Scanning old photos is fairly easy now days, If you are going to

purchase a scanner for your own home desk top PC there are

many available the price varies on the features available on

each model the higher the resolution the higher the price.

For most applications for personal use the mid range will work

fine, If you are going to be doing some pro work perhaps

custom work with the image the higher resolution is best,

now for the format most have "jpeg" available which is

a "tiff" compressed so the file size is easy to handle on

most computers-one word of caution if you plan to email

it or post it on the internet you may want to compress it

further using your windows image editor bring the size

down below 100. The "Tiff" scans are for commercial use

where large Landscape or Detail photos for advertising or

promoting may come in. The best scanners are what they

call Drum scanners there are only a few available in the

Bay Area. The Cost is expensive but the Quality is nice.

If you do not know what you may or may not be using them

for you can check with local Print companies they can get

you the prices. For Tiff, scanning you might try one and

see if you want to spend that kind of money on going

that route. When I use to do commercial scanning I would

have, it first scanned as a Tiff then convert it to a Jpeg, or

BMP in Photoshop that way you start with the highest quality.