Digitize Photos in a Snap

Thanks to three innovative products you can now digitize, categorize and archive your old photos on your home PC in a snap.

HP Scanjet 5500c
HP’s new Scanjet 5500c features a unique automatic photo feeder tray which allows you to digitize up to 24, 4x6 photos into your computer in a snap. Get photo-quality results on photos, graphics and text with 2400 dpi and 48-bit color. The lighted adapter makes scanning 35-mm negatives and slides easier than ever. And no warm-up is required – simply start scanning and see images in about 7 seconds. 7 one-touch buttons allow you to copy images directly to CD, DVD for archiving or email. $250. www.hp.com

Adobe Photoshop Album
Once on your PC, Adobe’s New Photoshop Album makes storing and categorizing your pictures simple. Photoshop Album uses an easy 'tagging' system to organize and find images, and also provides one-click editing. In addition, Photoshop Album is the only consumer digital photography product to take advantage of the ubiquity of Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), creating an intuitive way to share digital photos with family and friends.

Adobe Photoshop Album gathers thousands of digital photos for viewing in one convenient place - the photo well - and automatically organizes them by date. From there, it's simple to find a particular photo: a timeline view displays photos taken over a period of time, while a detailed calendar view shows the exact day and month when each moment was captured. Visual tags can be created to instantly find photos of favorite people, places, events, or any other subject, no matter how large the collection becomes.

Photoshop Album provides one-click editing tools to fix common problems, such as red-eye, color, contrast and brightness. For more advanced editing, Photoshop Album provides single-click integration for users of Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. Also, Photoshop Album features one-click photo backup to CD and DVD. $50. www.adobe.com

Maxtor 5000DV
Maxtor's 5000DV personal storage is ideal for for video-editing and high-end graphic users. With up to 200GB, you'll have plenty of workspace for all your large projects, including over 15 hours of digital video. The 5000DV features an easy OneTouch backup button, a large capacity (200GB) and superior performance (7200RPM). It is an excellent "upgrade" solution, and backup/storage combination. The drive works on both Macs and PCs and is truly a 1-2-3 step install. Easy to use and convenient. $250. www.maxtor.com