Top Photo Scanners for Digitizing Your Photos

The HP Scanjet G4050 photo scanner can make prints at up to 4,800x9,600 dpi resolution not only of photos but also documents, though scanning something at that resolution is going to take some serious time. This photo scanner really shines when it comes to photos. It comes with a high-capacity adapter that can scan as many as 16 35-mm slide or 30 negative frames, with each saved as separate files. It includes software to remove red-eye and enhance dark images as well as restore color to old photos. The scanner can make other fixes, such as removing dust and scratches from photos, happen with the touch of a button (you can also scan directly to PDF for e-mailing ease). It has a retail price of $199.99 direct from HP.

Scanning an archive of old photos isn’t much fun if each image needs to be tweaked. This Canon photo scanner automates many of those tweaks, such as removing dust and scratches. It also makes working with your scans a simpler task; multiple buttons automate scanning so that you can quickly scan and e-mail an image or create a PDF, and the bundled software includes two excellent photo-editing applications. The scanner can handle 12 negatives or four slides at once. With a retail price of $179.99, it’s the cheapest of the Top Photo Scanner Picks, so it’s a good bargain as well. It doesn’t come with an automated document feeder, but if that’s not an issue for you it could take the place of an all-purpose scanner.

This Epson photo scanner gives great value for under $200. It comes with great bundled software (including Adobe Photoshop Elements) and holders for slides and negatives. The holders feel a bit flimsy and the automatic document feeder is extra, but otherwise this did a great job of digitizing some old negatives and photographs, and helping me get them looking new again. With a little more paper documentation, this Epson photo scanner would be even better, but it's still a great deal.

If money is no object, and you need the top-of-the-line scanner for film and photographs, the Nikon photo scanner might be the right one for you. Nikon is known for its lenses, and this scanner has an Extra-low Dispersion glass lens that help handle contrast better. It also uses a proprietary LED illumination technology, an important bonus since the quality of light is one of the big factors in scanning. Nikon says the Coolscan has 4,000 bit true optical resolution, meaning that it’s going to give richly colored and sharp results. It can hold multiple slides or film strips and there’s even an optional slide glass for microscopes. Image-editing applications come bundled with the scanner. The Coolscan retails for $599.99.

This pricey Epson photo scanner uses a Dual Lens System, where the scanner automatically chooses from two lenses to give the best scan resolution. It also features easy ways to digitally remove dust and scratches from film to make retouching simpler (and comes with additional image-editing software). With 48-bit color depth, there’s no question that you’ll get rich images. The unit can hold 12 35-mm slides or 24 35-mm film strips. Epson’s suggested retail price is $549.99, and for that price it’s not surprising that it makes an effort to provide some all-purpose scanning capability, with features like optical character recognition. Epson photo scanners typically get great reviews, so it may be worth the investment.