Don't buy to scan 35 mm slides!
Written: Sep 24 '03
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Pros: Hardware is fine.
Cons: Software is haunted, cruel, and a source of coronary artery plaque. Cholesterol rising.
The Bottom Line: Don't buy if you're looking to digitize your life's collection of 35 mm. slides. It'll work fine between reboots on negatives and regular scans.
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| sumus's Full Review: Canon CanoScan 9900F Flatbed Scanner |
This is a beautiful scanner with, unfortunately, software (ScanGear) that is--for lack of a better term--haunted. No where in the manual does it say you can't scan using "thumbnails" for 35 mm slides, like you can with negative strips. It chops them all up and the Film Size option defaults to the negative strip each time. Sometimes it works with you, but most of the time it becomes bizarre without provocation. I was on the phone with Support 5 times with varying answers, such as:
1) It's a glitch in the software and we have no current plans on fixing it
2) You have to turn all the slides vertically (Duh!)
3) You have to uninstall the driver and reinstall it from the CD
4) You have to uninstall the driver and reinstall it from the Canon Internet site for drivers
5) The Japanese wrote the program--it'll take months for them to even hear about your problem
6) You have to go to Windows update and update the latest driver for your new Dell computer's video card (trans., "Take us out of the loop.).
7) Oh, the thumbnail option is primarily made for negatives, even though it may work sometimes on 35 mm slides
Color me blue in the face. The other problem is that the computer hangs after scanning just three or four slides, no matter how big of a mutha computer you have...and scanning each slide one at a time, of course...which is a chore if you bought this scanner to archive your stacks of slide boxes.
Bottom line is don't buy this scanner if you're looking to finally digitize your life's collection of 35 mm. slides. It'll work fine on negatives and regular scans...for a while, that is, until you have to reboot, which I've done more in the last 5 days than I've done in the last 5 months.
Message to Canon: You have a serious quality issue in Tech Support, who--contradictory to what I'm hearing on the queue message--DID jack me around and DID NOT support me. Message to me from Canon: You're screwed, pal--go out and buy an Epson--see if we care.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 300
Interface: USB
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Epinions.com ID:
sumus
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Location: New Orleans, La.
Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
M.D., writer, and epicure. With my lantern, I search for the one honest ISP.
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