Plustek Photo Scanner – ephoto Z300, Scan 4×6 Photo in 2sec, Auto Crop and Deskew with CCD Sensor. Support Mac and PC
| Weight: | 1.48 kg |
| Dimensions: | 28.96 x 16 x 15.75 cm; 1.48 Kilograms |
| Brand: | Plustek |
| Model: | Z300 |
| Batteries Included: | No |
| Manufacture: | Plustek |
| Dimensions: | 28.96 x 16 x 15.75 cm; 1.48 Kilograms |
All you have to do to make it work is plug in the machine; connect it to your computer via USB; and download the software. To scan the photos all you need to do is place the photo at the top, and it does it all automatically – no buttons to press, all automatic. It also crops the photo automatically.
There are also features to edit photos which haven’t used a lot yet, but which look quite good.
Can’t fault this product at all, absolutely amazing.
Had scanner a few weeks but haven’t had much time to use it much, just done a couple of test scans. seems very easy to use and fast.
I bought this to archive thousands of photos from my parents house and it was the best money that I’ve spent in a long time. The amount of time that it saved me was huge, compared with using a scanner where you have to insert each photograph on a screen and close the lid. The quality of the scanned documents was very good and the software could also offer an enhanced view if you wanted it.
Cost effective way to home digitise – it is photo by photo scanning but cheaper option that the scanners offering batched scanning. And much better than having to place photos on a screen etc. Maximum of 50 or 60 photos per batch and then need to save batch on pc but then that is also about the amount I can handle to scan in one go anyway. Occasional glitch in software but reopen app and recovers. Simple to use otherwise and a help chat / UK support telephone service available if needs be (I had questions about formatting and saving to a hard drive).
I bought this machine because I hoped it would be easier to digitize my old photos with it than what I had been doing – taking pictures of pictures with my camera! It is indeed much better than that but, that said …
I first tried to install the app on my 6 year old laptop using the enclosed cd but I was unable to open the app so I went online and asked for help from the Plustek website. The 2 people who helped me tried their hardest, spending well over an hour trying to get it to work but to no avail. Fortunately I was able to install it with no trouble at all on my wife’s desktop computer which is a little newer than my laptop.
On the Plustek website they have a download which is more to up to date than the disc supplied with the scanner so I used that to load the app onto the computer.
The website also has a few set-up videos that are helpful if you are, like me, only moderately computer literate. Unfortunately there are no videos, nor is there any sort of manual, that explains how to use the many editing features. This you just have to figure out yourself with trial and error. I wish there was an option to cancel the last action or clear the editing before saving the photo but I haven’t found it. Instead, I’ve had to delete and then rescan several photos before getting a desired result.
The first day I used the scanner, the photos whizzed thru it very quickly, taking only 2-3 seconds to scan. However, after scanning the first 50 photos it slowed down considerably. It now takes about 12 seconds to scan each photo, with a further 5 or so to process. I have had a little difficulty with photos taken at night coming out slightly skewed but no problem with differently sized photos, including the old 2″x3″ ones.
I have had no difficulty saving the photos to an external drive. I have not tried to email them or share to social media so I can’t comment on that feature.
Overall I like the scanner but because of the above stated issues, I can’t give it 5 stars. 250 photos in, it is taking me around 2-3 minutes to scan, edit and save each photo, although I am getting quicker at it as I learn more about the editing features. Only 2000 photos, give or take, to go now …
Quick and easy to use and the software helps get the most from your scanned pictures. Am now sloggong through mountains of old pictures for an online family album but the scanner copes well with most sizes and even thicknesses of pictures.
I needed to scan in a load of old photos so have this ago based on price. Surprised that it works so well and produces great scans. It’s not the fastest thing on earth and you have to manually drop each photo in one after another. But once you get a workflow going it’s manageable. The software is downloaded and is easy to use (I use a MacBook) but I’ve noticed that in the past week it’s suddenly started crashing randomly so I have to make sure to hit save after every five photos. Anyway it seems to do the job and I’m happy with the scans it’s produced. Buy if you need something affordable to do scanning and don’t mind manually scanning one photo at a time. Don’t buy if you want fast automatic batch scanning to a professional standard and don’t mind paying for that.
