Scan your film and slide photos straight to a memory card - no computer required

Very fast ; fairly easy to use ; scans straight to memory card

Very poor results

Poor results mean that other scanners are a far better choice than this one

Scan text and images with this handheld device

Image quality is only acceptable with rock steady hands and an entirely flat surface

Convert handwritten notes to PDF

No installation required ; works as a USB memory key ; good value

Handwriting recognition not always reliable

A great way to back up or share handwritten notes using a PC

Get those old slides and negatives onto your computer

Quick scans in general ; well built ; easy to use

Photos and other scans required a bit of retouching

A good all-round scanner at an impressive price

Get both documents and photos in digital form

USB power, needs no mains connection ; Unobtrusive, low profile ; Double hinge for book scanning ; Good software bundle

Unimpressive scan speed ; Untidy cabling

Scan speed is reasonable for a scanner in this price bracket, but at around 20 seconds for a 300dpi page - the minimum for OCR - and 50 seconds for a 600dpi photo scan, it's not going to break any records. It's a quiet device, though, and working with ...

Get closer to the paperless office

One-touch creation of searchable PDFs ; double-sided scanning

A little pricey ; slightly imprecise document feeder

A compact, quick and easy way to scan, store and retrieve documents

High-volume scanning with impressive results

Impressive sound quality ; Comfortable to wear

Audible thud when cable is snagged

: A decent enterprise class document management for small offices and the home

A sheetfed scanner small enough to fit in a briefcase

Noisy when in use ; Not good value

Good EPG ; Two tuners

Fujitsu has created an incredibly small automatic document feed scanner in the Scansnap S300, which offers a 10-sheet paper tray capable of handling sizes from A4 right down to business cards.

This film scanner takes a bit of tinkering to get the best results

Plustek's Opticfilm range of film (negative and slide) scanners tend to give good results, but it takes a little tinkering to make the most of the scanned images.

Good quality scans at a fair price

Comes with great software ; Good quality scans

Scanning can be a bit slow ; Bulky device

Canon's Canoscan 8800F is a traditional flatbed scanner, as opposed to the combined printer-scanners that are more popular nowadays.