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This $200 scanner let me scan thousands of photos in just a few hours
When I was a child, I remember being obsessed with my mother's photos. I'd spend hours flipping through ancient photo albums and staring at old pictures of me and my siblings or wedding photos from her first marriage. As my own daughter has started becoming more curious about the world, I've begun wondering how she'll be able to see old photos: every photo I have of her is digital, and every photo of me as a baby is in a dusty chest at my mom's house.
Last month, I collected all of my mother's old albums and hauled them over to my house, declaring that I would be digitizing all of them so they'd be safe forever. I researched the best photo digitizing services — ones that you could mail all your photos to and pay someone else to digitize — but they're expensive. Like, $1,000 expensive. I ended up downloading a free app called Google PhotoScan off of Wired's recommendation, and while it worked, it was painfully time-consuming. Not willing to dedicate thousands of dollars or hours to this project, I decided to pickup a photo scanner from Amazon in the hopes that it would be more effective.
And my goodness, I was right.
The Plustek Photo Scanner Z300 has been a Godsend for digitizing old photos. It's incredibly easy to setup and use, and it delivers high-quality photos that look near-identical to the original versions. If you've been looking for a way to preserve and share your old photos, here's why this photo scanner is a game-changer.
For photo scanning, it doesn't get better than this $200 scanner from Amazon. You can scan stacks of photos at a time without having to manually open a scanner or align pictures perfectly. This scanner is cheaper than digitizing services and works with any computer.
- Simple setup
- Easy to use
- High quality scans
- Cheap
- Scans all sizes
- Time consuming
- Can't scan too fast
✅ It's simple to setup
Installing a new piece of hardware — like a printer — is an all-day endeavor in itself. But I was pleasantly surprised with how easy it was to set up the Plustek. It came with a CD-ROM, but my computer doesn't have a CD drive (not many do nowadays). Instead, I followed the instructions in the book to download the software from the Plustek website. A few clicks later and my scanner was set up. I simply plugged it into my computer and started scanning.
✅ Scanning is ridiculously easy
The Plustek features a large silver bar that contains the scanner. You slide the photo through the bar and it's scanned. Each photo takes about three seconds to fully scan, then it appears on your computer screen. You'll have to name and store your photos on your own; it doesn't come with an easy way to group photos together or identify similar faces or places, but that's what a service like Google Photos or Mylio Photos is for.
✅ Photo quality is impeccable
I was extremely pleased with the quality of the photos I scanned in. Tiny photos, regular-sized photos, extra large photos — they all scanned in with ease and looked as crisp as the originals. I was worried some quality would be lost in the scanning process (especially for such an inexpensive machine), but it actually did a really great job.
✅ Scans all sizes of photos
Since I've been scanning photos from the '70s, '80s, and '90s, I've got all kinds of sizes, from standard 4 x 6 photos to wallet-sized school pictures and a few 8 x 10 glamour shots. The machine can take them all. So far, I've only encountered one photo it hasn't been able to scan and it was 13 by 10.
But I haven't just been scanning photos — my mother had a newspaper clipping of my sister's birth announcement I was able to scan in easily. She also had an autographed photo of George Jones I went ahead and scanned in, too.
✅ It's cheaper than digitizing services
If you don't want to go through the trouble of pulling all your photos out of albums, scanning them, then replacing them, you can always ship your photos off to a digitizing service. You'll still have to remove the photos from albums and eventually replace them, but you won't have to scan them. You will, however, pay for that service. Different brands — LegacyBox, Kodak, Panda Photos — will scan boxes of prints for just cents a piece, but those can quickly add up. Plus, you're taking a risk by shipping off your precious memories and trusting in the shipping process.
❌ It's time consuming
To use the Plustek scanner, you enter one photo at a time and watch it scan. It takes about three seconds per photo, but that still adds up, especially when you consider that you've got to remove and replace them from individual albums. Scanning about 1,500 photos has taken me around four hours so far. I'm able to watch TV while I scan so I'm at least entertained, but scanning in all your photos with the Plustek is definitely a time commitment.
❌ Can't scan too fast
My biggest frustration with the Plustek is that you can't scan your photos quickly in succession. Each scan takes about three seconds, then you need to wait another three or so seconds to enter the next print. It sounds silly to complain about three seconds, but when you're scanning thousands of photos at once, it adds up quickly.
The software also only allows you to scan 60 photos a batch. Once you hit 61, it prompts you to save all your scans before you can proceed. It's a great way to make sure you're saving as you go, but it can add more time to the process if you're in the scanning groove.
Should you buy the Plustek Photo Scanner Z300?
Absolutely. The Plustek Photo Scanner Z300 is an excellent way to scan in all your old photos, especially if you've got time set aside to do so. It won't suddenly make the process of manually scanning all your photos seamless, but it's pretty darn close. It's the best solution I've found so far and it's been extremely fun reliving old memories, especially of my sister, who recently passed.
Overall, if you're facing a mounting collection of physical photos you want digitized forever, the Plustek Photo Scanner Z300 is an excellent, user-friendly buy.
If you need to digitize your old photos, the Plustek can get the job done.