Having hundreds of photos to upload purchased this item which is absolutely brilliant and so easy to use. Has lots of useful tools for old or not so good quality photos to restore them.
Would highly recommend.
Nice compact size. Good scanning speed with plenty of options within the software to apply to scanned pics
The software isn’t very reliable. Had scanned a load of images but they weren’t saved.
I was tasked with clearing my mothers home and found around 60 or more photo albums. Decided it would be nice to save the photos digitally as the room 60 albums take up is huge. Started with my flat bed scanner and realised it would take me several years to scan all the photos. Had a look for an easier solution and found this. Seemed good so i ordered it. Setup took 5 minutes and off I went. Over 6000 photos scanned so for in just a few hours. Very quick, very simple and very good quality. Can’t recommend this product enough. I guess once the task of scanning is finished the scanner may well be sold as won’t need it or I might just set up a local business !
amazing scanner!
I have scanned over 3,000 old photographs without any issues, the quality is great.
The included software is average but who cares – the speed and quality of the scans is what counts!
I was introduced to this scanner by a neighbour and was impressed by the speed and quality of the scans. I have many old photos that I need to share with family members and eventually have them copied into photo books. I don’t have the time to wait for my printer scanner to do the same job. I also like the size and portability of the scanner which I can easily take to relatives and scan their old family pictures on to my laptop. A great investment for my family history work.
Initial thoughts on unpacking were:
– good design
– solid build
– simple physical setup
Installing the software (for a Mac) was a simple case of visiting the website and downloading the latest version, double clicking and then installing – what could go wrong?
Running the calibration was also straight forwards – select from the menu and follow the prompts.
The application, as has been pointed out in other reviews, is not the best and provides almost no standard features we have come to expect from a modern application:
– opens in one of two modes, either a fixed size window or full screen. There is no option to resize…
– opens on the primary screen only. I have a multi monitor setup for my Mac and had to set one of the large monitors as “main display” and then reopen the software to get in on the screen.
Once installed and visible on the right screen the actual software use is straight forwards, configure the filename default, set the folder location and the resolution and you are good to go.
The scanning resolution can be set to either 300dpi or 600dpi only – no additional options. This is acceptable for home use, but not for any “serious” requirements.
The software has a set of simple controls for image quality and picture restoration. Again, they are suitable for home use (archiving, sharing, TV display) but I would recommend using an alternative product to correct the image if quality is paramount.
Scanning is very simple, and in the case of 300dpi, almost ridiculously fast.
Drop the photograph into the scanner feed location and 2-3 seconds later it appears on the screen ready for editing. All image are scanned to a staging area to allow them to be corrected and then saved – but you are limited to 60 images before you MUST save them which prevents you from scanning large number in a continuous run. I can only assume this is due to software limitation and the lack of correct memory management.
It is also worth pointing out that the scanner can ONLY be used by the provided software – it does not appear as a selectable device other applications.
HOWEVER…
I have returned my scanner due to hardware(?) issues causing a “lockup” / “freeze” at random intervals through the scanning process.
As a result I cannot comment in depth on the additional features of the software or the results it may be possible to achieve with some practice and mastery of all of the features – but my initial impressions (once you get past the limitations) were quite good.
I really wanted to like this device:
– it is simple to use
– it is relatively inexpensive for what you get
– it is fast (even without an automatic document feeder – see the Epson devices but be prepared to pay a premium)
– it produces reasonable images which are more than suitable for home use
…but the annoying hardware glitch has spoiled the overall experience for me.
Overall the quality and end-to-end workflow is, for a relatively inexpensive bulk scanner, quite good – and I would recommend this product for anybody with a large photograph collection looking for a cheap alternative to a professional scanning service.
Hopefully you will get one that works correctly – by the number of reviews on here there are a lot of people who have – but the bottom line from me is that the product is good at what it does (when it works) but is let down somewhat by the software that supports it.
Perfect for capturing those old printed photos to have a digital copy of or just scanning in important documents.
I myself used it to scan in all of my families old photos so that we do not loose them. Really really happy with the quality of the product and ease of use.
Bought to scan printed photos. Works like a dream straight out of the box. Easy and intuitive to use. Also use it now to scan other documents. Software is simple to operate. Just what was required. Supplier is first class.
