Thoughts on the Epson FastFoto FF-680w

[Cholentpot]

I have an archive of photos to scan. In the 10k+ amount of photos. All the negatives were tossed and the prints are all that's left. Mostly the typical 4x6 photolab color glossy prints. Does anyone here have experience with these machines? Online reviews are mixed bag, some claim that the rollers damage the photos, others have high expectations of quality that are dashed.

Anyone out there use one of these?

 

[Overrank]

I’ve used one to scan a thousand prints or so of varying types - recent en-prints, old black and white, the odd large print. It is very quick, around 2 seconds per photo and gives an 8bit TIFF output (or JPEG if you want). Given the source material and the speed it’s is very good. I have not noticed any roller damage but I’ve only scanned good quality photos, for older or more brittle photos it might be different. If mine broke I would definitely buy again, it’s such a timesaver.

 

[Cholentpot]

I’ve used one to scan a thousand prints or so of varying types - recent en-prints, old black and white, the odd large print. It is very quick, around 2 seconds per photo and gives an 8bit TIFF output (or JPEG if you want). Given the source material and the speed it’s is very good. I have not noticed any roller damage but I’ve only scanned good quality photos, for older or more brittle photos it might be different. If mine broke I would definitely buy again, it’s such a timesaver.

Thanks. I need to get my extended family on board. Gotta heckload of photos to scan.

 

[Overrank]

Thanks. I need to get my extended family on board. Gotta heckload of photos to scan.

In the U.K. at least some people advertise on eBay to rent them for three days (but it’s still around £100 for the three days). At 600 dpi the scanning is slightly slower, probably around 10-15 prints per minute (so about 4 seconds per print), but (in my case) getting the prints ready (out of albums) dwarfs the scanning time. I’ve also found it best to sort the photos into ones all of the same size and do those as a batch. The scanner optics do get dirty over time but they’re designed to be very easy to clean, you pop the machine open and give them a wipe. It scans both sides at the same time and will keep a copy of the back if it finds anything on it (If details of the photo have been written on it, for example).

 

[Cloumcloum]

Hello. I would like to you use this scanner it with large format negatives (4x5 and more)
I a am not interesting by images but only to count quickly large amounts of sheet negatives

Does the rollers scratches the originals with tiny vertical lines?
I have tried with the epson 580w but the rollers or something else scratches the originals (the vertical lines are on the file but also on the original)
I have contacted epson's support to ask if it is the same rollers mechanism on both scanners but they don't know
thanks

 

[_T_]

Probably the riskiest way to count your negatives. It also takes longer than counting manually. What’s the reason for not counting manually?

 

[Cholentpot]

Hello. I would like to you use this scanner it with large format negatives (4x5 and more)
I a am not interesting by images but only to count quickly large amounts of sheet negatives

Does the rollers scratches the originals with tiny vertical lines?
I have tried with the epson 580w but the rollers or something else scratches the originals (the vertical lines are on the file but also on the original)
I have contacted epson's support to ask if it is the same rollers mechanism on both scanners but they don't know
thanks

I tried scanning 4x5 negatives, not very good for it.

It took me on and off six months to get through my family archives. 10k+ photos. You really do have to clean the machine every 50 or so photos.