If you have photos or slides from the pre-digital era, what are you doing with them? If the answer is “Nothing,” consider getting a photo scanner that can also handle slides. We got a very nice one, an Epson V300, for under a hundred dollars online. There are quite a few other choices too.

As a result, my photographer husband is happily creating a book of his early photos that he plans to sell online. I’m waiting my turn to get my hands on the scanner to archive a lot of photos and even some slides that I took years ago. I really don’t do anything with them now, except maybe worry that they would get destroyed somehow.

Recently I’ve written four articles about choosing a scanner. All are on Squidoo:

I wrote a long description of our experiences with that Epson v300. I tell why we liked it, the good and the bad. Well, there wasn’t really any bad.

Convert Slides to Digital offers you four ways to do just that with your old slides. You could get a photo scanner that has slide capability, you could get a little device that will copy slides a good bit faster with some loss of quality, you could send your slides to a scanning service, or you could even make some sort of do-it-yourself device.

Then I did a comparison of Canon vs Epson scanners with photo features. One brand didn’t stand out, but you need to consider which characteristics you need.

Finally, here is a fun one asking you to take 3 little quizzes about which photo scanner would be the best in different scenarios. Naturally, being a lover of information and a librarian, I worked facts into the page.

If you have old photos or slides, do look into these options! I’ve done the research for you already. One last word: if you have slides that are larger than 35mm, be sure to choose a scanner that can do them. I write about that.