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

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!

I bought this primarily for helping a friend digitize photo prints. Her mother had recently passed away, and this put a seemingly countless number of loose photos and albums into her possession. I had committed to helping her and brought my flatbed scanner, not realizing the magnitude of the task at hand. On the first day over the course of six hours, I captured and cleaned up fewer than 100 photographs this way — it clearly wasn’t a workable solution for the volume of prints needing to be captured.I started looking for a scanner with a document feeder before I even left, and among the options I found, the Epson FF-640 stood out. I read and watched various reviews, but then I found one that mentioned the newer second-generation FF-680W, which seemed like a substantial upgrade, so I ordered one.For scanning most photos, the FF-680W is incredible. With my flatbed scanner, I had to manually place each photo on the scanner, tell my image editor to acquire a scan, wait for the scanner to generate a low-resolution preview, crop and rotate the image, check image enhancements options, and then hit Scan and wait for a slower, full-resolution scan to be transferred. I then had to save the image using the image editor, giving it a name and specifying the format and image options.The FF-680W on the other hand can scan and clean up probably about 20 prints at 600dpi in the time it took my flatbed scanner to perform the pre-scan and scan of just one image. Realistically, it took me three minutes to capture and then process one image with the flatbed, all of which required tedious manual steps. When I initially started scanning with the FF-680W, I used the option of saving both the original scan and the enhanced version in separate files, but the results of the enhancements are so good that I no longer bother and keep only the enhanced images.I have experienced only a single misfeed, and that was with a photo that was glued into a heavy cardboard frame. I didn’t think it would go through the scanner and set it aside to be scanned with the flatbed, but curiosity got the better of me and I tried it anyway. If the paper path was more straight, the scanner would be able to take the place of a flatbed scanner in many cases.I find the option to automatically scan the back of the photos for handwritten notes useful, but it is overly sensitive. On some of the prints I scanned, a "Kodak" watermark on the back was often the only thing that was captured. Those errant scans are easily identified and deleted when looking at the thumbnails of the scans, but I wish the software handled this better.So far I have really only used the scanner and included software for photos, although I tested the ability to create a searchable PDF from a printed document and a form. The results were good but not perfect, as is usually the case when doing OCR.The F-680W is quick, quiet, and delivers high-quality results. If it fits within your budget, it deserves your consideration. To get the most out of it and avoid some frustration, I suggest watching Epson’s short videos about the scanner on Youtube.May 10 2019 Update:I have done quite a bit of document scanning lately, with very good results. This involved taking apart three-ring and spiral-bound manuals and scanning them into searchable PDFs. The fact that the scanners handles both sides at the same time (and can even drop empty sides of a page) and the high scanning speed makes quick work of such manuals.You get graphic images of the pages, with the text obtained through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) behind it, so you can highlight the text and copy-and-paste it, or search for it. It is very rare that the OCR software misinterprets a character.In addition to the option for dropping empty pages, the software also has a feature for removing the binding holes from the scanned image for a cleaner look, but this seems to be hit-and-miss -- on some documents this has worked very well and completely eliminated them, and on others it has been inconsistent, leaving behind one or two holes from three-ring binding, or dozens on some spiral bound pages.The document scanning handles jams very well when they do occur. I had issues with one spiral-bound manual that hadn't been read yet, and the pages were sticking together where the holes had been punched. The scanner would jam when it tried to feed pages that were stuck together, but it never damaged any of them. It also seamlessly carried on the scanning once the jam was cleared (which involves releasing a latch and tilting the front of the scanner forward, then removing the jammed page). Likewise, adding more pages after all the pages have been scanned is a simple matter of clicking on a "Scan more" button and selecting single-sided or double-sided, so you can mix both types of pages in one scan.One thing that's missing is the ability to save the scan results in more than one format. Currently the software prompts you for a output format, and once the document is saved the scans from which the document is created are discarded. I would prefer being able to go back to the format selection so that I can save a document as both a PDF as well as a Microsoft Word document for example.August 5, 2019 Update:I just discovered the "Text Enhancement" option under the Advanced scan settings -- I had seen it, but hadn't tried it until yesterday. I am blown away by the difference that it makes when scanning documents into searchable PDF format. It has a substantial impact on scan times (each page takes two to three seconds to scan with "Text Enhancement" set to "Standard"), but the text is crystal clear and uniform, and to me the increased scan time is a small price to pay for the quality improvement in the output.I scanned a 292-page technical manual at 600 dpi with "Text Enhancement" set to "Standard" into searchable PDF format, and the only thing that gives a clue that the document was produced from a scan are the punch holes (which can be eliminated with another scan settings option). Other than that, it looks typeset.