The scanner is well designed and appears well built.
Very easy to setup and use. On installing the software to my PC I was advised of a newer software version on line. This quickly downloaded and installed.
Photo scanning is quick and good quality.
I was very impressed by a follow-up email from Plustek with an attached Help Guide and also contact details and times for support.
I would thoroughly recommend this product.
This is my second scanner. The first stopped working after approximately 100 scans. No issue with the supplier getting it replaced. Second machine seems ok.
The scanner is very easy to set up (used mainly with Windows – but also tried it on a Mac – which appears to work although I’ve not used it extensively on that). Scanning photos is a doddle (2k photos so far); I scan direct to file system and not use the App that comes with it (apart to calibrate and adjust the configuration to my preference). It has worked on all my photos – large and small; only those on card won’t feed through (wasn’t expecting it to though).
I import TIFF files into Lightroom where I do all my post-processing.
I have occasionally come across the situation where the scanner refuses to budge out of the amber light mode when you turn it on. Cleaning the sensor/window (as suggested) makes no difference. The only solution I have found is to uninstall the software and then reinstall it. Tedious, but only takes a couple of minutes.
I had used my flatbed scanner (well, multi-function thing) to scan photos, but I quickly lost the will to live scanning on that.
Overall, I’m really pleased with this purchase – but the inability to get it into scan mode every time is why I can’t give it the full 5 star treatment.
This is so worth the money. I’m not very technical and it’s so easy to use. My husband set it up with help from their excellent support staff. It’s incredibly fast and I’m happy with the quality of the scans. It will save me so much time.
I have a lot of old family-tree photos to scan and it was taking forever on a flat-bed scanner. I’ve only had this product for 3 weeks and so far I am v.happy with it – very quick in scanning a jpg. I can’t comment on longevity, but here’s hoping it will keep working as it does now in a year’s time. Absolutely no regrets for now.
My father in law recently passed away and we wanted to get a huge number of photos, old postcards and documents digitised for safekeeping and to distribute to friends and family. This product just wizzed through them with something that’s impossible with a flatbed scanner. But the real joy was the restoration facility in the software that gave fantastic definition and brought new life to the old family sepia photos from the early 1900’s. Now just need to back everything up!!
Transferring all my photos onto memory card. Very easy to use good picture quality.
This is an excellent photo scanner which I am using to scan 1000s of old pre-digital prints. Very good quality and colours in the scans. Very easy to use and set up. I am a Mac user and have had none of the issues that others have mentioned in reviews. Yes, you have to transfer the scans to your Mac after every 60 scans but it takes seconds and is a good opportunity to pause and check that images are scanning well before continuing. I use Lightroom to enhance the scans so can’t comment on the provided software for image correction. I can’t recommend this enough.
This is an excellent photo scanner which I am using to scan 1000s of old pre-digital prints. Very good quality and colours in the scans. Very easy to use and set up. I am a Mac user and have had none of the issues that others have mentioned in reviews. Yes, you have to transfer the scans to your Mac after every 60 scans but it takes seconds and is a good opportunity to pause and check that images are scanning well before continuing. I use Lightroom to enhance the scans so can’t comment on the provided software for image correction. I can’t recommend this enough.
I set up the scanner on first ordering it in 2020 but because of family illness didn’t start using it till February 2021 and was dismayed that all scans were very grainy. I posted a question on Amazon and received very helpful responses from other users (thank you!) including the advice to contact Plustek customer support. They were very quick to respond and to provide further information and I’ve now successfully scanned good quality images. The scanning is fast and there are various options to “improve” the scans as well as latest drivers to download from the Plustek website and “how to” videos on YouTube. This has turned an initial disappointing experience to a positive one – many thanks all
I’m so happy with this. I’ve wanted to digitise old photos for a long time and this is so quick and easy to use. It’s also neat, not taking up too much space. I’m very happy with the file sizes which means I can edit them (I’m not using the editing tools as I do that elsewhere). Overall, this more than meets my expectations.
Bought this scanner to digitalise my old family photos and it is so quick and easy. The software allows you to adjust colours and sharpen the photos, which is very helpful. The only downside was a bit poor resolution within the software. But may be caused by my laptop or compatibility. The scanned photos look great.
