The early cameras suffered from lack of resolution and the range of available lenses. This was basically solved by fitting electronic backs to the camera body of an existing camera. Another handicap occurs if the storage system will only hold 25 or 50 images. Several varieties of flat bed scanners exist whereby the operator places the photographic image face down on a glass plate in a similar way to a photocopier. While this is a low-cost option with regards to the purchase price of the equipment, if large numbers of pictures are to be scanned the cost of an operator becomes a significant factor.
Scanners work at high resolution and therefore take many seconds for each image.
And then there is further work to be undertaken in that the area scanned has to be adjusted to the actual size of the original. Then if standard image sizes are being used many of the captured images will have to be resized to the storage size. These devices are designed to scan, normally 35mm slides at very high resolution. The camera can be zoomed in to a size smaller than a 35mm slide or zoomed out to A3 size. With overhead lights and a lightbox located underneath, prints or transparencies can be captured.