My main priorities when deciding on a scanner were 1. One pass - quicker, and I'm not a patient person 2 the highest resolution for the money..... particularly for scanning maps and tiny photographs, these can be enlarged while still retaining detail (great for trying to identify my ggrandfather among a group of drovers) I scanned a badly damaged photograph from around 1910... very high resolution, and saw from the scan, the names of my grandmother & her sister, had once been written in pencil, and the indentations remained. I hadn't noticed on the original. 3 Large scanning area.... most are A4 size, and I find original certificates are longer / wider than that .... and I'm not good at joining scanned images. Anything else can be adjusted with good software (eg paintshop). My scanner is about 3 years old and was $400... an Artec A6000C+ (SCSI Connection) I've been very happy with it Regards Peita chilly in Belrose, NSW