Canon CanoScan 8800F Color Image Scanner (2168B002)
by Canon Office Products
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List Price: Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Canon CanoScan 8800F Color Image Scanner (2168B002)
Customer Review: Scanner simple to use/set up, works with Vista, will do everything you will need it to do
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this scanner last month with the intention of being able to scan some old negatives (35 mm and 120 format film), slides, and photos, along with the occasional document. For the price and what I am looking for (personal use and printing photos from scans), this scanner has been great and I would recommend it for any amateur, prosumer, or even professional looking for a quality, yet inexpensive scanner.
I searched on the internet for a while looking for a scanner that would accomplish what I needed and ultimately decided on this Canon model. For digital, I'm a Nikon guy, but Canon's quality is good also, and my assumption that you can't go wrong was a safe one. I have Vista and it took about 45-50 minutes to install all of the software and get it up and running, which included making sure that I had the most updated drivers from their website. Among the other software it comes with, it also comes with Photoshop Elements, which (if you don't have regular Photoshop) will do everything you need to do. I have made prints from scans and the difference between a print from a scan and a print from a digital image is negligible.
Other reviews regarding this scanner were more helpful for me when I was looking at specifics, but here's what I can add: if you're looking for a scanner that will not take a lot of space up on your desk or office, this one is great. It comes with all of the necessary cables and software, is virtually idiot-proof, and other than the occasional time where you may have to scan a negative twice to get it right, it's great. Scan from 120 mm take about 2-3 minutes depending on how you touch it up pre-editing, but most scans take about a minute. You can't go wrong with this scanner and you should not hesitate to buy it if you're on the fence between this one and other comparable priced scanners.
Customer Review: Stop shopping. You've found a jewel here.
Summary: 5 Stars
Like other reviewers, I had an "old school" HP scanner that cost me hundreds of dollars and took *forever* to warm up the old lamp. Scanning a high resolution photo on that old HP scanner required packing a picnic lunch so you wouldn't starve while waiting for it to finish.
I very nearly paid a local photo shop $2 a slide to do 100 scans for me. Just seemed like too much hassle and too much work to BUY a machine, do the software, figure out how to use the &^%$ thing, and then wait seven or eight years for the lamp to warn up. Ick.
After some thought, I went with the Canon 8800 (shown here). I was really impressed. It's sleek and light and - as far as photos go - it's fairly easy to figure out. One snowy day in January, I sat down with the scanner and did my 100 slides (high resolution) and was very pleased with the quality of the finished product, and above all - the TIME. Even high resolution photos scan amazingly fast and - praise be to the heavens above - there is NO LAMP to warm up. Apparently, it uses an LED light so it's extra expeditious.
The only complaint: It took me some time (and a few bowling words) to figure out how to use the slide feature. The slides have to be scanned against a white background, so there's an insert on the LID that has to be removed before the slide scanner will function correctly. IMHO, the directions on this little detail are woefully lacking.
In conclusion, my only complaint is that the directions regarding those slides were poor. I long for the days when devices came with instruction books. That would have saved me about 75 minutes when I was trying desperately to figure out why it wouldn't scan my slides. Just remember, if you're doing 35mm slides, remove that insert on the lid.
Other than that, I'm very pleased with its quality.
Customer Review: Easy and good
Summary: 5 Stars
If you want to finally get your old pictures or negatives out of boxes and onto your computer, this is a great scanner to do it with. Use them as wallpaper, send them to old friends to remember how you looked, let your kids see what you looked like in a pre-digital age.
This scanner makes it easy to scan your pictures and negatives. The previous reviewers who rated this product highly are correct, and I will summarize those points in a quick format because it works for me.
- Easy to install (Windows 7)
- Began scanning old 35mm color negatives immediately
- Software automatically identifies the negatives when using the holder and scans them in. You don't have to worry about cropping each negative from a pre-scan. I love that!
As other reviewers point out, the disappointments are related to the film, not the scanner:
- It's reasonably quick to put the negatives into the holder, but scanning takes time regardless of the scanner.
- Picture quality on the negatives isn't what we're used to today. Even at 4800dpi they're blurry compared to digital photos. I went back to 2400dpi for a faster scan time.
- I started with 30-year-old negatives and they're pretty beat up after many moves and being stored in old boxes. No miracles.
- Negatives get scratched and the photos dim with age. Either way this scanner will do its best to recover the picture and give you basic tools to clean it up.
- You can use software to improve the pictures, but that depends on your skill with that software. I haven't tried the bundled software because I have a *lot* of negatives to scan and I'll play with it later. It's just great to have the pictures again, scratches and all.
Bring your life back from the attic or basement - you can do it with this scanner.
Customer Review: Easy to Use, Decent Quality, Affordable Price
Summary: 5 Stars
HP abandoned support for my old scanner; the drivers broke on MacOS 10.5. Based largely on reviews here, I purchased the 8800F four months ago. Overall, I am very pleased with it. It performs pretty much as advertised. I don't use it for slides - it's hard to beat the incomparable Nikon CoolScan for slides - but for photos this gives you ease of use (once you decipher the wretched manual), decent quality and a very affordable price.
I've completed two very large scanning projects: photos of antique autos and heirloom photos. Both involved hundreds of photos; in both cases the photos were in dubious condition. Combined with Photoshop, I was able to work fairly quickly and efficiently, with acceptable results.
Sure, I'd like the option of better resolution than 600dpi. Some of the antique photos will be blow up to posters, and Photoshop's interpolation isn't so hot when you're starting with only 600dpi. But at the price I paid it's hard to be disappointed with "only" 600dpi.
The manual, application name and user interface, on the other hand, are pretty bad. The documentation team at Canon seems to have been writing for some other product, in another language. It's nearly useless. The application name - you can't make this stuff up - is MP Navigator EX. After the installer has run, you can spend a long time looking for a program with the name "Canon." Silly user, you want "MP Navigator EX." And the user interface is kind of Windows 95-ish by someone who hasn't ever read the Apple Interface Guidelines. And it's not even slightly scriptable.
But, while annoying, those are comparatively minor nits. The 8800F (who dreams up these names?) does the job for the majority of scanning projects. And the price in hard to argue with.
Recommended.
Customer Review: It's All Everyone Has Reviewed
Summary: 5 Stars
I won't duplicate the copious positive comments and observations in these reviews. I am running it on a computer with Windoze XP with Service Pack 3 and beyond in updates. The automatic software installer on the CD would crash at the beginning of the install so I needed to "explore" the CD and in each of the folders on the CD were individual installers for the individual software programs.
They all installed just fine by doing the individual installer system.
The plastic templates do seem to be a bit flimsy but I think that is okay since the template isn't designed to do anything special except position the slides for scanning. The template merely lays on the scanner platen glass. It's a good thing to follow the instructions and remove the white cover on the inside of the lid so the slides are back-lit <grin>.
After setting up a small assembly line sort of thing it goes pretty smoothly and quickly. I have been scanning at 600 dpi (150mb size) and to my feeble eyes I can't tell any visual difference to the 1200 dpi (500mb size). I'm not planning on making 11X17 prints of these slides so I think i'm good. Scanning at 600 dpi and gives me very nice looking 5X7 prints. Scan time for four slides at 600 dpi is less than two minutes.
All in all I am very happy with this product and software. It has been an amazing journey the last ten days to see 50 year old kodachrome come back to life after being in the pergatory of slide trays in the hall closet for decades. Sent my siblings and cousins a zip file of a dozen pics of Christmas 1959 and they were astounded.
Kodachrome has aged beautifully, Ektachrome images are almost completely faded away. Thankfully 90+ percent of our slides are in Kodachrome.