This scans photos amazingly fast. I did keep my flatbed in case I wanted to scan something from a book etc. Easy to set up and easy to use
That said this is a great piece of kit and works very well. you have to feed each photo but take’s in the photo once the photo reaches a certain point and scans very quickly.
I have scanned over 1500 photos over about 10 hours and this includes filing them etc. far quicker than an all-in-one lifting and placing each one. I already have four other scanners 2No A4 BW both sheetfed, 1no A4 single sheet colour and 1no A3/A4 multi feed/single sheet colour. Three are Brother, one HP. All are very good but none does this job as well as the Plustek
Some reviews complain about the software but it does what it says on the tin its simple to use and once you get into the rhythm very easy. There is a limit of 50 photo for each batch but all you have to do is save this batch in a location of your choice and start again you can scan 1 or fifty it doesn’t matter and save each time.
The quality is fine and when you consider the age of some of the photos you are likely to scan and the cameras our ancestors used. This scanner brings out a good image sometimes better than the original. I am very pleased with it. One note, this scanner does not scan negatives for that you would need a Plustek OpticFilm 8200i SE which is about 300.
It’s been very good value for money especially when you consider the competition.
When I started to look for a photo scanner I was going to spend 400 plus on a multi-feed scanner, I’m glad I didn’t. As it’s very unlikely the very small photos from 40 – 90 years old would have been able to go in the auto feeder.
That said this is a great piece of kit and works very well. you have to feed each photo but take’s in the photo once the photo reaches a certain point and scans very quickly.
I have scanned over 1500 photos over about 10 hours and this includes filing them etc. far quicker than an all-in-one lifting and placing each one. I already have four other scanners 2No A4 BW both sheetfed, 1no A4 single sheet colour and 1no A3/A4 multi feed/single sheet colour. Three are Brother, one HP. All are very good but none does this job as well as the Plustek
Some reviews complain about the software but it does what it says on the tin its simple to use and once you get into the rhythm very easy. There is a limit of 50 photo for each batch but all you have to do is save this batch in a location of your choice and start again you can scan 1 or fifty it doesn’t matter and save each time.
The quality is fine and when you consider the age of some of the photos you are likely to scan and the cameras our ancestors used. This scanner brings out a good image sometimes better than the original. I am very pleased with it. One note, this scanner does not scan negatives for that you would need a Plustek OpticFilm 8200i SE which is about 300.
It’s been very good value for money especially when you consider the competition.
I had pictures dating back to 1950’s. Scanned, restored, snipped, stretched to ultimate resolution for making a photo book. Looks really really good. Could never have done it to same standard with an ordinary scanner.
Very easy to use could have done with a feeder tray but apart from excellent produc
It’s very fast, software with its adjustments is easy to use. However, very rarely need to use the adjustments as color balance is good for most photos. I was using a flat bed which was a pain, this is so much easier. You can get through hundreds of photos in a day. Thoroughly recommend it.
Very easy to use, can scan many photos by just dropping them into the scanner and they align themselves automatically. Also scans documents well.
Easy to operate. Takes only seconds to convert prints to digital.
I have just used this to scan more than a thousand photos (pre digital era) over two or three days. Using a flatbed printer/scanner would have taken me multiple weeks to do the same thing. The UI is terrific – just feed a photo into the top and watch it pop up on the screen and repeat – all automatic, no need to press a button. Once the images are scanned, the software makes it easy to adjust the photos in a number of ways and then to store them. Easily exceeded my expectations.
This scanner is excellent. Easy to download the software from the website. But make sure you install the software and plug the machine in the right order else it won’t scan! Very fast and great resolution.
The copier is very quick.
I tried the 600dpi which took about 3/4 seconds.
300 dpi proved acceptable quality, about 2 seconds.
Recommend.
The scanner was easy to set up and does exactly what I want of it (digitising many thousands of mostly 6×4 photo prints). The prints need to be fed in singly by hand, and they are scanned almost as fast as they can be inserted. The software offers a limited range of adjustments, which I find quite adequate to improve the look of the pictures by correcting exposure, white balance, and wonky horizons. All in all, it’s an excellent machine and for amateur use I thoroughly recommend it.
