Abstract: Scanners produced by other manufacturers simply can't match the quality of the output and performance of this scanner (CanoScan 5000F)at this price. I highly recommend it.

Full Review:
When I recently needed to purchase a scanner for my wife (she intends to scan family photos, school photos (B/W and gray scale), I had one choice in mind (based on price and reviews) when I went to the store, the Epson Perfection 1660P (after reading all the reviews I could find)! Went to my local Best Buy looking for the Perfection 1660P, they did not have any Epson’s at all but I did see Canon 5000F that had specs of 2400 x 4800 and was within my price range (I had a BB gift certificate)! So, I bought the Canon at BB and bought an Epson 1660P at CC for a Scanner shoot out!

I spent the next two days comparing the scanned outputs of both. Deciding between the two was quite difficult so I relied on other members of the family to give me their opinion on the scanned output (family members did not know which output came from which scanner).

The difference between a CanoScan 5000F and Epson 1660P in terms of hardware is that the 5000F has a higher maximum horizontal optical resolution of 2400 dpi vs 1600 dpi on the 1660P and a higher vertical resolution of 4800 vs 3200.

When resolutions are quoted by manufacturers i.e 1600*3200, its important to look at the horizontal resolution as it indicates the maximum hardware resolution of the scanning head. Vertical resolutions just give an indication of how precise the drive mechanism is in moving the scanning head vertically across the scanning bed. Don't even bother paying attention to the maximum interpolated resolutions quoted, the software based interpolation greatly increases file sizes while blurring images...totally useless.

Both scanners support the newer USB 2.0 interface and are backward compatible with USB 1.1 and a USB 2.0 certified cable is provided with the scanners. I was up, operational and scanning within ten minutes. Do follow their advice and install the software BEFORE you plug the scanner into your USB port. I have an older USB port (am using a HUB), and it has worked wonderfully right out of the box.

The scanners are also capable of scanning film slides and negatives, and offer a built in light for them in its lid. The Epson 1660P does have a easier to remove scanner cover and its also built much sturdier! The Canon 5000F was easy to remove but you need more care to replace it back on its lid.

The color scans of photos on the 5000F were almost perfect but on the 1660P they were “softer” (colors were not as saturated), I realize that this is subjective, which is why I had the shoot out. Color photos were scanned with great accuracy on the 5000F, fine details are captured in both light and dark areas of photos and the colors were vivid and well saturated. Contrast and brightness was almost perfect. Blacks appear deep in color scans, scans of photos needed very little adjustment in an image-editing program, just touch up work. Family members consistently chose the CanoScan 5000F scanned photos over the Epson 1660P!
On the Epson 1660, I noticed more “what appeared to be smudges” on the scanned photo and I did not see the same on the CanoScan 5000F.

The CanoScan 5000F comes with photo software but I already have Adobe Photoshop Elements 2 so I did not load or use any of the included software (they are all Mac Classic and I’m strictly using Mac OS X now!), I scan directly to Elements 2 (yes, they have drivers for Mac OS X).

Both scanners are solidly built and are not overly large (size and weight are average for a scanner). The CanoScan 5000F fits on my computer desk without a problem and has roughly the same footprint (slightly bigger) than the Epson 1660P (its about 2” longer). I decided to buy the Canon 5000F in the end, both scanners produced very good out put but as I said, the Canon 5000F scanned photos were always picked by other members of the family, as being better!

I bought the 5000F because I could afford the extra 40-50 dollars for it and decided that the higher resolution of the 5000F would give me greater flexibility in the future to do things such as scan negatives. Resolution is important when scanning negatives or slides so that detail is retained when the scans are enlarged and printed. Scanning negatives produced much better resolution on the same set of slides (in one case the scanned output of the Canon 5000F was better (more detail) then the actual photo or the output of the Epson 1660P). I did not scan any slides but I would think that the results would be the same.

The “negative film” holder on the 5000F is much better, it actually has a piece of plastic to hold the film firmly in place and flat on the glass. The Epson 1660P had guides that held the film in place but it did not necessarily flatten the slide.

Overall, the resolution on the CanoScan 5000F was greater and color saturation was much better but the 1660P also did do a nice job (again this is subjective and you may need to see results for yourself)! The one problem I had with the 5000F was on a piece of film that had a very strong flash on a persons face (from a cheap camera and inexperienced user) I had to raise the espouser to its max to get a acceptable scanned result (surprisingly, the preview scan looked good but the full scan had no detail in the face till I raised the exposure (I spoke with Canon Support on this and hopefully this will be something that will be corrected in future versions of the driver).

Bottom Line:
I'm so thrilled by the quality of the CanoScan 5000F I don’t know if I can write more detailed, fact-based review on the scanner, this scanner thrills me! All I really need to say is IT'S INCREDIBLE for its price (and the price will only go down)! However, I know you want details. Here they are: The film scans are AMAZING! They're crisp and clear (with the one exception I mentioned above). Many scanners will blur your slides or provide unacceptable resolution for any serious utility. Not the case here. Standard scans are fantastic, colors are rich and detailed. I MUST mention the FARE (Film Automatic Retouching and Enhancement) technology employed by the CanoScan 5000F. How many times have you been digging through your storage to find a great old photo that has been marred by the hands of time? Using FARE, you won't spend hours retouching the photo in your photo-editing software --it's all done AUTOMATICALLY! No example picture could ever explain how well it works. Go to a store and try it yourself.

For scanners I would highly recommend reading as many reviews as possible and perhaps buy two if you must and have a “Scanner shoot out” as I did.




Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 199.000
Interface: USB