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.

I ordered this Epson scanner to replace a Canon version that my Windows 11 system wouldn't recognize over USB. I initially had problems installing the software on one of my laptops (both laptops are Dell but for some reason one had issues with the software). Epson tech support helped me overcome the installation issues via email in just a couple of days and the scanner has worked perfectly ever since. The enhancement features of the software are especially nice, including image straightening and color/brightness correction, both of which work flawlessly. The scanner also automatically scans both sides of each photo, so if you have handwritten notes on the reverse side you'll have a record of those as well with no further effort. The user interface is simple and easy to understand and the scanning quality is excellent. Finally, the scanner is FAST, it takes only about 3 seconds per photo and it will autofeed up to 30 or so photos. If you are digitizing family albums of snapshots as I am, I can highly recommend this scanner as it will make short work of your scanning task!UPDATE January 2025:I am adding this update because this scanner continues to impress! I have now scanned well over 3000 snapshots, the majority the standard 4x6" size, but also other odd-shaped sizes, brochures, menus, and the like. I have never had any issues with streaks to the digital images or scratches/damage to the original photos. I have run combined stacks of photos of slightly different sizes (4x6, 3x5, 3.5x4.5) with no issues at all, as well as warped/bent photos, and the feeder just keeps running with great reliability. The imaging enhancement works especially dramatically on very old snapshots that have turned sepia-brown, with muddled colors. If you are contemplating using old snapshots in a memory/scrapbook application, you may want to consider scanning them with the FF-680W and reprinting them, it will add new life to your presentation!

Easy to use. This thing is fast and will scan a load of old pictures in short order. Does a fine job as a document scanner as well. Yes, it costs a bit but will digitize years' worth of pictures quickly. You just need to set up folders for categories and time frames to keep from hunting for them later.