Epson - FastFoto FF-680W Wireless High-speed Photo Scanning System - Black

This is the first high-speed photo scanner I have had. Needless to say there is no comparison of how much faster this will scan your photo collection compared to the traditional all-in-one copier/scanner. Installation of the scanner software was straight forward and easy to do. Note that instructions are to install the scanner software before the scanner is connected to the computer. The scanner can be connected via USB or wirelessly. I chose to connect via USB. The design of the scanner itself is quite nice with flip out trays and the scanner footprint is fairly small. The build quality seems nice. As many as 36 photos can be scanned at a time. One has the option to store both a scan of the original photo and an automatically enhanced version of the photo. The Epson FastFoto software also allows one to manually edit a photo with fairly standard tools to crop, rotate, enhance, etc... I scanned 850 photos and only had two jams to unclear. I think this was either two photos sticking together or a bend in the photo. I was very pleased with the speed and efficiency of this scanner. Generally, I'd say the scan quality was very acceptable and in most cases the enhanced photo was improved from the original. I did get an occasional pop up window that reminded me to routinely clean the scanner for best results. I could find no information in the documents included with the scanner, but did find a video online showing how to clean the scanner. It seemed pretty logical and easy for one to do with the provided cleaning cloth. The scanner also comes with a plastic, carrier sheet for any individual items that may be more fragile or old and in need of added protection during scanning. I also got a message (yellow triangle symbol) in the FastFoto software that said adding more files may degrade the performance and for best results to save them to a different folder. My current folder had 1700 photos in it. Aside from this message I felt the software was easy to understand and use. It has the ability to share photos via email, Facebook, Google Drive and Dropbox. Bottom line, if you have a lot of photos boxed away that you need to bring into the digital age this is the way to go. The speed at which the FastFoto scans pictures is just phenomenal. The price is somewhat higher than I'd like to see, but it's an item that could be shared by multiple family members to make this cost more reasonable.

- Blazing-fast and [mostly] error-free picture scanning, even with cupped photos (<2 sec @ 600 dpi); full 8.5' x 11" documents took <1 second! - Auto-correct software generally did a decent job for unattended image enhancement with only a few snaps looking worse than the originals; true photophiles will probably just want the unaltered image - Wireless scanning to PC or direct to Google/Dropbox worked flawlessly and was actually a godsend not to have to snake one more USB cable around the desktop - 2-sided scanning for notes/labels on the back of the pictures was a brilliant inclusion, especially at this price and at this speed - Small desktop footprint...folds up to about the size of a large loaf of Pepperidge Farm bread - Included OCR integration with popular Office programs/Evernote quickly created editable documents from scanned papers CONs - Epson Event Manager (installed during driver installation) would NOT SHUT UP when the scanner was on--every 3-5 minutes I was getting an annoying task-bar pop-up (and default Windows notification sound) that the scanner was ready to load images. Yeah, I could turn off the notifications in the OS itself (there is no option to do so in the task-bar interface itself)...but even so, interrogating the scanner every few minutes just to announce to the user it's still ready??? - I noticed a few large "scanning bands" running horizontally across some of the images after only 20 or so scans new, straight out of the box...there's a cleaning cloth in the box, but stopping every 20-50 prints is simply something you'll need to figure into your battle rhythm as you use this scanner, especially for LARGE photo collections - The unit unfolds like a Transformer--document feed and output trays extend the footprint to more than a foot tall and 21" deep from back to front--just be aware of the additional clearance you'll need around the unit if you have a smallish/cluttered desk - Not sure what value the 1200 dpi setting is as the software simply interpolates the missing pixels anyway...this might create a false sense that you're getting ultra-high resolution but there's nothing more the hardware can do with the original images than 600 dpi...and anyone wanting to blow up/manipulate images at higher resolutions like that probably has the serious image editing software to do so already (just a hunch). A simple hardware toggle/button (fast/600 dpi, super-fast/300 dpi) would have been a more welcome inclusion Wow...if you have a huge collection of pictures sitting in albums or boxes, or bucket-loads of receipts/papers you need to digitize, this is definitely the device for you (if your pockets are deep enough!). Software installation went painlessly and wireless setup was a breeze, though rather than get up and run across the house to press the WPS button on my router, I opted for the 1-time USB connection (using the included USB 3.0 cable--nice!) from my PC just to get moving in a hurry. I was up and scanning in less than 5 minutes even with the software download and installation--no joke! The instructions tell you to limit yourself to about 35 or so photos at a time; I scanned in batches of 50 using very old, cupped photos from storage, and this thing just kept spitting them out at mach 3! The scanning software gives you options for auto-naming/grouping/tagging photos by year, season, event, etc....a nice usability touch for digitizing large chunks of your life at a time. The image auto-correct options were okay most of the time, and in several instances the resultant photos actually turned out VERY nice, though the program seemed to have a few burps with red-eye reduction on just a few of my prints. I did notice some dithering in most of my very dark images and a bit of blue-push was fairly common across all my photos using auto-enhance/correct. But, you can opt to have both the original AND corrected/enhanced photos saved automatically during scanning--another nice usability feature that gives you freedom to choose what image you want to save/share. All said, the software auto-correct settings will probably serve most users well who are looking to put gobs of pix up in Dropbox or on their Facebook wall (for example) or simply ensure their images are readily available for sharing in the digital age...if that's you, you'll get pretty great results with this scanner and the speed at which you arrive at those results simply can't be touched outside of sending your prints away to someone else to scan for you. But if you're serious about archiving your precious memories forever, you'll probably want to a) digitize the originals as-is and adjust them by hand later, and b) take time to scan only a handful of snaps at a time, clean the glass and rollers, then rinse and repeat. It will still be faster than a flatbed scanner, but don't think you can just throw several stacks of 300 pictures at a time unattended at this scanner and not have a lot of photos turn out with scan lines and light patches...no, you'll need to be a bit more careful and deliberate if you deeply care about how your images turn out (remember, this thing is more about speed than absolute perfection in image quality). Yeah, on the surface, it's a a bit spendy for a specialty scanner that primarily targets those of us still holding on to years of old "analog" photos. But there's something very satisfying and exciting about setting an inch-high stack of photos in the feeder and seeing all the digital files appear on your screen less than a minute later. And once you've plowed through 20 years of photo albums in about 18 minutes (HA!), you've still got an incredibly capable and wondrously quick 2-sided document scanner/receipt manager to carry you through...all in all, a worthy indulgence.

