Your kids likely have no concept of film or developing photos, but if you’re over the age of 30, there’s a good chance that you have a shoebox or two somewhere in your home filled with pictures—4” x 6” prints that you had developed long ago. Problem is, in this digital age they’re probably not being looked at regularly, if ever. Epson has a new photo scanner designed to help you turn those shoeboxes into files…fast.

The Epson FastFoto FF-640 claims to be the fastest photo scanner in the world. At just one second per photo, I can attest to the fact that it is, indeed, fast. A stack of 100 photos is turned into digital files in a matter of minutes. You can load 30 photos of the same size at a time, and the included organization software makes it easy to scan multiple batches into the same collection. Files are named accordingly and placed into appropriate folders.

The software does a good job of automatically tweaking those photos to make them look better. It improves contrast and colors and, in my case, made some of my older photos look better. It can also scan the back of the photos. Many of us have handwritten notes on the back of old photos that we wouldn’t want to lose when they go digital.

Once you scan in all of your old photos, then what? The Fast Foto can be used as a document scanner too. This is a nice secondary use since most of us are no longer getting photos developed. At $600 it’s an expensive scanner; I might even suggest splitting the cost with another family or friend and sharing it. Despite the cost, it’s the easiest way to preserve memories forever.