Canon CanoScan 9900F Flatbed Scanner

Pros: Fast, broad capability, FIREWIRE, very reasonable price
Cons: Software that at best is good only for automatic scans

As a professional photographer, I needed a scanner for quick proofing of 35mm negative film, reasonable scans of larger format films and to complement my dedicated film scanner. My extensive experience with Canon products (scanners and cameras), along ...

Pros: Good sharpness Good dynamic range FARE works excellent Black areas are black with no dust.
Cons: Color correction on ScanGear is too basic, use Photoshop.

I have been using this scanner intensively. This is an excellent piece of hardware and I have been able to get great scans from negatives and slides with excellent colors. When I bought this scanner my first impression was to be disappointed because ...

Pros: nice combo of features, hi resolution, and large format negatives and slides
Cons: No FIREWIRE support for Windows!

I have not had much time to use this scanner yet. Overall, it is a nice machine for amateur or home-office use with consumer friendly software. Number one problem: I bought this scanner because it had BOTH Firewire and USB2.0 interfaces. My Sony ...

Pros: Hardware is fine.
Cons: Software is haunted, cruel, and a source of coronary artery plaque. Cholesterol rising.

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 ...

Pros: Seems to be nice hardware
Cons: Poor software, support

I bought this to scan all my 35mm negatives since it supposedly does 24 at a time. It would probably work great were it not for software bugs that chop the top off some of the negatives. This causes some negatives to not be detected and scanned properly, and you get an incomplete scan of some negatives. This is a SERIOUS time waster for anyone thinking that the 24 batch scanning capability for 35mm film negative would save time (like me). I called Canon and they said there are some issues.

So... if you are buying to scan negatives, be prepared to have problems. I think scanning slides is even worse as I put some in and the thumbnails were way off.

If they fix the software then I will change this review.

UPDATE (2004-11-01): It seems that the problem with negative scanning has finally been fixed with Scangear 8.2.7. I am raising my rating but am still very disappointed with Canon for waiting so long to fix this crippled scanner.

Pros: Fast preview, quality, installation, interface, Software bundle, ease, effectiveness
Cons: No Firewire cable;

First one to review this! Our choice was between this bran new model and the Epson of equal specs. I've asked the boss to give this one a shot, since I own a Canon at home, and I'm satisfied with the Canon products. We have an Epson and I found faults that the Canon doesn't seem to have.

Preview loads in 3 seconds, which is excellent. Scanning speed is acceptable. The package is solid: metal and plastic. Installs like a charm on both mac/pc. The software interface is VERY easy and intuitive (with both basic and advanced modes), as opposed to the confusing Epson options. There's also an auto-tune-up function for whenever you want to re-calibrate.

The resulting scan is surprisingly nice. Epson does a great job as well, but Epson made photos look darker and was buggy with films (and positive films). We need to do more test with films on the Canon, but looks promising. We are very excited with our new Canon. Perfect for Graphic Design professionals who want a middle-high product! Buy it!