-time gig. Archival (600 dpi), 4x6 prints scan speed is about 2 seconds per print. Tips: 1. Take the time to setup the file autonaming convention first. Use the year element in the name instead of depending solely on the year in a folder title. That will make it easy to tell roughly when photos were taken, in the event you later send or move copies of photos outside of ther folders. Experiment with a few prints to be sure the files are (a) going where you intend and (b) are named as you intend. 2. Organize each packet of prints into two batches: portrait orientation and landscape orientation. Put them in reverse order from how you want them numbered. (The feeder pulls from the back of the stack.) 3. Feed one orientation stack (for example, landscape images) first, then the other, so the sliding side guards can stay in one position for a whole stack. This will save you a lot of time. 4. Select the auto-improve function without saving the unimproved original scan. Test a stack of photos to be sure you like the image improvements. This will save you hours of later fiddling in a separate image editing app. 5. Using a photo annotation pen, mark the back of each scanned photo with an 'S' or other symbol that will remind you the print has been scanned. 6. Backup your scanned images to more than one destination. If long-term durability of local media is a concern, burn to Blu-Ray disc and be sure to have a stand-alone high-reliability Blu-Ray writer / reader. Another strategy is to use one or more reliable online backups, such as iDrive. I use iDrive, Dropbox, and iCloud. I don't trust Google after it corrupted several thousands of my photos. (Fortunately, I don't trust any one platform completeley, so I had other backups.) I also backup to a high-quality flash drive and to DVDs. Keep in mind that the stability of data on those media is rated in years, up to 10, after which the data tend to decay, which is where Blu-Ray comes in, with a 100-year estimated data reliability, assuming the hardware to read it will still work in 100 years. I'm not going the Blu-Ray route, but would if I couldn't stand the thought of my descendants not having access to my photos.

The good - It’s fast. It will accept a large stack of photos. It has all the necessary cables and software included. The bad - It struggles with glossy’s. From the first couple photos it was creating track marks from the feed wheels down the center of the photos. It doesn’t completely destroy the photo but makes a noticeable track down the front. Epson knows this because they have added an editing feature in the advanced scanning options. You toggle the box to “decrease vertical lines”. On their website they have a troubleshooting guide to avoid the tracks. It walks through them coaching you to use perfectly clean photos and how to clean the glass on the scanner. Unfortunately the tips don’t work. I can start with 5-10 perfectly clean photos wiped carefully with a microfiber cloth, thoroughly clean the internal scanning components, and it will create the vertical lines from about the 3rd photo on. It’s very frustrating. Nobody wants to risk damaging old photos just for the sake of converting them to digital, especially on ones where you’re missing the negatives. The post processing restoration aspect sounded handy but what Espon provides isn’t great. It seems like it’s taking a very generic snapshot of the histogram on the scanned photo and simply trying to expand it. It completely softens any sharpness or detail that was in the photo. On the few that I did do I completely turned off processing as there are dozens of other software options that use AI driven steps to really restore and improve the photo. If you allow Epson to modify the scan without saving the original scan, you’ll struggle to get a good result in the end. Definitely won’t be keeping this.

I decided to digitize my family photos for my parents and siblings for Christmas. At first, I was using a regular printer flatbed scanner but the quality of the scan was really poor. I tried putting pictures through the auto feed on it and they would stretch the picture and twist them to an angle as it fed them through. It was slow and I had to crop every single picture. It took FOREVER! I started researching scanners and found this one. It seemed like a good one so I bought it. The original scanner I was using was scanning the pics at 200 dpi. I figured out that I could have increased it to 300 dpi but that was it. This scanner has a minimum of 300 dpi for photos and goes up to 1200 dpi. The pictures are so much better quality and it's so fast I was able to redo all the ones I had previously scanned in no time. Best of all, I didn't have to crop every single one! I have some pictures that were really poor quality. The auto enhance feature on this scanner helps a lot. I'm able to save really dark pictures and it'll lighten them up to where you can actually see who is in them! I will say that it doesn't like Polaroids. It thinks they are multiple pictures. Luckily I only have a few of these. I just put them in the sleave that's included for delicate pictures and they go through just fine. I do have to crop these photos though. This sleave works great for tiny pictures as well. I was able to scan documents as well. You do have to download the Epson ScanSmart app for this. It took forever to figure this out as it isn't clear in the user manual. I thought you could just select ScanSmart in the Fast Photo app but it still scanned it as a jpg file. You have to actually download the ScanSmart app to scan a PDF or Word document. It has several other formats as well. The ScanSmart app allows you to crop and straighten pages. This is so helpful for my family history pages. Sometimes they were slanted on the page because they'd been photocopied so many times. One included an inch or so of the next page, like they'd been copied from a book. I was able to crop this out and straighten the page before putting in it Word or PDF format. And if the pages are out of order you can drag them in order before putting them in whatever format you choose. Or if one was accidentally upside down you could correct this as well before selecting your format. I love the duplex scanning feature for documents as well. It's so nice that it doesn't have to flip pages over like the regular printer scanners do. It just smoothly scans. And it's FAST! I'm scanning my family history that was mostly typed on typewriters. It's cool that I can transform these into Word or PDF documents. The Word documents allow for editing which is nice because they are more legible and you can correct spelling and grammar while you're at it. It does require a lot of editing though because the auto character recognition doesn't always translate correctly. Not the fault of the technology but because these documents have been photocopied multiple times and sometimes c's look like o's, etc. Still, it's all worth the time to digitize these important memories. This is worth the money for sure. I'm so happy I bought it!