So like many people out there, I have hundreds, if not thousands, of pictures from back in the pre-iPhone days. Yeah, it's great to pull out the pile and flip through them, but I've wanted to get them all scanned, sorted and uploaded to my photo database. I had even considered sending them all out to be professionally scanned...well, the Epson FastFoto FF-680W Wireless Scanner just made my want a reality. We do have an Epson All-In-One printer in the home office, and it's been a workhorse for years. When the chance to try out the Epson FF-680W came along, I couldn't pass it up. When the box arrived, the first impression was, the box seemed small, so how small is the scanner? Upon unboxing, I realized...this think is pretty darn small, in fact it fits nicely right on my office desk with no issues. It's about a foot wide and about half that in height and depth. OK, hopefully this little package can pack a big punch! The scanner ships with a 2-piece power cord, a USB printer cable, microfiber cloth for cleaning photos, a carrier sheet (Epson recommends replacing after 500 scans) and directions. Pretty straight forward. Before connecting the scanner you will need to go to the Epson,com website to download the drivers for this particular unit. It took a total of 5 minutes to get online and download the appropriate software...it's an installer process and it walks you through from start to finish. Restart your computer to finish the install and it's time to connect the unit. There is an Epson app that can be customized to create folders, sub-folders, naming convention, dates, etc. when scanning photos. It's really easy to use and super convenient. The scanner is wireless or it can also be connected with the included USB cable. For my initial usage, I did set it up with the USB cable and have since started running it on WiFi. It seems to be about the same speed in either configuration on my network. Now for the fun stuff! I pulled together a stack of 25 3x5" photos from a family vacation from the 90s and loaded them into the scanner's adjustable feeder on the top of the unit. Using the Epson app, I created a sub-folder named after the destination, dated the photos and hit the "GO" button on the scanner. Within SECONDS, all 25 photos we quietly scanned and the photos were deposited in the adjustable catch tray! I honestly thought that it wasn't set up properly and just ran all the photos without doing anything...I was wrong...within a few more seconds, BAM, all the images appeared in the folder that was created before scanning. Not only the original scanned image but I had selected to make a copy and enhance it as part of the process. So literally within a minute this little machine scanned 25 photos and created 50 images...including the enhanced versions. Incredible! You can do some editing with the Epson app, like rotating, enhancing, red-eye correction (which is done automatically anyway) and restore to original. Since I'm familiar with editing in "Photos", I decided to upload all the images into photos to do some additional editing....however, this was not necessary...as the images created within the Epson system were already good enough for 95% of the population in terms of the quality. I'm now in the process of compiling all of my old photos into the proper years, events, sizes, etc. and plan on seeing if I can get 500 done in a day! Overall this is an incredibly easy to use scanner that is faster than I ever expected. After processing close to 300 photos, it's yet to have any issues like jams, skipped photos, etc. It simply works and I would recommend to anyone looking to save their memories to digital format.

