Rating

OUT OF THE BOX: The complete machine is much smaller and lighter than my previous scanner, with the same scan field dimensions. It comes with a USB connection and a separate power “brick” between wall socket and scanner. Three scan guides are included; a combo of 2 side-by-side 35 mm film strips (for 5 frames each) with latches that flatten curved strips, a guide for 4 standard size slides and a 120mm film strip holder. These guides fit into a specific place on the scan surface, so that they line up under the lid-mounted light source, which is covered by a removable shield. The lid is quite light, but it needs opening to nearly straight up for it stay open without support. The thin latches on the 35mm film strip guide are very flimsy, and I already snapped one when trying to load curved negative strips. Software with scanner drivers etc., an advanced image editing program, as well as versions of Adobe Photoshop Elements (5.0 for windows, 4.0 for mac) are included.

SOFTWARE: I haven’t tried all the included software yet, as I prefer to work in other programs for archiving and retouching images. Having said that, using one of the programs to drive the scanner (MP Navigator) I reckon that there are some unnecessary steps and windows between scanning and saving. Working from a mac, setup was simple and scanning using the scanner interface is very intuitive. Everything runs relatively smooth, but there are occasional software crashes, and I cannot queue a lot of images before the program’s buffer is full (even with an excess of RAM). Automatic detection of the images within slide frames or negative strips is very accurate, but this can be switched off, as another reviewer noted, and you can select your own area of interest or a whole film-strip.

SETTINGS: There are numerous choices to make before you scan, such as Unsharp Mask and Remove Dirt & Scratches, which has different levels to choose from, as do “Grain Correction” and “Backlight Correction”. While I generally see a beneficial effect of the Unsharp Mask (again; I work at high dpi settings), I notice that turning the dirt and scratch removal on only makes a mess of the affected areas, while leaving some specs or smudges completely untouched. I tend to turn the choices for removal of dirt & scratches and grain correction completely off. I am running the scanner completely from the scanner software and am not using the panel of buttons on the scanner lid, but it appears that these can be user-configured. Hidden in the preferences is also a setting to enable 48/16 bit output, but I haven’t played with that yet.

RESOLUTION: As noted by other reviewers, at higher resolution settings scanning can take quite some time, but I really like this when it gets to a point of 30 minutes (for example for 8 negatives at 3200 dpi), so that I can work on something else instead of tending to the scanner every few minutes. For a preview scan and scanning prints at lower dpi settings this scanner is reasonably quick.

FILE FORMAT & COMPRESSION: When I was running my initial tests to figure out optimal settings (optimal between image resolution needed and memory demand desired) I ran into some unexpected findings. For instance, I see a dramatic improvement in retention of details when I save scanned images as JPEG format rather than in full size TIFF. The compression really seems to greatly improve contrast and sharpness, while taking up a lot less space! There are 3 levels of JPEG quality; High, Standard and Low (with inverse amounts of compression), but so far I have not noticed any (!) difference in final details when I choose “standard” over “high” quality, and again; the files take up less space in standard setting. A clear difference may be seen at lower dpi settings.

RESULTS: The proof of any scanner is in the final scanned image and judging by that standard this CanoScan performs really well. Scanned prints are simple, because their physical dimensions don’t require a high dpi setting. For color or negative film, some colors come out perfect, while others need a small tweaking afterwards, but overall this scanner performs fantastic. I have posted a few images of color slides scanned with the CanoScan 8800F where I compare certain scan or save settings.

IN Small:

Pros: High quality scanner with lots of professional options for a low price. Abundant choices in resolution and other settings. Produces amazingly detailed images from prints, negatives and slides.

Cons: Mostly related to software (only tested on a mac); small buffer for scanned images, occasional software crashes, some needles clutter in amount of windows and pop-ups (some, but not all can be turned off). Flimsy latches for 35mm filmstrip guide.

In spite of some software shortcomings the end results are fantastic for a scanner at this price, and I rate this scanner around four-and-a-half stars.

This is a review of the Canon CanoScan 8800F.

Rating

Bought this scanner to replace my 8400F that I bought two years ago. The price at $199.00 is about $130.00 less han the 8400F was.

First thing that I noticed was the lack of the 8400F’s warm-up time for each scan- due to the new lamp Canon now uses. Yes the scans are sharper- significantly so.

The 8800F now is more intuitive to operate due to the new array of seven pushbuttons that select modes. The off/on switch is now on the top

lid rather than hidden way back on the left side at table level.

On the minus side, there are fewer slide/negative holders to work with. Canon supplies one for 35mm film and one for 120 film only.

Since the name of the game is sharpness and the ability to achieve

the final results that you expect from Canon I am more than well satisfied. The 8800F outperforms the 8400F in every way and the colors

are more right to the originals also.

Rating

Set up was very quick and simple (running XP). I bought this scanner primarily to scan 35 MM slides, and the scans are excellent, and at 1200 dpi, take about 2 minutes for 4 slides. Each slide is saved into its own jpeg file, so there is no cropping pictures. The slides just drop into the adaptor, so reloading is quick and simple. Haven’t tried the HP for slides (I have an HP with a document feeder for scanning documents), but the new Canon is fantastic for what I wanted.

Rating

I also bought this to scan slides — but, while the slides are the standard slide size in terms of the holder, the slide film itself is square instead of rectangular like most modern slides (mine are about 1.44″ x 1.44″). For some reason, the default size of the cropping the 8800F uses when you select 35mm slides is not user-changeable. I wrote the company and got a standard answer back that basically said “we’re not changing the software to make you pleased”. I reckon they misunderstood me, but whatever…

Fortunately, I found the answer quite by accident. It turns out that in order to make the scanner work for my situation (and maybe yours), I simply had to uncheck the “Switches On/Off the Thumbnails View Mode” button and that allowed me to manually make the right size crops. It also means I can use the 35mm strip holder instead of the 35mm slide holder and leave the ancient slides in their metal slide magazine holders, saving me even more time.

After figuring that out, I’m pleased to say this scanner exceeds my expectations and makes me a pleased camper now that I can no longer use my Konica Dimage Scan Dual IV with my Vista-based PC. The hardware is very sturdy and speed is fantastic. 1200 DPI scans take less than a minute each.

If you want more information on how to manually set-up to scan older slides, leave me your email as a comment to this review.

Hope that helps.

Steve