Many scanners try to make life easier with a variety of modes that change the scanner’s settings behind the scenes. The downside? You’ll still need a separate flatbed scanner for photo prints and other documents.Įpson Perfection V300 Choosing the scanner modeĪfter you’ve picked a scanner and have a box of old photos ready to scan, it’s time to choose the scanner settings. The advantage of a film scanner is that you can get much higher-quality images than with flatbed slide adapters.
If you intend to scan your closet full of film, keep an eye out for film scanners-a model like the Plustek OpticFilm 7400, for example, has a feeder for loading five slides at a time and can scan at an extremely high 7200 dpi. While you can probably get by with the scanner you already have, you might want to think differently if you’re shopping for a new one. However, be aware that most scanners built into multifunction printers don’t have the ability to do slides and negatives. Just look for slide and negative capabilities in the scanner’s features list (like the one for the Epson Perfection V300, a favorite of mine).