Epson Perfection V300

Great multi-purpose scanner – I've owned this unit for around three years and the auto-image-numbering tells me I've run over 3,000 scans [that doesn't include previews]. I bought it for the transparency ability as I wished to archive my substantial 35mm film [both slide and colour-negative] collection. The included slide and negative holders work fine, although the slide holder [four slides] is a little clumsy to lift off the glass, the slides usually fall out.

I do have an issue if I want to scan the whole 24 x 36mm frame as the software automatically recognises that I'm scanning film or slides and sets the scanning area accordingly, not letting me override it. So I lose up to a millimetre of the original image. One downside of this scanner is that the top light is limited to about 40mm scan width, so one has to purchase a far-more-expensive model to scan 120 negs.

I also use this scanner for general scanning and the occasional newspaper clipping.

Tip for scanning newsprint: Get hold of a piece of black felt and place this above your newsprint. This stops the light going through the thin paper, reflecting off the white lid, and resulting on both sides of the clipping showing up in your scan :-)

The included ABBYY OCR software does such a good job of character recognition I've never bothered to pay for the 'pro' version.

My scanner is still running faultlessly after three years. Good reliable product. Transparency [slides and negatives] scanning, good bundled software. Mild cropping of 35mm film frames.