Canon's CanoScan 9950F is a great scanning option for expert users who need high-quality powerful tools, and speed.

The HP Scanjet 8200 can readily handle documents, photos and film, and is well suited to workgroups.

With its zippy automatic document feeder, the HP Scanjet 5550c is well suited for steady OCR work, but getting the best image quality from photos requires some tweaking.

Kodak should have bundled more software than only ReadIris Pro, and we reckon the price is a little high, but the i40 is a good, solid performer that won’t let you down. Judging by the build quality, it will last for years and years.

The 5590 is a good scanner for office documents but less so for photos and film