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Robert asked: “I’m interested in buying a photo scanner. Do you have any suggestions or recommendations for me?”
It really depends on whether you want a reflective scanner, a transparency scanner, or one that does both. Reflective refers to the traditional flatbed scanner, where you lift the cover and put the photo on the glass. A light source reflects off the photo and the image is scanned. Transparency scanners work with slides. It shines light through a transparent image and captures it that way. Some scanners can do both, but the more capable and higher resolution scanner you have, the more it costs.
An Epson Perfection V800 Photo scanner produces great images from reflective or transparency scans, at 6400 DPI, but it will set you back around $650. If you wanted to scan slides exclusively, a Plustek OpticFilm 8200i will do 6400 DPI scans for around $450. But you don’t need to pay that unless you want near-professional grade results. A Canon CanoScan LiDE 120 Color Scanner will do standard reflective scans at 2400 DPI, which is good enough for 99% of your regular guy scanner tasks, for about $75.
You don’t need to pay that unless you want near-professional grade results
Canon and Epson are generally agreed to be the top of the heap when it comes to PC color scanners, with the Epson scanners being able to handle both reflective and transparency scans. So look for those brand names, even if you can’t find the specific models we recommended. Good luck, and let us know what you decide.