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: Delighted
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been using the CanoScan 8800 Series F with Mac OS 10.5 longer than a month now, and I'm absolutely delighted with it's operation as well as the results. Though this product represents my first purchase of any flatbed scanner, I couldn't imagine being more pleased with another product. The following observations may be helpful to new users.
1. The updated driver for Mac OS 10.5 now ships with this product. But, if perchance you didn't receive it, visit the product description on the Canon web site for your area and you'll conveniently find what you need under the tab called "Drivers & Downloads."
2. I experienced a learning curve in the use of this product. For example, there seems to be three distinct options for controlling the scanner: (a) by using one of the seven buttons on the scanner itself, (b) by using the "MP Navigator XP" software from Canon as a controller, or (c) by using a modified version of PhotoStudio from ArcSoft. Each method offers its own advantages. Try all three of them to determine your preferences, but avoid using more than one of them at the same time.
3. For optical character recognition with exceptional accuracy rates in excess of 99.5%, I recommend scanning documents with a resolution of 600 dpi and reading them with OmniPage Pro X from ScanSoft. However, more casual users of this scanner may be completely satisfied with the version of OmniPage SE that unexpectedly came with mine.
Customer Review: Absolutley fabulous for converting slides and negatives!
Summary: 5 Stars
I had been using an HP scanner for years and found that when I purchased a new desktop with Windows 7 that it was incompatible with my new system. I inherited a big box of 35mm slides recently and wanted to make sure that I got a scanner that would not only do a great job scanning documents and photos but also transparencies, slides and negatives. Boy am I impressed! I was able to provide my Uncle and Aunt with digital images of their 1965 wedding that they had never seen before as my father had originally developed them as slides instead of paper photographs. For me, that alone was worth the cost of admission!
The Canon 8800F has a detachable shield in the lid that houses a secondary lighting unit for scanning transparent materials (I uploaded a picture showing this second light source). Canon also includes 3 different "film guide mounts" to ensure accurate scanning for these less conventional formats. While it can take up to 2 minutes to fully scan 4 slides, the resolution of the resulting images is extremely good. I already owned Photo Elements 8, but the version 5 software that comes with this unit should fill the needs of most users.
Set-up was easy, the software is easy to learn and the function keys on the front of the unit provide a fast option to select from many different scanning options to include several PDF functions, copies, and even scan straight to email.
Windows 7 compatible.
Customer Review: High quality - scans and hardware
Summary: 5 Stars
I also bought this to scan slides -- however, 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 happy". I think 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 create the right size crops. It also means I can use the 35mm strip holder instead of the 35mm slide holder and leave the old slides in their metal slide magazine holders, saving me even more time.
After figuring that out, I'm happy to say this scanner exceeds my expectations and makes me a happy 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 great. 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
Customer Review: Excellent scanner, software takes some manipulating
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this scanner to convert my Dad's old (over 30 years old) slides into digital pictures so I could make him a DVD. The installation of both the scanner and the software was a breeze. I am using the default software (ArcSoft's PhotoStudio). In the actual scanning application, the "simple mode" did not capture the colors and definition well enough so I used the "advanced mode". Negative - This took some manipulation to get the images to look right. I also had to do some balance editing on a lot of the slides to get rid of a "washed out" look. Positive - because there are so many options I was able to get almost every slide to look great. I am not sure if newer photos / slides would take as much manipulation. For the most part, I was able to continue to use my computer while it was scanning. However - NOTE - be sure the ScanGear window is the active window BEFORE scanning completes. I am running Vista and if the ScanGear window was in the background when it finished scanning, it hung the application and I had to close it with Task Manager thereby losing the scanned images and having to scan again. I had no other issues at all as long as I played by its rules. Scanning was fairly quick - 4 slides at 4800 dpi took about 5 minutes. I really love this scanner and it does a great job. I haven't used the other editing applications that it came with (Adobe Photoshop Elements) but I plan to.Customer Review: Great value!
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased the Canon CanoScan 8800F back in March 2009. My main use with this scanner has been to digitize literally thousands of family slides from the fifties on. So far I have had great success and have scanned over 750 images. I am, admittedly, a beginner in this arena but the purchase via Amazon, the setup, and relative ease of use has been a good experience. The main software that came bundled with the scanner, Adobe Photoshop Elements, is not the most intuitive but once you figure out its quirks it does a very good job of rendering. So far I have only dabbled with its more advanced features as I am mostly interested in production. For more easily understood and shared software I might lean towards Picasa especially if cost is an issue. The scanner itself is on the large side so you'll need space for it. The lid feels abit flimsy (rocks on its hinges) and tends to close on itself with a bang if not pushed way open which can be abit of a reach in tight quarters. Unit scans 4 slides with an average time of 2-4 minutes per batch. It all depends on the amount of corrections or scanning features selected. I have also used it for scanning standard photographs and it produces excellent results. Scans in this mode are pretty fast, usually a minute or less. I highly recommend this product for the home user who needs the slide scanning feature at a reasonable cost.