My usual photo scanning technique is to load four photos onto my flatbed scanner, scan them in to Photoshop, copy each one to a new file, then save. A very slow, and very tedious process. Years passed and the need to scan my mother’s photograph collection arose. I couldn’t face doing this my way. There had to be something better. There is – the Plustek Photo Scanner. As a practice run, I dug out all my unscanned photos and prepared to do battle. Less than an hour later, they were all scanned in and safely uploaded to OneDrive and Dropbox. The quality of the scans, even at 300dpi, is perfectly acceptable. I could not be happier with this scanner, and the prospect of scanning in over 1,000 additional photos does not fill me with any dread at all. Highly recommended. I wish I’d discovered this scanner earlier. It is exceptional value for money.
My usual photo scanning technique is to load four photos onto my flatbed scanner, scan them in to Photoshop, copy each one to a new file, then save. A very slow, and very tedious process. Years passed and the need to scan my mother’s photograph collection arose. I couldn’t face doing this my way. There had to be something better. There is – the Plustek Photo Scanner. As a practice run, I dug out all my unscanned photos and prepared to do battle. Less than an hour later, they were all scanned in and safely uploaded to OneDrive and Dropbox. The quality of the scans, even at 300dpi, is perfectly acceptable. I could not be happier with this scanner, and the prospect of scanning in over 1,000 additional photos does not fill me with any dread at all. Highly recommended. I wish I’d discovered this scanner earlier. It is exceptional value for money.
Such an easy machine to use and speeds are as described.
The images are good at 300 dpi and I am keeping the photos should I wish to save again at a higher resolution.
Made a difficult job easy.
I bought the scanner primarily for scanning A4 sized documents as well as receipts and other pieces of paper. Having used flatbed scanners for many years, the Plustek scanner is a revelation, especially in terms of speed. It is very helpful to have an option for saving as a multi page pdf, up to 50 pages. The software installed with ease on a PC using windows 10. There is nothing I don’t like about the software. Every aspect of this scanner seems to work well. Highly recommended.
Very fast. Drop the picture in the top and it’s scanned and sent to my laptop in 3 to 4 seconds. Scans 50 then save to file on laptop and ready to scan another 50 in about 20 seconds. So so much easier than using a flat bed scanner.
The scanner is very practical and fast to use, you can scan several times faster than a flat bed scanner, which is its main feature. Quality is okay and replicates old 15x 10 photos adequately, considering the quality off Old photos themselves I think this it is sufficient.
I am currently adding a zillion photos to my computer after putting it off for many years. Flat scanners were too time consuming and awkward for sizing. This item is incredible and I just sit watching TV popping in photos one at a time very quickly. It is the best so far that I’ve found if you want to organise and save your photos, documents etc to your computer. It takes the thickness of a greeting card and some cardboard backed items. If you want to save your sanity I think this has to be one of the best photo scanning equipment on the market. Simple to install, simple to use. I love it.
We looked at other reviews and purchased this as we have a whole load of photos to scan from my late MiLs house. My husband is in awe of how it is taking tiny square pictures from back in the 60’s and bringing them up as crisp as anything, the software package with it is super. Would definitely recommend it to others
Just what I have been looking for. Quality good, if scanned on normal, quite good enough for most historic “snaps”. Difficult to keep up with scanning unless you have a pile ready to go. Obviously the higher quality takes a little longer, very happy with results. With boxes of APS system photos to scan and several family albums to digitise I am sure it will soon earn its keep.
This is very easy to set up- if your operating system is up to date! Mine wasn’t, but once I got that sorted, this was really straightforward. I like the speed too, I’m trying to digitise all my parents’ photos as I don’t physically have space for them all, and this is certainly getting through them.
I’ve only had the scanner a week now but first impressions are that it is fantastic.
Software installation was simple and image quality was spot on out of the box.
So fast and easy to use. I have scanned over two thousand photos already. I probably managed about five hundred/hour whereas with my old flatbed scanner I’d have been lucky to manage fifty.
Highly recommended if you’ve got loads of prints that you want digitised.
Real value for money when you compare to getting the job done through a photo processing shop or online service.
so quick and easy to use – centralises photos itself in seconds
only drawback is the software which is fairly simplistic and could probably do with updating
Have had this a couple of weeks now. Very easy to scan onto the computer. Need a bit of discipline to appropriately tag each item.
