ADF scanner for 4x6 prints.

Cholentpot · Dec 9, 2017

I'm sure this has been asked but searching is giving me a headache.

I have a backlog of thousands, maybe even tens of thousands of 4x6 photos. They're family photos and yes, they threw out all the negatives a little while back. I'm stuck with 4x6 prints. I've been messing around with a Canon Pixma and Vuescan but Vuescan is not getting the crop right and the Pixma while it has an ADF is a bit slow and the photos are ending up off center. It's driving me batty. I don't want to sit and crop 10,000 photos of Gramps, Gran and Aunt LaBelle from Paraguay.

Solutions? Ideas? Time is not a major factor and budget is middling, not to high not too low. I just don't feel like cropping my way though thousands of photos.

shutterfinger · Dec 9, 2017

Sounds like an Auto setting is selected somewhere, likely Vuscan. What little I've used Vuscan it seems to have presets that cannot be defeated.

Cholentpot · Dec 9, 2017

shutterfinger said:
Sounds like an Auto setting is selected somewhere, likely Vuscan. What little I've used Vuscan it seems to have presets that cannot be defeated.

Turned off all auto. It's part vuescan and part the Pixma. I found one machine that looks promising but its out of my budget, the Epson Fastfoto Scanner. It comes bundled with what looks like decent software.

shutterfinger · Dec 10, 2017

Cholentpot said:
've been messing around with a Canon Pixma

I assume this is an all in one printer/scanner.
Scanners of this type require the scan object to be placed in a particular position which may be contributing to your problem.
The Epson FastPhoto is a single function scanner and won't be of any use for other types of scanning.
A V39 should just do the job but the V370 will be a bit more versatile.
EpsonScan is easy to learn and either will work with Vuscan.
https://epson.com/For-Home/Scanners/Photo-Scanners/c/h220

Cholentpot · Dec 10, 2017

shutterfinger said:
I assume this is an all in one printer/scanner.
Scanners of this type require the scan object to be placed in a particular position which may be contributing to your problem.
The Epson FastPhoto is a single function scanner and won't be of any use for other types of scanning.
A V39 should just do the job but the V370 will be a bit more versatile.
EpsonScan is easy to learn and either will work with Vuscan.
https://epson.com/For-Home/Scanners/Photo-Scanners/c/h220

I've got over 10k photos to scan. A one trick pony might have the one trick I need. The V39 and V370 are nice but they are flatbeds. That means 3 photos at a time max, rinse repeat. This would take approximately 10 years. Does it have edge detection software so I don't have to sit there and crop every shot?

mgb74 · Dec 10, 2017

shutterfinger said:
Sounds like an Auto setting is selected somewhere, likely Vuscan. What little I've used Vuscan it seems to have presets that cannot be defeated.

There are "standard" and "professional" versions of Vuescan. As you might expect, there are fewer features in the "standard" version.

Cholentpot · Dec 10, 2017

mgb74 said:
There are "standard" and "professional" versions of Vuescan. As you might expect, there are fewer features in the "standard" version.

So I gotta fork over $80 to see if it'll work for me? I dunno man...

mgb74 · Dec 10, 2017

Cholentpot said:
So I gotta fork over $80 to see if it'll work for me? I dunno man...

You can download and use a trial version for free. Images are watermarked. Don't know if that's the standard or pro version (or both).

MattKing · Dec 10, 2017

The only differences between the standard and pro versions of Vuescan don't really relate to what the OP is trying to do: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/51385445
For fun, I just ran 7 of my postcards (all from previous APUG Postcard exchanges) through the ADF on my Samsung M288 series office scanner/fax/laser printer, using the auto feed function that appears in Vuescan when Vuescan knows that the machine has an ADF. The seven cards took about 45 seconds to scan and save. I scanned at 300 ppi.
I then used Vuescan and the same scanner to scan a single card that I placed manually on the platen, and manually confirmed the crop.
The results of the ADF fed cards aren't great - there are lines in the scan that aren't on the cards. The cropping is petty good.
The manually scanned card doesn't have the lines.
All the cards are black and white prints, but as they have different toning treatments, I have scanned in colour.
I don't know if there are options in Vuescan that would slow down the process, and therefore improve the quality of ADF.
See for yourself (the images have been rotated for visibility):

Cholentpot · Dec 10, 2017

MattKing said:
The only differences between the standard and pro versions of Vuescan don't really relate to what the OP is trying to do: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/51385445
For fun, I just ran 7 of my postcards (all from previous APUG Postcard exchanges) through the ADF on my Samsung M288 series office scanner/fax/laser printer, using the auto feed function that appears in Vuescan when Vuescan knows that the machine has an ADF. The seven cards took about 45 seconds to scan and save. I scanned at 300 ppi.
I then used Vuescan and the same scanner to scan a single card that I placed manually on the platen, and manually confirmed the crop.
The results of the ADF fed cards aren't great - there are lines in the scan that aren't on the cards. The cropping is petty good.
The manually scanned card doesn't have the lines.
All the cards are black and white prints, but as they have different toning treatments, I have scanned in colour.
I don't know if there are options in Vuescan that would slow down the process, and therefore improve the quality of ADF.
See for yourself (the images have been rotated for visibility):
View attachment 191648 View attachment 191649 View attachment 191650 View attachment 191651 View attachment 191652 View attachment 191653 View attachment 191654 View attachment 191655

So am I nuts for thinking the Epson looks like the lone option to crank out 10's of thousands of 4x6's?

To place them all in the platen is beyond me. But from what I see ADFs do mark up the photos. Supposedly the Epson does not have this issue.

MattKing · Dec 10, 2017

For clarity, the ADF on mine did not mark up the photo. It just didn't scan it as well - possibly something to do with the need for speed with multiple page document scanning.

Cholentpot · Dec 10, 2017

MattKing said:
For clarity, the ADF on mine did not mark up the photo. It just didn't scan it as well - possibly something to do with the need for speed with multiple page document scanning.

So in other-words useless.

It seems - at least according to the propaganda - Epson designed their machines not to leave lines. Is there really only one machine like the Epson? 30 photos in a loader and let 'er rip, no cropping, no edit.

shutterfinger · Dec 11, 2017

Any of these fit the bill?
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/sear...actor_2581|flatbed-document-fed&N=4042754049&

ADF scanner for 4x6 prints.

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