Tips for buying scanners

[Zipp]

I have a computer and i have a lot of old albums of my childhood till todays date. I want to make a digital collection of each and every photos. I have approximately four thousand photographs. I need to scan them. If i go to a local cyber cafe and get them scanned, i'll get a new high end computer system with a scanner. Can anyone tell me, what kind of features or what we must keep in mind before purchasing a new scanner? Any Tips for buying scanners? Thanks in advance

[Maxforu]

Check what connectivity is available on your computer. Then select a range of scanner which you like and see which scanner from those have the compatible interface. These are sometimes ignored and then you have to buy converters, like serial to usb or similar. So as far as possible, avoid converters.

[T.J.]

High Quality scanning may lead to shortage of hard disk space. Quality images are very large in size, but the large size is worth a smile after years. So get a new hard disk if you already have your disks running short of space. Just though you may like to know this.

[Killen]

If you like a scanner, check if its a USB it must have USB 2.0 connectivity. Its important for speed of scanning. Else Scanning can take upto minutes for scanning a single photo. Well make sure you have a good processor and enough memory. Scanners are resource hogs. See if it has One Touch features. If you have a firewire port on your computer, prefer buying a scanner with a firewire interface, as there are faster then USB.