Finding the one that's good for your own particular use is the real trick for any equipment, but it seems particularly important for scanners.

Most people get by with a fairly basic flatbed, and it's probably still the best for getting high quality scans from paper, especially for color photos. The best of those I've had was "obsoleted" by one of the many Windows OS version changes, when I couldn't get a driver that would work; but I've "worn out" at least two since.

The one I currently use most is a "business grade" that's a "pass through" only, but it scans boths sides in a single straight line pass (two heads), and in the rare cases when something jams the whole thing opens up and the bent pages fall out without any digging and tearing. (I haven't seen a document feed that passes the paper around any turn in the path that doesn't destroy the sheet that jams by the time you get it out.) And with a little tweaking on the settings the one I'm using isn't bad for the kinds of color/photo stuff I need now. It's about a year old, and has just begun giving me a notice that the "page counter" has reached the point where a feed roller replacement ($50 US, and a "drop-in" fix) is recommended - 100,000+ sheets through it so far, if I decide to believe the counter.

(Our "cheap printer" based on cost per page, an old B/W laser that we think we use a lot, says it's only printed 57,000 pages since it was new 14 years ago, for an idea of what's "normal use" at our house.)

We've been getting by with a couple of really cheap flatbeds, but both of those started getting wonky so I picked up a wide format (11x17") multipurpose (scan/print) unit. It theoretically has an ADF (automatic document feed) but I haven't even attempted to make much use of that feature yet. Lin has a new "photo quality" letter size multi that we haven't really wrung out yet. It makes really good prints, but doesn't use the easiest to find - or cheapest - inks, so we're still studying how much to love that one.

I'm in the process of "digitizing" old paperwork in order to get rid of the paper, so I can take my books apart and use the passthru ADF scanner a page at a time. I still could use a better way to handle "her stuff" that's so valuable it "can't be damaged" even though it's been so long since she's looked at most of it that we can't remember why she kept it in the first place; but anything useful would have to be quick on things with lots of pages. Maybe I need a camera setup for capturing "whatever she's got" ... (?).

John