Epson's Perfection 2450 photo scanner is a consumer-oriented device that graphics professionals and advanced photographers won't hesitate to use. With fast one-touch scanning, great image quality and software that even novices will master in minutes, this 48-bit image grabber is a home or business user's dream. The Perfection 2450 photo scanner's price is justified by features that imaging professionals will love, too, including 2,400 by 4,800 dots per inch (dpi) resolution, a built-in transparency unit and an advanced image-capture driver with a multitude of fine-tuning controls. Even first-timers will sail through installation using the Start Here poster. Click a few...

Hewlett-Packard's Scanjet 3670 offers basic features for budget-minded students and home users and a low £57 (ex. VAT) price. True photo fanatics, however, should spring for a scanner with a higher optical resolution and more capabilities, such as the Epson Perfection 1670. The Scanjet 3670 could use a more streamlined, stylish design; its body is on the boxy side, and it's coloured in dull grey shades. The convenient sliding hinges on the scanner's lid accommodate books or albums, but they feel a little unstable when opening and closing the top. Handy features include the built-in Transparent Material Adapter for scanning...

The Scanjet 3970 avoids looking too bulky, but it's a bit boxy and could use a more streamlined, stylish design. The convenient, sliding hinges on its lid accommodate books or albums; they feel a little more stable than those of its sibling, the Scanjet 3670. Handy features include the built-in Transparent Material Adapter for scanning slides and 35mm negatives, and the four one-touch buttons lining the front for scanning, printing, image-sharing and creating photo CDs. A clear, step-by-step instruction sheet makes it easy to set up the Scanjet 3970. Like most HP scanners, the 3970 comes with HP Photo &...

Given its user-friendly operation, range of features and high-quality photo scans, the 48-bit, 1,600dpi Epson Perfection 1670 Photo offers good value for its price, especially if you already have a good image-enhancement program such as Adobe Photoshop. If you prefer a hefty software package over film- and slide-scanning capabilities, the cheaper Canon LiDE 50 may be a better fit. Epson dresses up the completely bland, light-grey, textured-plastic skin of the Perfection 1670 with a darker grey base and a slim, shiny, metallic-plastic control panel. The panel contains four clearly labelled buttons, one each for scanning, emailing, copying and sharing images....

The ScanMaker 4800's descriptive poster makes setup easy. The scanner connects via USB and supports Windows 98, 2000, ME and XP, as well as Mac OS 8.6 through 9.x. Installation of the Microtek ScanWizard 5 driver and additional applications – Abbyy’s FineReader for optical character recognition, Ulead’s PhotoExplorer for Windows Explorer-like file searching, Adobe’s PhotoDeluxe 4.0 (PC) or Photoshop LE 5.0 (Mac) for image editing, and Adobe’s Acrobat Reader -- was also fairly painless, although Microtek offers novices no guidance for deciding which ones to load. The ScanMaker 4800 is also easy to use, thanks to the five buttons lining...

The Perfection 2400 Photo is easy to set up. The illustrated Start Here poster provides clear instructions on installing the scanner and covers basic operation. The Perfection 2400 Photo works with Windows 98, 2000, Me and XP, as well as Mac OS 8.x to 9.x. Epson uses the faster USB 2.0 interface on all its new scanner range, and even includes a cable in the box. If you don't have a USB 2.0 port in your machine this isn't a problem, since USB 2.0 devices are backward compatible with USB 1.1 -- you just won't get the higher transfer rate....

Whether you need to scan an old film negative or an important new contract, Epson Perfection 3170 Photo can handle the job. Its optical resolution of 3,200 by 6,400dpi should be high enough to print a 35mm frame as large as 11in. by 17in., and it does a credible job of scanning both positives and negatives. At 3.8kg, the Epson Perfection 3170 isn't especially portable, but it's solidly built. Black-and-silver styling gives it a sleek and sophisticated look, and the lid opens and closes smoothly. Three buttons on the front control panel take you to frequently used functions: Copy, Scan...

Despite the widespread usage of wireless-equipped handhelds, the paper-based business card is still very much with us (another nail in the coffin of the mythical 'paperless office'). Corex's CardScan Executive 600cx is a dedicated business card scanner/software bundle that can efficiently turn a pile of paper cards into a useful digital resource. Pop a card into this unobtrusive device, and in no time at all it will scan and OCR the data, extracting contact details to a database that can then be synchronised with a variety of other platforms, including Outlook, company databases, leading contact managers plus handhelds and smartphones....

The CardScan 600c has been redesigned from the ground up and includes a number of new hardware and software features. Just about anything you could ask for in a portable businesss card scanner seems to have been built in: it can scan both sides of a business card in colour, delivers scans quickly, synchronises with popular organisers and even has a card-catcher built into the rear. The scanner connects to the host PC via a USB cable, and is simple to install and set up -- everything is pretty intuitive, and we were able to get started without even referring...

Installation of the software is straightforward, and once the BizCard Reader is up and running, scanning cards is a simple question of pushing that silver button. This means that if you trust the device, you can work away in a separate application, feeding cards into the slot and scanning without having to bring the software to the fore every time. However, the BizCard Reader, while surprisingly good, does not engender blind trust. Cards with coloured backgrounds seem to cause some confusion. Some business titles, too, are not handled with the highest degree of intelligence -- the fault here lies mainly...