# Photo scanner recommendations

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photo-scanner-recommendations/363550
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [July 7, 2006, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photo-scanner-recommendations/363550 "2006-07-07T21:05:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photo-scanner-recommendations/363550/1 "2006-07-07T21:05:09Z")

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I’ve just laid my hands on an old photo album that contains my grandparents photos from the '30s through the '60s. I’d like to scan them into a digital format so I can store and share them.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a flat bed scanner for this? What should I be looking for in a scanner? What minimum resolution is needed to get decent copies of old photos?

Thanks

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### Author: ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2006, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/photo-scanner-recommendations/363550/2 "2006-07-07T22:21:41Z")

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For scanning pages or photos, I don’t think there really are any bad scanners on the market now. USB has made the things a whole lot easier to set up, to boot. (Anyone who’s had to muck with SCSI terminators, addresses and adapter interrupts will be nodding their heads now.)

The Epson 3490 seems to be a popular one right now, and it’s available for under $100. Believe that one also can scan negatives.