In this digital age, those boxes of old photographs that are starting to fade can be a source of concern. If you're looking to archive your real photos in a digital format, picking up a high-quality photo scanner is one of the best methods. You can take them to a photo house to do it, but if you've got a large volume of pictures, you'll end up paying more than if you simply bought a scanner of your own.

A scanner like Epson's Perfection 4990 Photo, with 4,800-dpi resolution and 48-bit color depth, can reproduce photos with the highest of digital quality. The 4990 can handle images at up to 8-1/2X11-7/10 inches, and it can scan transparencies and film negatives as well. The 4990 can also batch-scan up to 24 slides at once, although it doesn't come with an automatic document feeder (ADF) for handling a stack of photos.

The 4990 has both USB 2.0 and FireWire connections, so it can be connected to whichever high-speed port is available on the PC. The scanner also includes drivers for Macs, making it a cross-platform peripheral. We found it easy to install.

The sleek silver body of the 4990 has an illuminated scan progress indicator, so you can keep track of in-progress scans. It also features technologies to help restore damaged or faded photographs. The hardware-based Digital ICE worked great for removing tears or scratches from an original image, and Epson's Easy Photo Fix neatly restored colors from faded photos.

In addition to these programs, Epson bundles an expansive collection of image-editing software, including LaserSoft Imaging's SilverFast SE 6.0, as well as Adobe Photoshop Elements for making adjustments and improvements to photos after they are scanned. There's also ABBYY FineReader Sprint OCR software for translating scanned-in documents into word processing files, but the 4990 doesn't place a lot of emphasis on document scanning.

Epson lists the 4990 at $450, although we were able to find it for a good chunk under $400. It's not inexpensive, but if you need to archive your photo collection at a high quality, the Epson Perfection 4990 Photo is a great tool for the task.

Pro: High resolution and color depth, great photo repair technologies.
Con: Limited document functionality.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Epson America, Inc.
3840 Kilroy Airport Way
Long Beach, CA 90806
800-463-7766
http://www.epson.com

Warranty
1 year