You can usually count on Epson scanners to deliver better than average bang for the buck. The Epson Perfection V600 Photo ($249.99 direct, covered by a standard 1-year parts and labor warranty) is no exception.

High-quality scans. Fully automatic mode for easy scanning. Scans both 35mm and medium-format film

Scans only four 35mm slides at a time. Weak on office tasks

The Epson Perfection V600 Photo offers high-quality scans for prints and both 35mm and medium-format film, plus an exceptionally easy-to-use scan utility.

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Reasonably capable for photographic prints. Backlight correction and color restore features in driver

Film scan doesn't work for slides. Scans only one frame of film at a time. Film scanning is extremely cumbersome

The Canon CanoScan LiDE 700F handles photographic prints and, to a lesser extent, documents reasonably well, but its film scan capability is best ignored.

Starting with the first version of Fujitsu's ScanSnap scanner that I reviewedthe ScanSnap fi-5110EOX, in 2004Fujitsu has done a great job of turning out one impressive model after another, ratcheting up the performance and features over the years. The ...

Document and business-card scanner. Rated at 20 pages per minute (ppm), or 40 images per minute (ipm) for scanning both sides

Lack of a standard driver means you can't give a scan command from within a program

The Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 is the most impressive ScanSnap model yet, but it doesn't provide a standard scan driver, which would give it more flexibility.

Scanner technology tends to improve over time, benefiting consumers mostly through lowering the cost for a given level of capability. The Epson Perfection V300 Photo scanner ($99.99 direct, which includes a one-year parts-and-labor warranty) is a case ...

Scores well on quality and ease of use for scanning both photographic prints and transparencies (slides and strips of film)

Scans only four slides or one six-frame strip of film at a time

The Epson Perfection V300 Photo scanner scans both prints and transparencies (slides and strips of film) surprisingly well, and even comes with an optical character recognition program.

Epson has a long history of selling scanners, but they've been primarily photocentric flatbed scanners. The Epson WorkForce Pro GT-S50 ($499.99 direct) is differentneither photocentric nor flatbed. It's small enough to fit on a desktop to use as a ...

Fast scans. Duplex scanning (both sides at once). ISIS and Twain drivers let it work with virtually any scan program

Scan utility is a little hard to learn how to customize. Business-card scanning is below par

The Epson WorkForce Pro GT-S50 scanner is impressive enough to earn high marks despite software that's best described as capable but a little hard to get started with.

Any flatbed scanner is technically suitable for all-purpose scanning, since you can scan anything on it. But some are clearly targeted more for some uses than others. A case in point is the Canon CanoScan 5600F ($149.99 direct), which focuses on ...

High-quality scans of both prints and film (slides and negatives). LED light source for reflective scans eliminates warm-up time

Scans only four slides or one strip of film at a time. Dust and scratch removal feature does little for scratches

Although it's a bit slow and comes with little software, the Canon CanoScan 5600F offers lots of value thanks to its high-quality scans and low price.

Some products sound much cooler than they actually are. The Plustek BookReader V100 ($700 street) is a case in point. According to the press release, "The user simply places a book or document on the [platen] and at the press of a button, the book is ...

Can position books so pages lie flat. Scans, recognizes text, and starts speaking the text with a single command

Although the software translates text-to-speech reasonably well, it still falls short of a truly natural-sounding voice

The Plustek BookReader V100 offers a complete solution for libraries or similar institutions that want to convert printed material to spoken form for their visually impaired patrons.

When all-in-ones (AIOs) first started taking over from single-function inkjets in a big way several years ago, a lot of people predicted that flatbed scanners for home use would fade away. Instead, scanners have held their own, mostly by upping ...

High-quality photo scans. Backlight correction. Color restore. Dust removal. Scan to searchable PDF format.

Bundled software offers limited functionality. Relatively slow.

The Canon CanoScan LiDE 100 is one of the few remaining scanners aimed at home users who are primarily interested in scanning photographic prints.

Low price for a flatbed document scanner. Scans directly to searchable PDF files

Automatic document feeder (ADF) scans one side of the page only. Manual duplex feature is hidden and somewhat cumbersome. Slow

The Epson WorkForce GT-1500 is a bit slow, but it's affordable enough to make it an attractive choice if your small office needs a document scanner that includes a flatbed.

The HP Scanjet G3110 Photo Scanner is fine for scanning photo prints, but scanning is slow, especially with strips of film and slides.

Does a reasonably good job with photographic prints. Convenience scanning for slides and strips of film.

Slow. Customizing settings is cumbersome.

The HP Scanjet G3110 Photo Scanner combines a capable, if slow low-cost scanner for photographic prints with additional features suitable for occasional use.