<p>I “need” a scanner, mostly to capture my 30 plus years of photos onto my computer. Ultimately I want to put together photo books for each child. (A lofty goal, but I love the idea.)
Suggestions?<br>
Photos are the main focus, but the ability to scan the occasional document would also be handy.</p>
<p>Oh, and any ideas on managing all those photos on the computer? The two large boxes of prints I have hasn’t been a very good system…</p>
<p>Nocando, I purchased an Epson Perfection V500 Flatbed scanner this past spring for the same reason. (I scanned probably one hundred fifty photos before my son’s high school graduation and had the ‘slide show’ running on a digital photo frame at his grad party.) </p>
<p>It cost about $140, purchased at a local Office Depot with a coupon. It will also scan slides, documents, and negatives, so I will eventually go through and scan many slides and negs that were my dad’s, along with the rest of my photos.</p>
<p>It was very easy to set up and sync with my laptop, I filed all of the pics in folders on the computer based on what year/grade they were taken. I then immediately backed them up on a separate flash drive so that if the laptop crashes I won’t have to scan them all again!</p>
<p>Seems like I could scan up to 4 (4X6) photos at a time, the software will separate them out into individual photos for you. I didn’t get very far into the included Photoshop software, just scanned and scanned and scanned! I did have to make sure after every scan to use the included soft cloth to wipe any dust off of the glass and the photos, the old photos brought some dust bunnies with them, and the scanner will pick up every little imperfection and dust particle!</p>
<p>I researched the heck out of scanners in this price range, so far I am very pleased with this one, I would highly recommend that you take a look!</p>
<p>Ok, this may be a dumb question but. . . do you know if the Epson Perfection V500 would be a higher quality scanner than say an HP flatbed scanner that is part of a HP printer and copier? I want to make copies for the same reason as the OPs and will purchase whatever is needed so that the quality of the image is very good.</p>
<p>We use an Epson V330 flatbed scanner for scanning photos. I got this one because it comes with a slide adapter to be able to scan slides as well. It also uses LEDs as the light source which provides a more consistent light source than a fluorescent light some other scanners have.</p>
<p>Don’t get too caught up in the resolution specs since you probably won’t scan at the top resolution anyway because it takes too long and the medium resolution scans are pretty good.</p>
<p>You could scan with an HO flatbed scanner that’s part of an all-in-one. As far as the quality and speed of scanning goes, you’d probably have to read some comparison tests.</p>
<p>I chose the Epson V330 after researching which one to use or scanning photos/slides.</p>
<p>Helpermom, I also have an HP ‘all-in-one’ printer/fax/copier/scanner that I use with my desktop computer. It is about 5-6 years old, so I don’t know if the newer ones are better, but the Epson scanner is light years ahead of the HP in terms of quality as far as photo scans are concerned.</p>
<p>I am getting ready to ditch the HP and go with a wireless printer for normal printing and copying. I don’t need the fax capability anymore, and the Epson scanner will do everything else I need. It also uses LED light, and I agree with GGD that the super high resolution is not needed for most applications.</p>
<p>Epson has several scanners in a variety of price ranges, and they seemed to rate out higher in most consumer comparisons that I saw.</p>
<p>IF you have a ton of pictures, you might consider sending them out to be scanned. The time involved is not trivial.</p>
<p>Amen</p>
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<p>I’ve had an Epson Perfection V300 flatbed for a few years and have been satisfied with its scanning capability. It does slides and negatives too. But one of the best features is that it can scan multi-page documents and convert them into a PDF; makes it easy to create attachments.</p>
<p>Super resolution may not be a great idea if you’re scanning Kodak color prints from 40 years ago :). Any scanner will likely be more than what the prints need. If you’re scanning negatives, it’s another story.</p>
<p>The real value of the Epsons is really the software that can be used to ‘repair’ pictures and so on. It s a chore, but nothing that one can’t do a few at a time.</p>
<p>If you want to talk time waster, transfer 200+ LP’s and 100+ cassette tapes to MP3.</p>
<p>Thank you, all, good information. Even in my limited, early research, Epson kept coming up to the top. And I have been getting bogged down by those “resolution specs”, so helpful to know I don’t have to over fixate and find one with a gazillion x gazillion something or other.</p>
<p>As suggested, I am dealing with the classic Kodak prints. Possibly some negatives for missing pictures, so I’m curious to see what I might be able to do with those. It’s really amazing what we can do at home now! It’ll be a slog, but I’ll be sorting, reordering and eliminating as I’m scanning, so I think it’s an in house project. (One dear child “surprised” me with a photo collage years ago, destroying my modest organization system in the process.)</p>
<p>LPs? Don’t even want to think about it.</p>
<p>For the same reasons as the OP my children did the research and got me the CanoScan 9000. Very easy to use.</p>
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For me the LPs were easy - I just loaded them up and donated them to a charity place. Firstly, I know that I’d never really listen to many of them anymore. Secondly, if I did want to listen to that music, I’d much rather listen to a digital version of it without the scratches, pops, hassle. Thirdly, they take up a lot of space. Fourthly, someone else might appreciate them more than me and buy them which will help the charity so it’s a win-win-win.</p>
<p>On the scanner, just get an Epson V330 and be done with it. It’s only $79.99 on Amazon and some other places.</p>
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<p>My results using high end high fi equipment and lots of computer processing were often better than the original LP’s remastered en masse to store CD’s back when CD’s first came out (AAD). With the right software you can get rid of most of the pops, scratches, and such. Great time waster, but doable :)</p>
<p>To a great extent this holds true for pictures also. It’s post processing that can really show images, or restore old pictures…</p>