Picture perfect photo scanners

If you're a convert to digital photography, you're likely to have an extensive collection of digital images on your computer. But what about all those photos you've taken with your old 35mm camera over the years?

Rather that allowing them to go on gathering dust in the attic, why not store them on your PC? It's the easiest way to manage your photo collection, and if you get hold of some image-editing software you can even restore old, tatty pictures and make them as good as new.

First of all, though, you'll need a photo scanner to transform your printed photos into digital images. There are plenty of models to choose from and many scanners will even handle your old slides and negatives.

We've rounded up five photo scanners that will scan photos, negatives and slides to help you breathe life into your old snaps.

BENQ 7400 UT
As with all the other scanners here, the 7400UT from BenQ connects to your PC's USB 2 port and once you've installed the software on the accompanying CD, you are pretty much ready to go.

The unit's control panel has five buttons, each of which performs a different function with just one press. The Scan to web button, for example, scans the original and attaches the file it creates directly to an email, which is handy if you're scanning a photo to send to friends and family.

There are also buttons that allow you to scan material to a handheld computer and scan documents to optical character recognition (OCR) software, which reads the text in your scan and converts it to editable text.

We used each of the models on test here to scan a selection of photos and to test for scanned image quality and speed.

The BenQ boasts the highest transparencies resolution of all the scanners here at 2,400 x 4,800 dpi, but we tested all the scanners at 300 dpi to allow us to compare the output of the scanners more fairly.

Overall, the colours in the scans we produced using the BenQ were darker and duller than those in our test originals. Colours were not consistent across the whole of our test A4 colour scan, which the BenQ took just over 34 seconds to produce - the longest of all the scanners here.

There are two quality settings for scanning colour photos: a default setting and a high quality setting. Scanning using the high quality setting is a lengthy process; the BenQ took 37 seconds to scan a 6 x 4 inch colour photo on this setting, while the default quality setting took about half this time.

This was still considerably longer than any of the other scanners here. There wasn't much to differentiate between the scans we produced using the two settings, although the higher quality scan was slightly sharper, with lighter colours.

The BenQ repeated its rather sluggish performance across the board in our tests, making it the laggard of this group by quite a long way. Considering it is the most expensive of the five scanners here, we had hoped for more.
Price: £119
Contact: www.benq.co.uk

CANON 3200F
The Canon 3200F is a sleek-looking unit with a control panel that consists of four clearly labelled buttons. These allow you to scan an original straight to an image-editing application, scan straight to a printer and scan to your email application.

There's also a 'scan to file' option that scans your original and saves the scan as a PDF document. A special hinge on the unit allows the scanner lid to lift up high enough to accommodate thicker items such as books, which is a very handy design feature, even if you're planning to use the unit primarily to scan photos.

On paper the 3200F does not offer the highest optical resolution of the printers on test here, with a maximum resolution of 1,200 x 2,400 dpi. It performed well in our tests, however, reproducing rich colours and fine detail well.

The scan of our black-and-white test photo was a little too light but the Canon nonetheless managed to capture all the scratches and marks on the photo well.

The test scan of our black-and-white strip of negatives was darker than the original but outlines were sharp and fine detail was crisply captured so you could easily correct this with basic image-editing software.

Scan speeds were impressive across the board, placing the Canon way out in front of the rest of the pack. The A4 colour test image took 16 seconds to scan, while the colour and black-and-white photos took just 5 seconds and 4 seconds respectively. Considering that the 3200F is the cheapest scanner here, we were pleasantly surprised at its great results.
Price: £69
Contact: www.canon.co.uk

EPSON 1670 PHOTO
With built-in software to help bring faded colours in old photos back to life, the Epson 1670 seems an ideal choice for anyone wanting to restore faded or damaged snaps.

It offers a maximum scan resolution of 1,600 x 3,200 dpi and, while it wasn't as fast as other models here, it performed well in all our tests.

Colours in the Epson's scan of our test A4 colour photo were not as bright as those produced by the Canon but they were still rich and pretty close to those in the original image.

The Epson lagged behind the Canon only slightly in terms of speed when reproducing our 6 x 4 inch photos and put in its most impressive performance scanning the test black-and-white photo.

Tones were spot-on and the Epson picked out all scratches and marks on the original, making it easy to correct these flaws using an image-editing package.

The results of our test negative scans were good, although the colour negative took a staggering 80 seconds to scan, which will disappoint all but the most patient of users. The transparency holder can be stored away in the scanner lid once you've finished.

Although the Epson is not the best looking of the scanners here, it's built well and feels solid. The buttons on the control panel offer standard functions that let you scan an original straight to a web page, save your scan as an email attachment and scan to a printer, as we've seen on other models. You also get a copy of ArcSoft's PhotoImpression software so you can edit and manage your images.
Price: £89
Contact: www.epson.co.uk

HP SCANJET 3970
The control panel on the HP ScanJet features all the buttons you'd expect on a scanner - which let you scan an original straight to your printer, email application or website - but offers an additional function: disc creation.

