Alternative to Epson's FF-680W scanner for bulk (print) scanning - are "photo" scanners scammy?

[Navegador]

As usual I’m not sure where to post my question, this time I was in doubt between here and the " Visual Arts & Design" section. But yeah, it’s more of a hardware question.

So I gotta scan my parents’ old photos before they fade completely - both my folks and the photos themselves I should say. There’s absolutely no way I’ll do this with a flatbed scanner, though I’m well aware of their image quality advantage for this application. So I’m looking for batch scanners with “Auto Document Feed” (ADF). Those office-type document scanners.

Now, Epson sells a FF-680W model that is “geared towards photos” and highly recommended by most reviews Google could present me on page 100 or whatever (see Wendell’s and Steve’s Google rant video). Problem is, I can’t get that model locally (to my parents’place) and importing would make it even more ridiculously expensive. So my options right now are Canon, Brother and Ricoh/Fujitsu.

Canon sells a model RS40 that received lukewarm reviews but is branded as a photo-oriented ADF scanner. It sells an almost identical R40 model for about US$70 less. And Brother sells its ADS-4700W scanner, which seems much more capable (wifi connection, more scanning options) for about the same price as R40. There’s also a Canon R50 scanner (NOT the camera) which sells for the same price as the RS40 but has networking, I think, though no specs mention “photo” specific capabilities.

With that in mind I have a few questions, but they kinda boil down to, do I need / will I be better off with a “photo” ADF scanner? Or is the “photo” label just that, a label?

As a bit of a postscript, it seems that Canon bundles more photo-oriented software with RS40 compared to the others. That brings the question of whether I could just download that and use it with R40 or R50, or is that option blocked by Canon.

Also, is there anything special in the photo models’ hardware that I’m missing (Canon RS40, Epson FF-680W)? Is the photo thing just a scam to upsell the same scanner?

Questions, questions. I’d love to hear (well, read) your insights and experiences on the “scanning shoeboxes full of prints” front. Please, PLEASE don’t recommend me a flatbed

[aBav.Normie-Pleb]

I have a Brother ADS-3600W since 2016 and am very happy with it. But have never used it for “traditional” photos, will have to look if I find some to test it with the scanner. Looks pretty similar to the ADS-4700W.

What I like about Brother is that they are regularly releasing firmware fixes publicly without any hastles.

[pyroholtz]

I’ve always been surprised with how well it works to take a new digital photo of a printed photo, just by using a modern smart phone. I’m thinking unless your photos are all exactly the same size, the ADF function may not load and scan well through a bunch of photos unattended. Just quickly snapping photos of each in a properly lit room might go quicker.