Thanks to all who replied. I finally got around to doing what I should have done some time ago....reading all things on the net about scanning photos. Especially negative reviews of self-feeding, "fast" photo scanners. Especially by Epson, but also others. And especially the Epson FF-640, their current model. The 'fail' rate for this unit may be as high as 10% of users. Another option is a more conventional flatbed targeted to photoscanning. Higher success rate, but slower. All the commercial services have their own drawbacks and oddities. mmmm what to do. Don't know, but gotta do something!