Digital photography is certainly the norm for today. That wasn't always the case. This Epson FF–680W scanner is designed to help you with the boxes of photos you have gathering dust in a spare bedroom or basement. It's also portable enough to help you scan the boxes at your parents and in-laws in only a single trip. To be clear, the purpose of this scanner is bulk photos. At this purpose it excels. It’s clear Epson learned some lessons from its predecessor. It’s wireless and will connect over your existing network or can be configured as its own access point. It comes with a USB 3.0 cable if you want to be wired. Scans have a straight path to minimize wrinkling. I noted no impact to any of the 1000 photos I scanned. The software is generally well-designed and takes into account the purpose of scanning old photos. Before scanning each batch you have the opportunity to enter a date and description. The date for saved not only as part of the filename that is encoded as the 'Date Taken' in the photo's metadata. This means the photo will be placed in the proper date sequence if/when you bring it into your favorite photo management software or website. I would not plan to use Epson’s software for photo management. It does not substitute for software such as Photoshop elements, Lightroom, or ACDSEE. The Epson will scan 4 x 6 photos at the highest resolution in ~3 seconds per photo, including time to save the file. I ran it with a 1 month old i7 and also a 2 year old i5 laptop and experienced the same speed. It reminded me of the one hour photo machines, in the late 90's. 300 dpi scans fly through at under 1 sec each. It does a nice job of including any handwriting on the back of each photo as it scans both sides in a single pass. You can elect to have the software apply enhancements to each photo. I would recommend you elect to have the enhancements saved to a second file as the software is somewhat hit or miss. In about 2/3 of my photos, the enhancements look better. In the others, the original was more accurate. Assuming you have the hard drive space, keep both and worry about which one you like later on. Each photo comes out around 14MB when using 1200dpi and 24-bit color depth. The included software allows you to scan at 300 dpi, 600 dpi, or a software enhanced 1200 dpi. After comparing the sharpness and detail between these three settings, I would recommend the 1200 dpi setting. While this uses only 600 dpi optical, the software does a nice job of scaling the image and capturing additional detail. Since this is a sheetfed scanner, it works best for loose photos. If all your photos are in albums, you won't gain much efficiency with this scanner over a flatbed. You're better off saving your money. This scanner is an alternative to photo scanning services such as those offered by Costco, Walmart, or scanmyphotos.com. There are two main advantages over the other services: 1) You maintain custody of your memories. 2) You can enter dates for each photo batch, allowing the new files to integrate with your photo management system. Depending on volume, a service will be close in cost or perhaps a little less. This is also a high speed document scanner. If that’s your main purpose, I would lean towards one of Epson’s other scanners or a multifunction printer like the Brother MFC-L3770CDW. It’s faster than the Brother, but not enough to make it worth the extra cost. For photos, it will only scan to a PC running Epson’s software. Documents can be scanned to a PC or a mobile device. When you’re done scanning, the ADF guide folds down to provide a nice dust cover to the scanner parts. Scans can be initiated from the scanner or from the PC you wish to save the files to. It also comes with a plastic sleeve which can be used for delicate photos or with some slight tears. Be sure to either wipe off any adhesive or place the photo on something else before using the sleeve to keep it clean. The scanner surfaces can easily be cleaned with any microfiber cloth or the included lens paper. My only complaint about the scanner was some issues with setting up the software. It was incompatible with a USB display adapter I had installed on my laptop. After removing the driver for the adapter, all was well. Also, if you want to change the PC which the scanner’s ‘Start’ button is associated with, you have to reinstall the software. Pros: Portable; Fast; good software for organization and adjustment; easy on photos; scans documents, too. Cons: A bit expensive. Bottom line: If you need to scan lots of photos, this is the perfect machine.

