Ease of Use, Performance: 24/25, Look & Feel: 24/25,
Features 24/25, How much I enjoy 25/25
Total: 97/100
The CanoScan 8800F is a fantastic scanner for documents, images, film and photographs, so great in fact it wins my Blue Ribbon Award for Excellence. The Canon CanoScan 8800F drivers and programs are very easy to install and the scanner works so very well. The CanoScan 8800F scans and copies, enhances before sending and even auto crops negatives and slides as well as tries to correctly orient them.
Here are the features of the CanoScan 8800F:
Spectacular scans: Produce scans with spectacular resolution of up to 4800 x 9600 color dpi.
48-bit Input/Output: Rich, vivid color: 48-bit color depth yields over 281 trillion possible colors.
Incredible resolution: The included software greatly enhances resolution, up to an amazing 19,200 color dpi.
Easy scanning: Large function buttons automate the scanning process-select the use for the image, and it’s ready in seconds.
Enhance old photos: Built-in retouching technology removes much of the dust and scratches on original prints, improving image quality.
Auto-Image Fix: The built-in Auto-Image Fix feature via Easy PhotoPrint EX helps you produce amazing results.
Faster data: The USB 2.0 interface enables the fastest possible image transfers and scanning speeds.
Multi-image scanning: To save time, simultaneously scan up to 12 frames of 35mm film strip or 4 frames of 35mm slides (negatives or positives).
I have been playing around with the CanoScan 8800F and am very impressed with the ease of scanning as well as the quick setup. Earlier I mentioned it even tries to correctly orient the photos and by this I mean that some of the pictures I have do not really seem to add to the scanners orientation ease. I tried some pictures like ones in a cave and one of a hippopotamus in water with no real background or way the scanner could easily find the sky or ground. These were not correctly oriented but people and landscapes as well as several others I did of zoo animals were easily cropped and oriented with the right ends of the animals going the right way.
The CanoScan 8800F is a nice scanner that comes with the scanner unit, three negative and film holders, a power cord and adapter, USB cable, drivers and programs CD, Photoshop Elements 5 CD and Quick Start Guide. The scanners lid does not unplug from the body but does come out of the tracks for the lid so that you can place objects that would not normally fit on the scanner. I tried scanning a picture in the frame and it worked out very well and was easy to scan.
The scanner installs with a couple of programs that make your scanning very easy as well as integrating into programs such as Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop Elements 5 to add to your scanning features. To use the scanner you simply click on the Canon MP Navigator EX icon and click on the appropriate function to scan in the Navigator program or you can use the buttons on the scanner that have the same functions. You can set each of these functions to some extent from the Navigator and perform these basic functions: Save, Copy and Mail.
The save and copy functions allow you to choose where you save and what printer you copy with as well as choosing things like document or image type; photo, magazine, document, negative film, positive film or auto mode. There are also settings according to the image or document type such as resolution, paper size and Dots Per Inch or DPI. The scan and save functions are easy to use and figure out without even having to go into the help section if you have used scanners before or are familiar with pictures and image editing.
The other scanning functions of the Navigator are scanning to specific programs such as the included Photoshop Elements 5 or another program like Word. There are two slots for you to use as specific programs to scan to as well as one slot to scan documents and convert them to text files called OCR scanning. The scanner comes with an OCR program from ScanSoft called OmniPage SE that works very well for converting documents into text. There is another slot and buttons on the scanner for scanning items directly into a PDF file and saving them to whatever file location you choose.
Each of these settings is available from the scanners Navigator and some are available from the front buttons on the scanner, simply put your document or image in the scanner and push the button you want the scan to go to and the program will scan and open the appropriate program or send it where you have set up in the Navigator. I have used and set these all up and have had no problems with any of them, they work so very well that I am very impressed.
Scanning regular images, documents and photographs is very easy and requires you have the white background snapped into place on the lid. There is a slot for letting appropriate light through the scanner lid when scanning negatives and film so the image is appropriately lighted and viewable. To scan regular items you simply have the white plastic plate snapped into the lid. When scanning film and slides you unlock the plastic sheet and place the appropriate holder in place after placing your film into the holder. This slot does not let light in from the room but allows light to pass through the film for scanning.
The film scanning works great and I have been working with these as well as document scanning for a review on Photoshop CS3 and scanning. The scanner works great and has plenty of settings to get those really high resolution and pixel settings for really clear and crisp images. The scanner also comes with some very nice built in program settings for image editing that work very well such as dust and scratch touchup while you scan.
Using the scan settings you can perform some basic image editing that allows you to edit and correct an image in the scanning program for direct photo printing without having to use an editor. This means no image editing step but still gives you a photograph that is decent without flaws for some decent photographs straight from your scanner.
Scanning film and photographs is great with the CanoScan and being able to control the output of the images is easy. You can set different DPI settings from the smaller and less quality in the hundreds up to 4800 in the photo image settings. You can also increase these settings using an outside program such as Photoshop CS3 up to 9600 DPI.
The scanner works very quickly and takes much less time than my older scanner, I am very impressed with everything about the Canon CanoScan 8800F. The CanoScan 8800F also comes with a couple of useful programs such as the Arcsoft PhotoStudio and Adobe Photoshop Elements 5, two very good image editing programs.
I highly recommend the Canon CanoScan 8800F for professional quality scanning for the professional or amateur photographer. The CanoScan 8800F is great for the home, small or medium business with plenty of features for productivity and scanning as well as copy and PDF document functions.
