It is no coincidence that the popularity of computer scanners has soared as the prices have dropped. Unless you require it for professional purposes, you should never have to pay over $100 for a good scanner. For example, the Wolverine F2D will convert all those piles of 35mm film we have stored away in packets into digital images with startling clarity. Although the FD2 is both MAC and Windows compatible, it has the unique benefit of being able to be used as a stand alone item, without any extra software or even a computer. Slide in your film, press a button, and you have digital images. The generous screen allows you to check the photos as you are doing them, so you can edit, delete etc as you want. This is a great piece of equipment for around $85.

For a bargain price of around $70, you could pick yourself up a SCN02 one touch scanner. This neat piece of equipment scans photos up to 4 x 6 directly onto your memory card or computer. It scans your pictures into the universal JPEG format with an enviable dpi of 300. This scanner is incredibly light and portable, measuring a mere 6 inches by 1.5 inches, so there is a lot of technology in a very small space. The addition of the free 512 mb memory card you get with this scanner adds further to it's appeal.

If you have around $95 to spend and are looking for something a little bit different, look no further than the Vupoint Solutions Magic Wand portable scanner. This clever piece of kit is also perfect for those who would benefit from full portability. You simply take any photo, document etc you wish to scan, and slowly waft the scanner across it. It scans in both color and monochrome and weighs in at only a pound. Standard resolution is 300 dpi while the high resolution is an impressive 600 dpi. The memory is expandable up to 16 Gb through an additional memory card, and it is plain to see why these scanners are becoming so popular.

At the higher end of the scanner market is the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300. This is the latest model from Fujitsu and has been designed to be the smallest duplex scanner for multi pages and with just a one button operating system. It supports documents up to a mighty 8.5 x 14. 17 inches. The normal resolution is 600 dpi, so what is normally high definition is standard in this machine. Powered by both Ac and USB, this scanner is a real class act.

One of the cheapest scanners around at the moment is the Canon CanoScan LiDe110. The beauty of this is that although you are paying a lower price, the quality isn't at all compromised. The setting are automatically adjusted to whatever you are scanning thanks to the clever 'Auto scan mode'. In only 18 seconds you can scan a full color letter sized document with ease. Got a bulky item that needs scanning? No problem, use the z lid expansion on the top to care of these. As this works via USB with your computer or laptop it isn't the most portable of scanners, but is perfect for use in the home to scan documents straight on to your hardware.