Nivard In 2006 my wife and I were given an Epson Perfection 4490 as a wedding present by a relative who was heavily into digital photography. I know that it cost over £200 at the time but it beat all the other scanners I have ever used hands down. We used it to scan all our old photos, slides and negatives going back to the 1940s. I have also used it successfully to scan photos from the late 1800s. It comes with software which enables you to use either standard settings or make all the settings yourself. It will scan at very high resolutions if you want and it will split into individual images when you scan more than one item at a time. That saves a lot of effort and each image is at the full resolution you have set. I am delighted with it and have no reason to change it. I imagine this scanner is no longer available to buy but its replacement(s) will no doubt be better and cheaper. IMHO it's best to pay for quality if you have serious work to do. I also used a high street camera shop for some slides and negatives and they were efficient and inexpensive but when I got the scanner I found it did a better job. The shop charged £10 for 100 items: £200 would therefore pay for 2000. I have done many more than that so the scanner has easily paid for itself. Regards Tony