Have used for photos and for document. Very useful feature of grouping multiple pages into a PDF – need to save photos or documents accordingly.
As a novice, I found this quite easy to use once I had developed the discipline of organising my scanned photos and documents.
Can’t really fault it compared with 3 others I returned for refunds due to poor quality or lack of ease handling. Has 2 resolution options, 300 dpi or 600 dpi. The latter is slower but is easy to keep up with whereas 300 dpi is very quick and just creates more pressure doing the job keeping up with the flow. Latest scan figures, I did 120 7 x 5 inch photos in less than 45 mins. Qhaulity excellent, no jamming, pictures square and results require hardly any cropping needed. Worth the money.
Can’t really fault it compared with 3 others I returned for refunds due to poor quality or lack of ease handling. Has 2 resolution options, 300 dpi or 600 dpi. The latter is slower but is easy to keep up with whereas 300 dpi is very quick and just creates more pressure doing the job keeping up with the flow. Latest scan figures, I did 120 7 x 5 inch photos in less than 45 mins. Qhaulity excellent, no jamming, pictures square and results require hardly any cropping needed. Worth the money.
I bought this scanner to digitise my old photograph collection which is up the attic and never gets looked at. I have scanned thousands of photos that would have been a tedious chore using a flatbed but with this you just feed them in one after the other and that’s it. A brilliant investment. Just plugged in, installed software and that was it.
This is the best product I have bought for a long time. Very easy to set up and the scanner is precise and very fast.
The software is easy to install and very easy to use ( I chose to use on Windows after reading it is not so compatible with Mac).
I have a lot of old family photographs to scan and after three days of use have found this machine and software absolutely wonderful…….
Amazing bit if kit, scanned 3500 photos on and off over a weekend.
Really quick and auto crops brilliant
Wouldn’t like to think what it would cost to get the scanned by a company.
The software works really well and the quick scan is more than good enough quality looks great on a 52 inch TV
Great scanner if you want to digitise your old photos. Only problem was loading the programme as my laptop has no dvd drive. I downloaded from the website, but then nothing happened, ie it didn’t automatically open up. Fiddled about for hours, eventually got it to work but no idea how! However, once installed it’s a dream to use and everything is now safely on my cloud
Having inherited my parents and grandparents photos . This is the best option to store them digitally it’s just so easy to use we’ve set it up on a pc using the installation disc and on a MacBook laptop by downloading the plustek software with no problems at all. A lot of photos where faded or yellowed the auto correct returned colour balance and warmth back to life though you can do so much more with it
As It scans a photo in 2 seconds you can get through quite a lot in an hour just by doing a bit of sorting beforehand. It also will scan paperwork with no problem. It’s saved a real storage problem for us and means I can copy and share all the photos at the click of a button and keep all those precious memories in one place.
It occasionally crashes. Its not useful for small pictures as is resolution isn’t fine enough.
but for domestic scanning of archived family photos its grea
This is a great product I’m useing it through my MacBook Pro had to download a file to use with the Mac but no problem.
I have copied over a thousand photos and still have another thousand to go all on to memory sticks will make a great gift for my daughters.
This a great bit of kit well worth the money and will save you so much time
Used it to catalog/archive all our old physical photos… it’s speed and ease of use saved us weeks of work. The way you create and navigate folders is a bit clunky ,but in every other way this was brilliant.
I bought this as I’d decided to digitise all my photos and then moving onto all my parents old photos. It’s quite a big project with thousands of photos to go through. I wouldn’t have even considered starting this project if I’d have to use a flat bed scanner which would have taken ages.
Each photo is scanned in only couple of seconds. From there you can edit the photo- crop change colour /brightness etc and then Isave it into my computer picture files. I found the red eye correction tool didn’t work unfortunately, and would have liked a bit more photo editing ability. You only seem to be able to put 50 photos through at once before the machine stops and blinks orange at you – you have to save the photos and move them to another place- which took me some time to realise. I have used the 300dpi setting for everything- when I did try and use the 600dpi for a professional photo – the quality looked much worse than the normal 300 setting-I don’t know what I was doing wrong there!
I’m really pleased with the scanner overall – whilst fairly expensive- it is preserving my precious photos for generations to come!