★★★★★ ★★★★★ 5 out of 5 stars. Robygirl71 · 7 days ago Best one ever!!! I received this 2 weeks ago.Im more than happy with the product.Great size,easy set up,fits in small area.Fast,easy to use.Great photos and perfect documents.Ive had other brands in the past.This meets every detail and offers great customer service.Came with a few sheets of paper.Thats the only dwn.fall.For price more paper should have been offered “This is a review for the Epson FastFoto FF-680W Wireless High-speed Photo and Document Scanner System that I received free of charge to do a beta test and review.”

Right out of the box the Epson FastFoto FF-680W Wireless High-speed Photo and Document Scanning System is easy to install and set up using the instructions on the “start here” page which also includes where to download and install the drivers needed along with steps to connect to the wireless network, which my laptop easily found and paired by using the wi-fi connect button. A usb cord is provided in case of no wi-fi connection, or user preference. I am amazed by the speed it takes to scan photos at the different resolution levels which range from 300 dpi (takes 1 sec), 600 dpi (3 sec) and 1200 dpi (10 sec). This scanner has a setting for panoramic and instant photos which are great for Polaroid pictures and can scan up to 36 photos at a time depending on sizes and thickness. I did not have any scanner feed issues or jams and everything would scan smoothly each time. I save receipts and lots of older photos that I want to save and enhance digitally onto google Onedrive and use with Dropbox so this Epson FastFoto scanner is perfect and ideal for my needs! The carrier sheet that is included is best used for protecting wrinkled, fragile, older and valuable pictures and documents. I like that Epson included a downloadable pdf format user manual that can can be printed (120 pages) to get more information and details of Epson FastFoto scanner and advanced settings. Although I miss having a physical installation cd disc, i think it’s easier having just a link to follow that has everything needed for downloading so the scanner can update itself. Despite having auto rotation checked in advanced settings, when editing a few scanned pictures, I still had to rotate them twice to get the positions upright, but other than that I absolutely love how much better looking, brighter with higher clarity and improved image quality resulting from every scan from this product! This is a review for the Epson FastFoto FF-680W Wireless High-speed Photo and Document Scanner System that I received free of charge to do a beta test and review.”

I am upgrading from a Fujitsu ScanSnap duplex scanner that I bought in 2008. The Epson is about an inch bigger in every dimension, but otherwise similar in design. I bought this primarily to use as a document scanner, with a one-time need to digitize the hoard of family photos. Like the Epson Workforce series, the equivalent Fujitsus are only "ok" at photo scanning and my old one would jam on glossy paper. The good: The Wifi was fairly easy to set up, and once it is scanning, it's fast! After you fiddle with the settings, you can get some great quality photos and documents. I'm very happy the lamp is LED and shouldn't get tired over time. The Epson hardware is overall fantastic, marred only by a flimsy/rattly catch tray. The bad: The software is a mess. Epson is a printer company first and foremost... and it shows. There are at least four core software apps installed: Epson Event Manager, Epson ScanSmart, Epson FastFoto, and Epson Scan 2 Utility. I also have an Epson Scan 2 from my other Epson printer/scanner. Between the two devices, I have 13 icons under my Start Menu. Rather than a single unified package, you are led to believe that this is a "photo scanner first, document scanner second". The scanner button's default setting is to launch FastFoto, and the other apps are not even mentioned in documentation. When I threw a paper document on the scanner and hit the button, I was actually angered at the poor quality result in FastFoto. I nearly returned this scanner until I dug around and found the other apps. Each app is optimized for certain features, and you must close one before launching another. It makes it slow and cumbersome. There is a several seconds' wait between hitting the scan button and the scanner starting (but once it gets going, it's speedy). Some apps have some settings, while other apps have similar-but-different settings. Epson ScanSmart forces you to navigate a menu to save after every scan. For documents, I ended up using the older "Epson Scan 2" app from my other printer - a clunkier UI but faster experience. The silver lining is, I haven't hit any bugs or crashes yet. It's just a poor UX design. The Fujitsu user experience is more unified. One software package. Save the settings first, press the button, scanner immediately runs, file is automatically saved. Repeat steps 2-4 to your heart's content. I am happy with this scanner overall, and it's a 3.5 of 5. Because of the photo capability, I will be keeping it and expect it to last a decade like my last one. I will be shopping around to see if there are better software packages that I can use it with.

I was skeptical and then as I started using it I was shocked and amazed. Runs great, scans great, and easy to use. I've now scanned over 3,000 old family photos and it's still running fantastically. This will benefit our family into the future. AND I may start a small business scanning pics for others someday!