I've glanced at scanner posts from time to time, but never with serious intent, and I know the technology moves quickly so answers in the archives may not reflect current products. Sorry if this turns out to be a totally stupid question...

My wife has a large number of family photos from her childhood before and during the Cultural Revolution in China. Many of them are only copies, basically family heirlooms. She'd like to scan them to be able to provide images to her many relatives. Some are in pretty poor shape, which I guess means Photo$hop is in my future as well. Sizes range from maybe 3" square drugstore-type prints to some fairly nice 5x7 studio work. They're mostly black-and-white, some sepia-toned, and a few faded color shots. I had a few scanned professionally some years ago at $25 each, but with well over a hundred in hand it's time to think "scanner".

I shoot 35mm (rarely) to wholeplate at this time, and will be building a 7x11 in the not-too-distant future. Most of my work is 120 and 4x5 black-and-white, though I have a couple of hundred sheets of 4x5 Provia and Astia in the deep freeze. I also have a bunch of old Kodachrome 35mm slides that would be nice to scan in my copious free time, but I understand that scanning K-chrome poses challenges. I would be interested to experiment with digital negs some day for printing in my wet darkroom, hence my interest in a scanner to handle my stuff as well as my wife's.

It would be ideal if there's a single scanner that covers both bases. From what I can recall reading, the Epson V750, or whatever its current incarnation, seems suitable. Are there any others in current production to consider? I'd prefer to purchase something new, preferably under $1k, and would be willing to give up on scanning 7x11 if that's what it took to keep us in this cost area.