Canon CanoScan 8800F Color Image Scanner (2168B002) by Canon Office Products
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Digital camera reviews of Canon CanoScan 8800F Color Image Scanner (2168B002)
Digital camera Review: Beautiful...
Summary: 4 Stars
This scanner is fantastic. I just got it as an early birthday present from my wondeful wife and parents and it's been a spectacular gift - as another reviewer has noted, "far exceeding my expectations."
I had planned on getting this scanner initially, but ended up getting an HP G4050 because it could scan 4x5 negatives (this one does not). I regretted the G4050 decision as soon as I tried it out: because it does NOT truly work with Windows Vista (the 8800F does). I took the G4050 back the day after I got it and immediatly ordered the 8800F.
As so many people have noted, the software and interface for this scanner is amazingly easy to use and very intuitive. You can choose between "simple" and more advanced modes of scanning which makes it all a snap. The scanner is also very fast: previews of images only take a few seconds and the actual scans are quick as well - yet the quality remains beautiful.
The scanner comes with 3 CD-Roms. One contains the scanner software, and then there's two CD-Roms with Photoshop Elements: one for Vista and one for Mac OS - that alone is a roughly $80 dollar value (what I paid for my copy of Elements). Also included are the power cords (of course) the USB cable, and holders for 35mm, Slides, and Medium Format film.
Although Canon doesn't advertise that the 8800F can be set to scan black and white negatives, it does have setting to do so: and I must say that the scans of my black and white negatives look suprisingly good, all things considered. If you get a professional scanner for b/w negatives you'll have to actually put the negatives in a mineral oil which helps with scratches, etc., but for simple b/w scans that will certainly work well enough for snapshots and memories, the 8800F produces excellent results.
As much as I'm enjoying this scanner, I'm curious about some of the decisions that Canon made with it (hence the 4 star rating instead of the 5). I wish that they would have given this scanner 4x5 capability as well as 35mm and medium format. Not only would being able to do 4x5 be a great feature, but it would allow more than two rows of 35mm negatives and one row of medium format or slides - it'd be nice to be able to scan larger batches.
Overall this is a great scanner and I'd recommend it to anyone...thanks for another great product, Canon!
Digital camera Review: Best Bang for the Buck
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this scanner because of its film scanning capabilities -- I have several boxes of 120 film that I'm archiving for our local newspaper. The quality of the film scans are superb and is relatively speedy. This item works well under Windows Vista as I scanned approximately 300 pieces of film in a row without any crashes (running Photoshop CS3). I scanned a few of my CD album covers as well, and the quality was better than the (several-year-old) $1,000+ scanner that the newspaper owns. Overall, I'm extremely pleased with the quality of this device, especially given the price.Digital camera Review: Best Damned Scanner Ever!
Summary: 5 Stars
Over the years I have been continually disappointed by every scanner I have used. They were slow. The software was a hassle. The sheet size of the output never matched the input -- I mean who needs an 8.5 x 11.41 sheet anyway! Now my life has changed. I might be more willing to part with a bodily organ or two than my new CanoScan 8800. As an architect I needed a way to easily convert pen and ink sketches into electronic documents. The ease of using the CanoScan allows me to treat pen and paper as an essential computer-based drawing tool. Previous scanners were too cumbersome to dash off a quick hand sketch and email to contractor in the field. Not now. It's almost as easy as passing it to the next desk. JPGs, PDFs - easy. Black and white, color, grayscale - easy. No surprises. Works right every time.Digital camera Review: Best Dang Scanner On The Planet !!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Lemme Guess ... you got a zillion slides , negatives , and photos and you want to get them into your computer before you die , RIGHT !! ..... I Know , I can feel your pain .... but unless you click the button to put one of these puppies in your shopping cart , you ARE gonna die first !!! ......
The 8800F does just what it says it can do , and that is scan your film ...... you can get all techy about the settings if you wish , but this thing keeps it simple with the touch of the photo/film button this thing goes to work in auto mode( or you can tweak it's settings ) .... it starts to softly whirr and click and has a nice whine to it ( nuth'n prettier than the sound of a fine servo motor do'n it's thing ) ....... it auto detects if you got slides / 35 mm negs / 2 1/4 by 2 1/4 and it has carriers for all three ....... 4 slides at a whack , 12 35mm negs .... 3 at a time of the latter ........
And It's Fast ..... lighting comes from LEDS so warm up is . 00523 nano seconds by my approximation. ( a little Hutchatelli humor there for ya ) ...... but compared the Pacific Images Film scanner I bought years ago it seems even faster than that ! ......
If you want simplicity with excellence the 8800f can be for you .... if The Big Clock is tick'n in your head that I gotta get this done before I die ..... the 8800F is a good choice ..... I love it when I buy something sight unseen , untried , off the net , and it turns out good ...... this is one of those cases ....
