Ion Pics 2 SD: Digitizing Photos Made Easy

The Pics 2 SD Photo, Slide, and Film Scanner is a standalone device that lets you scan various sizes of photos (including 5 x 7, 4 x 6, and 3 x 5 inch prints) as well as slides and 35mm film. So even if you lost printed copies of photos but you still happen to have the negatives, you're in luck. The device, which is relatively compact at 8.7 x 8.2 x 5.8 inches, comes with holders for all of the different size media.

All users have to do is place the photo, slide, or negative into its corresponding holder and slide it into the machine (pictures load in from the top, slides and negatives in through the side), choose photo or film scanner mode, select the cropping dimensions if you're doing a photo, and hit "Scan." It's as simple as that. It's very user-friendly and with so few buttons and controls, it's almost impossible to get confused.

The Pics 2 SD has a 5.1 megapixel CMOS sensor that scans the media in at 5 or 10 megapixels and stores it on an SD card. For your convenience, the scanner comes with a 2 GB card, which you can slip directly into the machine via a slot on the right side of the device. All of the machine's operations -- including scanning, viewing, editing, and deleting images -- can be handled via the built-in color LCD viewing screen and navigation buttons. And while this is a standalone device, meaning that it can plug straight into an outlet and operate without the help of a computer, it still has the capability to hook up to a computer for file transfers via USB.

The Pics 2 SD has an MSRP of $249.99 but can easily be found at a lower price; Amazon, for instance, is currently offering it for $139.99, making it a much more affordable holiday gift this season.

Be sure to check out our full 12 Tech Days of Christmas list for new suggestions and picks by TechnologyGuide editors through Christmas Eve on Dec. 24th! Spend some time with our 2012 Holiday Buyer's Guide as well, for high-tech gift suggestions from across our product news and review sites.