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October 11, 2018

Buckets of Old Photos? Scan & Save Your Memories! Epson FastFoto FF-640

Hi Friends,

   Thank you for joining us today for a very interesting technical product review. We have a unique twist on the technology equipment that we evaluate, with the specific product we are reviewing, which is the Epson FastFoto FF-640 Scanner.


   Just some background on this Scanner; it is a fit for not only home office use, but it's also quite useful for the home, as well. Today, we are going to take a look at the FastFoto in terms of the set-up of the scanner, the speed of the actual scanning process, the quality of the scan results, as well as some features and options that I found quite helpful, and you might, as well.

   Straight out of the box, the scanner looks non-threatening, and if I had to compare it, I would say it's about the size of a toaster oven. The only thing that you have to do is just snap in the Automatic Document Feeder (ADF), which is quite simple. Aside from that, the scanner is pretty much turn-key and ready for the software, which is the last step in the set-up. This part is a snap! Super-easy, since you download the software directly via Epson's website. I call it "seamless" since it is so easy. I suggest you download all software offered to you for your given operating system. It's free to download and it will help you take further advantage of the functionality of the scanner.

   Guess What? Congratulations! Your Scanner is now configured and ready to begin scanning!

   At this point, your scanner is all set up, with software installed, the USB cable connected to your laptop or desktop, and now you're ready to begin using it. As easy as the scanner is to get set up, it's even easier to use!

   What I have tested the scanner with was 5 different items; regular photos, Polaroid photos, documents, business cards, and for my own purposes, baseball cards. Automatic folders are set up for you and you name them at the moment right before they actually scan. One amazing feature of this scanner that will "WOW" most folks is that it automatically scans front and back, so if you have handwriting or something on the back of a document or photo that is important to save, it will also scan that as well. The FastFoto will name the front file name with an "a", and the file name for the back will have a "b". Not only does it capture the names, but it also captures the date as well for easier filing and for ease in locating the files long after you have finished scanning.

   Another thing that makes this real easy is the Automatic Document Feeder (ADF), which you really cannot do without it. It is a critical part of the scanner. Example: I was trying to send some Polaroids through and they were not going through at first but then I resolved it by just placing them in a different way on the feeder, which is very versatile in this specialized type of scanner. On the topic of ease, you can even have the photos border adjusted by simply tweaking the settings, and it even allows you to take out red eyes if they show up in the scan. As for resolution,the FastFoto defaults to 300 DPI resolution but it also has an option for 600 DPI, but remember, and this goes for all Scanners; as you go up in resolution, the time it takes to scan your items will increase, as well.

   Speed is another great quality of this scanner.  I sent through 20 photos and they were done in about 50 seconds which is blazing fast. The amount of time that it saves you will really impress you! Sometimes, you have to go back and adjust the photos or anything that you've scanned in order to tweak it and make it better, especially if it's a faded out photo; this will correct it. For those folks that scan often and then have to correct the documents or photos, etc afterward, will realize that this is a huge time saver. Just think of how much you will miss Photoshop editing your scanned image files. This might make you tear up over that... or perhaps they are tears of joy?  Perhaps both?

   Overall it's amazing how accurate the FastFoto is, and that just goes to show you the quality of product that Epson once again has put out on the market. As I mentioned above, the quality is second to none. One of the many features that makes this scanner shine is the auto enhancement, which really does some magical things when you're dealing with photos that are either faded or just very very light, i.e. with sun in the photo, or something bright along those lines. As mentioned, you can select the enhancement option in the settings by changing it to be Automatic, or you can manually do it in the folder that pops up with the app. Just select the image, click on Edit, and you can do many things to enhance your photos.

   Yet another great feature of the scanner is that you are able to select whether you want to save the enhanced photo as an original or if you want to make a second copy so you don't overwrite the original, in case you need to make additional changes, from the original version forward. This increases the efficiency and the amount of time saved and headaches saved with the scanner and its accompanying software. I ran into an issue with some baseball cards that would not get a reverse scan. I very easily found out through the intuitive menu that by adjusting the sensitivity settings, the lightness and darkness of writing on the back of the card, completely remedied this and fixed the issue. Any issues you come up with are easily remedied most often by looking in the settings in the software. It's true...it's all right there. I tried another scan test where I loaded up many different photos of different sizes and it scanned all of them seamlessly without even a hint of a "misfeed"! All the while, this scanner is so quiet that you don't even realize that it's working until your originals come out into the front catch. Quiet scanning is perfect in my book!

   To sum everything up here, this is an incredibly fast, very smart device with very good software for the user interface and it also is amazing in terms of how you are able to easily edit and enhance photos, either automatically or manually. This is a scanner that can be used to blow through hundreds or thousands of photos that you may have from years back, and catalog them for your family or yourself. Can you imagine a flood or fire and you lose all of those memories? Wouldn't it be advantageous to use the scanner to make a backup, digitally, of all of these treasures? With the option to upload everything to the cloud, you have basically an off-site private copy of all of your precious memories. This will ensure your photos will survive any adverse or damaging conditions that could affect your family photos from years past, because they are saved as your very own personal off-site high-quality front and back scans. The FastFoto makes sense on a number of levels, and it is certainly something you want to take a look at further after reading this review, so you can take the first step towards owning this time saving wonder!


Have a Great Weekend, and Happy Rent-to-Owning !
Regards,
Rob Eisenstein
HomeRun Homes - Rent to Own Homes, since 2002
"Located at the Corner of Technology and Real Estate"
Rent to Own Homes and Real Estate Blog for HomeRun Homes: http://blogging.lease2buy.com
HomeRun Homes Websites: http://www.lease2buy.com and http://www.homerunhomes.com


TAGS: #Epson #Scanner #FastFoto #Photos #Office #Home #Document