Q. Yeah Hutchatelli ...... but what the heck do you know bout photography
A. Well I'm not a pro ..but I've been snap'n pics heavy since 66 ..... had a darkroom .... the whole schmear .... and what happens when you do darkroom work , is that you triage your negatives and don't always print every pic on a roll of 36 ....... so I'm going back in time ...... I'm seeing a lot of my pics for the first time ...... brand new old light , coming forth on my monitor and on my hard drive and bringing me mucho joy
Q. Well Hutchatelli ..... it's said a picture is worth a thousand words , what say you ????
A. I agree ...... do a Google and punch in pbase hutwight ......... then click on first selection ....... now your at my galleries ...... click on USS Flying Fish ...... all of these were scanned with the 8800F
So Hurry !!! and don't be afraid to purchase this scanner and get you images scanned before your kids or grandkids throw them in the trash because you went ahead and died because you vacillated about buying a scanner and getting them to a computer / on a disc / and then distributed to your DNA pool ..... UNLEASH THOSE PRECIOUS PHOTONS !!!
That's my 2 cents .....
Hutchatelli
Mike Hutchins , Ashtabula , Ohio
Digital camera Review: Best Flatbed, Easy to Use
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a well-designed product. Easy to use, fast, reliable, nice-looking.
Here are its best features:
1. Copy
Scanned then immediately printed (the computer must be on, but no interaction is required).
2. Scan
Grab a photo and either
a) Write it to disk, or
b) Send it to Photoshop (whitespace already trimmed!)
3. Create PDF
To scan a multi-page document, then send a single file to someone, the scanner will create a PDF.
Press one button to add a page and another button to complete the PDF.
4. E-Mail
This button scans a smaller version, then automatically opens a New E-Mail window.
Just type your message, then click Send.
Pressing a button on the scanner not only starts the scanning process, but opens the software interface on the computer. This can come in handy, as mentioned below. There is an option place several scans into a single PDF file. I find this very useful.
This is NOT a small scanner (it's nearly a foot wide and 1 1/2 times that deep). But it's the best I've found. Fast startup, reasonably quick scanning, great quality, and usable software. The LED lighting really makes a difference. I hate waiting for scanners/copiers to warm up. And with this scanner, there is no wait. Even if you leave it off, from the time you press the On button, it pops up its interface on the computer and is ready to scan in 5 seconds. Press Scan Photo and in 15 more seconds, your scan is waiting for you in Photoshop (assuming Photoshop is already running):
* 3-5 secs to begin scanning once a button is pressed
* 6 secs to scan the image/document
* 2-3 secs to transfer it to the computer
The software could be better:
a) It could be better named.
It's difficult to remember that it's called "MP Navigator". I find myself hunting for it every time I want to bring up the software interface manually. What was that called again...? Searching for "scanner" or "8800" in your Windows 7 Start menu, for example, won't find it. So create a Shortcut to it named "Scanner" so you can easily find it when you want to complete a scan without walking over to the scanner.
b) It brings up a modal dialog before/during scanning (!)
Each time a scan is started, the scanner software comes to the front, intercepting any keyboard input.
This is very annoying if you're trying to work in the background while scanning. For example, if you're retouching one image while scanning the next, a moment after the Scan button is pressed, you will be switched out of Photoshop and the Scanner software panel comes to the front, telling you that scanning is in progress and not to lift the lid. Hello??! Isn't that obvious? This is not a loud scanner, but you can *definitely* hear the mechanism moving and know when it is scanning v.s. when it has finished.
I do not know a way around this, which means that I cannot edit in the background uninterrupted while new images are scanned and brought into Photoshop.
Canon should supply an option to NOT bring the MP Navigator software to the front after it is initially opened. I'd rather have no interface displayed at all (since I have it set to send all "Photo" scans to Photoshop. But it is nevertheless sometimes useful to have the interface available. Why? The front panel of the 8800f actually has 7 scan buttons (!). 3 for different types of PDF plus 1 to complete a multi-page PDF document. So if you're sitting at your desk and realize that there are no more pages, you can just click the "complete PDF" button on your computer's software panel, then immediately e-mail it, without having to walk back over to the scanner first. (This happens more often than you'd think.)
To e-mail a single scan, there is a button labeled "E-MAIL". It just places the scan in your outbox, if your e-mail program isn't set to send immediately. In that case, you'll subsequently need to open Outlook and click Send to get it to go out immediately.
Photo scan quality is excellent. It will scan to a file, or directly to Photoshop. Whitespace around the image is nicely automatically eliminated.
But there are sometimes issues with clipping a portion of the photograph when it's pushed up against the left side. I've had better luck with aligning the image on the right edge, but saw it happen once there, as well. Maybe the software sometimes gets a little aggressive with the auto-trimming. When it happens this can be very annoying, if you're scanning an entire page and can't move it around much on the bed of the scanner to get a clean scan. But it seems to happen only rarely, and everything else about this scanner works so flawlessly that I'm overlooking it for now.
All scanners should work this well. But they don't.
So clear some desk space and get ready for your most pleasant scanning experience in this price range to date.