Photo Scanner With Automatic Feeder
Like a lot of people I have a ton of old photos stored in boxes. I have always wanted to find some kind of automatically feed the pictures to the scanner like commercial printers have.
I did a Google search for “scanner with automatic feed” and “automatic photo scanner”, “scanner with feeder” etc. It doesn’t seem like there are a lot of vendors that provide this type of product. There are plenty of choices for photo scanners with slide and negative adapters.
It turn out that at one time Epson made a scanner that did exactly what I wanted. It was the Epson Perfection 2480 Limited Edition Photo Scanner
I also found the HP ScanJet 5530 Scanner but it had less than stellar reviews.
I then found out that Epson still has the Multi Photo Business Card Feeder B12B813372 available. I did some searching and the retail price goes for about $149 for the feeder. The feeder works with the Perfection 2480, 2580, 3490 & 3590 Scanners. The only problem is that these particular models are no longer readily available.
I of course searched ebay and scored a Sealed Epson 2580 scanner for $85 shipped. Cool !
So for about $235 I have a pretty cool scanner than can autofeed photos and also scan negatives and slides.
There were essentially no instructions with the automatic feeder. I soon discovered that all the documentation is installed on your computer when you install the software for the scanner. Once I read the Reference Guide installation of the feeder was very easy.
The largest photos that can be scanned are 4X6. Epson says you can stack up to 25 photos in the tray.
So far the scanner has worked perfectly. It sucks the photos in and when the scan is complete it spits them back out. The total time per photo is about 30 seconds. Normally this would be a slow pace to work but you can just set a stack of photos in the tray and go off and do other things. I’m guessing I can scan about 100 photos per hour pretty easily.
I’ll report back in a few weeks once I really start to go to town. I am going to be using Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 to scan and organize the photos.
Multiplayer.ro » Blog Archive » Photo Scanner With Automatic Feeder said,
January 17, 2007 @ 11:08 am
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Michael said,
March 22, 2007 @ 1:46 pm
I’m in the same boat. I may have to go the route you’ve done. I don’t understand why this market segment is being completely ignored
Glen said,
April 8, 2007 @ 6:59 am
Yes. I too can only find the same two multi photo feeders. I have the hp 5530 and it works well with a 1touch button. Periodic jams slow it down though. I’ve scanned hundreds of photos and many more waiting. Not enough people are searching for multi feeders and every new novice is buying these cheap scanners with 1 photo option, not challenging the limitations. When the consumers mature with photo scanners, they will demand more multi feeders and the sellers are probably already prepared.
gth said,
November 17, 2007 @ 8:24 pm
How did it turn out?
JH said,
November 27, 2007 @ 1:29 pm
I don’t think you’re going to see the auto photo scanner hit the market in mass anytime soon (if at all). While there are many like us out there looking to scan old photos, that’s just it…they’re old. Once the old photos are scanned all new photos will already be in digital format and I’m guessing the developers aren’t wanting to spend time developing a product that won’t be necessary a few years from now when everyone has converted their photos into digital format. Just a guess. Thanks, though, for the info on the auto photo scanner…that was helpful.
Gordon Henderson said,
January 20, 2008 @ 1:45 pm
Hi, found your article from websearch as I have exactly the same challenge/problem here in UK. Did you a) find the solution you were using back in jan 07 worked out okay for you, and/or b) identify a newer or better option?
webmaster said,
January 20, 2008 @ 3:12 pm
It worked out pretty well for me. Last summer I had a goal to scan about 25 photos/day. That project lost steam after a few weeks.
Part of the fun of old photos is rummaging through boxes and discovering pictures you forgot about. Maybe it should stay that way.
Kevin said,
January 26, 2008 @ 9:26 pm
Can any of you provide me with a copy of the software for the 3590 scanner? I am getting the scanner but it is coming without the software. I think the software is the same for the 2580,2590, 3490, and 3590.
Thanks!
Kevin
Geramy said,
July 27, 2008 @ 1:07 am
I, too, have been looking for an answer to this problem of having thousands of old family photos from the 50’s’ 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. I have an Epson Perfection 4490 Photo, but it seems that the auto feeding unit that you talked about will not fit it, so I’m going to be purchasing an “older” scanner and an auto feeder. I would like it if you could contact me by email so I could ask you some questions. Thank you for your article!
Geramy said,
August 18, 2008 @ 10:41 pm
Update: Bought an Epson 2580 on eBay and then purchased a multi-photo feeder for it online. The scanner arrived last week and the photo feeder arrived today. I’m scanning photos as I type this and it’s (now) working wonderfully. (I say ‘now’ because it seemed to mis-feed while ejecting photos about a third of the time until I put a little weight on the back of the photo feeder. I just have a CD-ROM binder sitting there now, and it has not misfed once. Maybe a defect in this particular unit? Who knows… but I’m pretty pleased with how it’s working. Thank you so much for this web page and it’s helpful hints!!