Photograph-to-Digital-Picture Converter Sounds A Lot Like “Scanner”

Goofy gadget masters Hammacher Schlemmer are back at it again with a Photograph-to-Digital-Picture Converter that takes your old paper snapshots, and well, digitises them. Now we know what you’re thinking—isn’t this just a scanner with a more complicated name?—and at first, I was inclined to agree. But digging deeper I found that this may not be a bad specialty box for US$150.

It’s no badass like the 7200dpi Plustek OpticFilm 7300, but it costs US$100 less and goes beyond most standard scanners, including a 5-megapixel CMOS sensor, 1800dpi resolution and 10-bit colour. It doesn’t look like it’s got a sheet feeder; instead it has a tray specifically suited to 3×5, 4×6 and 5×7s. Drop ‘em in, press a button, and presto, it magically becomes a picture on your computer screen—if you have Windows, that is. [Hammacher]