This sends your scanned images to your PC ready to create CDs or DVDs, so you can view your holiday snaps on your PC or home entertainment system. The ScanJet also comes bundled with OCR software so you can convert documents to editable text.

The HP can scan photos and documents at resolutions of up to 2,400 x 2,400 dpi and matched the Canon in our tests in terms of image quality. Colours in our test scans were bright and outlines were sharp.

Only the scan of our colour negative was slightly disappointing as it was washed with a slightly green tinge. Scan speeds were pretty good, with our A4 test image taking 17 seconds to scan, while the HP produced scans of both the test transparencies in 20 seconds.

This is the only scanner here to have a transparency adapter built into the lid of the unit and you need to insert your slides or negatives in here before you start scanning. If you're unsure how to use it, you can follow the diagrams printed on the accompanying instruction poster.

It may be one of the pricier models here but the HP is still a good buy.
Price: £99
Contact: www.hp.com/uk

XEROX 4800TA
The design of the Xerox scanner differs slightly from that of the other models here, incorporating a lid that is hinged along one of the unit's longest sides.

There are five buttons on the control panel offering different scanning options, one of which can be programmed to scan documents straight to another application on your PC.

You can scan at a maximum resolution of 1,200 x 4,800 dpi using the Xerox and we were impressed by the quality of our first test scan, the A4 image, which featured faithfully reproduced colours and a good level of detail.

Sadly, the results of our other tests did not match up to this first one. While the Xerox's scan speeds placed it in the middle of the pack, the scans of our 6 x 4in colour photo and colour negative were dark with an orange tint, and the scan of the black-and-white test photo lacked sharpness, particularly when compared to the output of the Canon and Epson scanners.

Overall, the performance of the Xerox was disappointing but the unit comes bundled with some good software, including Scansoft Paperport, which features an OCR application and tools to help you archive and organise all your documents and images. You also get a copy of Ulead's PhotoExpress photo-editing software thrown in.
Price: £90
Contact: www.xeroxscanners.com/uk

The digital divide
If you're looking to bring your old snaps into the digital age then any of the scanners here will be more than up to the job of helping you transfer your images to your PC.

None of the models we've looked at will break the bank and, as they all come equipped with transparency adapters, it doesn't matter if you've perhaps lost a printed photo and just have the negatives.

In the end, though, the Epson 1670 Photo gets our Buy It award because it's a great all-rounder. We were particularly impressed with the sharp scans it produced from black-and-white photos and negatives.

If you're more concerned about price than quality, however, the Canon would be a sound choice. It's good-looking, gives very little away in the quality department and at £69 represents excellent value for money.

Photo finish
To save your digital images to a CD or DVD you'll need a PC with a recordable CD or DVD drive, which come as standard on most new computers now. Secondly, you'll need some CD or DVD burning software to guide you through the process of transferring your images to disc.

There are many packages available to choose from. Easy CD & DVD Creator from Roxio costs £40 and lets you save photos, video or music files to disc. You can edit photos, add special effects to videos and easily create slideshows. You can download the software from www.roxio.co.uk.

Alternatively, Nero from Ahead Software is a little more pricey at £55 but is easy to use and can be downloaded from www.nero.com.

If you have Windows XP on your PC, however, you've already got the tools you need to create a digital photo album on disc. Although you can't add any fancy features or edit your images, it's great for backing up your precious images, it's easy to use and won't cost you a thing.

Firstly, you need to insert a blank CD into your computer's CD drive. Then, transfer all the images you want to save to disc to one folder, double-click on the folder to open it and select Folder Options from the Tools menu.

Under the General tab, click in the circle next to the Show common tasks in folders option and click on OK. In the menu that should have appeared on the left of the folder pane, select Copy all items to CD and let Windows do the rest.

The resolution riddle
The specifications of a scanner or a digital camera will include the model's resolution. In the case of a scanner, this refers to the amount of information that the scanner sensor collects when it 'reads' the original.

You should always go by a scanner's optical resolution. This is its true resolution, although manufacturers sometimes quote a vastly inflated 'maximum' resolution, which is achieved using software to enlarge the scanned image without actually capturing any more detail.

A scanner's optical resolution is measured in dots per inch (dpi), as a scanner makes up a scan by capturing information in lines of dots, which it then pieces together to form an image of your original document.

You'll often see a scanner's resolution quoted as two numbers, such as 1,200 x 4,800 dpi. This means that the scanner will read your image in lines of a maximum of 1,200 dots and will read a maximum of 4,800 lines of dots per inch of the scanned page.

The higher the numbers, the greater the detail captured. You may also see scanner resolution quoted as a single number, for example 300dpi. This actually means that the scanner's resolution is 300 x 300 dpi and that it will pick up 300 lines of 300 dots for each inch of the scanned page.