Photo Scanner Buyer's Guide

Comparing Photo Scanners

Researching photo scanners is not an easy task. Some photo scanners are designed for single photo scans while other flat bed scanners will let you scan photos in batches - but batch photo scanners can be very expensive.

In this section, we will focus on consumer photo scanners that you might use in your home or office. That said, your first objective is to think about how many photos you plan on scanning. The average household has 500 to 1,000 photos to scan. If you plan on scanning a lot of photos, you should really consider ScanCafe's photo scanning services because we can save you a ton of time, energy, and headaches.

However, if you are really focused on buying a photo scanner, our photo scanning experts have aggregated the top criteria for selecting a photo scanner below.

Top Tips for Buying a Photo Scanner

Photo scanners are designed for archiving images with excellent image resolution, highly sensitive color, slide and photo negative holders, as well as the ability to remove red-eye, dust and scratches, restore color, and more.

The following are the key questions to review before making your selection:

1. What do you want to scan?
   Only photos: If you only want to scan photos, go for a flat bed scanner that does not provide features for transparent media such as slides and negatives. This will put you in the sub $200 range.
   
   Photos and negatives/slides: Flat bed scanners that have the capability to scan transparent media (slides/negatives) are more expensive since they usually have two detectors (top and bottom). We recommend the EPSON 4490 or the EPSON 4990 for photos, but we recommend the Nikon 5000 ED and Nikon 9000 ED for slide scanning and negative scanning.

2. How much time do you have for scanning?
   Most flatbed scanners can only scan 1 to 2 photos at a time so before you buy a scanner, you should understand that it takes a long time to do it yourself. It takes time to set up the equipment, learn how to scan, and then actually do the scanning. For the $200-$300 it costs to buy a scanner, you could scan approximately 1,000 photos using ScanCafe's photo scanning service. Plus, it will probably take you 2-3 months of time to scan those images on your own. Better to spend your time enjoying life rather tediously scanning photos.

3. What resolution or quality should you expect?
   This question really determines the scanner's resolution. We recommend 600dpi capable scanners since these meet the needs of the hobbyist and the professional. See our quality comparisons to see how the differences in dpi effect your photo scans.

4. Color sensitivity or bit depth?
   Stated simply, the greater the bit depth, the more vibrant color, detail, and contrast in your scans. We recommend at least 8bit depth (per color channel, i.e. 24bit for RGB) for the hobbyist and 16bit for the professional

5. Dust and scratch removal?
   Kodak's Digital ICE software is provided on some scanner brands. While ICE software is a necessity for scanning negatives and slides, we believe using this feature on scanning photos is not essential and not worth the extra money. Just make sure you wipe the photos and flat bed before you scan! However, if you plan on using the flatbed for photo and negative or slide scanning, make sure the scanner has Digital ICE.
   
   If the photo is in bad shape, you should scan at the highest resolution and then explore photo restoration services after you have scanned the photo.

6. Size of photographs?
   A flatbed scanner with a bed size of 8x11.5 is sufficient for most photo scans. If you have larger photos, we recommend using a photo-stitching feature from a photo editing program. Spending extra dollars on a larger flatbed is really not worth the investment.

7. Who makes the best scanners?
   We are very excited about the EPSON 4490 and the EPSON 4990 flatbed scanners. You can also find good flatbed scanners from HP or Canon. If you want to buy a scanner, we suggest checking out Ritz Camera or a shopping comparison site like Pricegrabber.com.