Customer Rating:  
Summary: Canon 8800F Slide Scanning Stray Light
Comment: I have scanned approximately 150 slides with the Canon 8800F. The results are satisfactory, but I am not as enthusiastic about this scanner as some of the reviewers. My slide collection spans from 1967 forward, so many of the slides have been in and out of trays many times. The exposures range in quality, some of the slides have deteriorated some, and there is dust on many of the older slides.
The setup took about 30 minutes - following the sketchy instructions. The software included Photoshop elements 5.0, and that is nice. I already owned that software, so it was no additional value to me. Without going into details about the packaged scanner software, it has not been difficult to use. However, trial and error has been the means to determine the effects of the various settings. It would be good to explore the setting for a while to determine what works best before setting out to scan dozens of slides.
The quality of the scans is better than I expected with one exception. This is a major issue. The slide adapter has nice large reliefs cut on each side of the slide holder to permit easy removal of slides. Big fingers can easily get to the slides, but so can a whole lot of light. I posted two photos. One shows the stray light spilling across one of the upper corners of the image. It is a large area and not something to touch up with Photoshop. I did find a solution. I placed a sheet of paper under the slide holder in a position that would block light from passing through the finger reliefs. I posted a photo that shows the improvement. This is a little bit of a hassle, but it works.
One other quality issue. The scanner came with a small piece of plastic stuck to the inside of the glass. It isn't in the area of the slides, so I have not tried to find a way inside to remove it. Also, the glass was pretty dirty and needed cleaned.
Scanning at 4800 dpi has been slow. Four slides take about 10 to 15 minutes. The additional time to remove dust and scratched using Photoshop can add a lot of time. The simple dust and scratch filter reduces sharpness, so I have avoided using it. A higher end scanner uses different techniques to minimize dust effects, so for those people where money is not an issue or time is critical, something like the Nikon scanners might be considered.
I am not a professional photographer, so this will meet my needs.
The stray light problem is shown in the image titled:
Canon 8800F Scanner Stray Light
The improvement achieved with a piece of paper used to block the stray light is seen in the image titled:
Canon 8800F Scanner Stray Light Solution
Customer Rating:
Summary: Terrific tool!
Comment: I purchased this scanner for my husband as an anniversary gift, hoping to get rid of some of the stored paper in the house. I broke open the box myself, to scan a pile of photos documenting the career of a colleague due to retire. It took no time to set up on my Mac and I was able to begin scanning immediately with no glitches. The scanning itself was fast. Others have commented on the noise during scanning. I didn't find this to be a problem. I finished my task with ease and the images came out wonderfully without requiring any fiddling. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in archiving without hassles.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best scanner I've ever used
Comment: Although I haven't yet used all the featutres available on this scanner, it already has performed better, and done more, than my previous Epson scanner (which I thought did a credible job!). I especially like its perfomance on my slides (which I have thousands to do).
Customer Rating:
Summary: Success with slide scanning
Comment: Canon CanoScan 8800F Color Film/Negative/Photo Scanner (2168B002) I used this product to successfully scan and convert more than 600 slides.
It worked very well and created good quality digital files. I had no problems installing the software and using this scanner.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent scanner
Comment: I had been using a Microtek scanner for a number of years mainly for the use of it's adaptor for slides, but was never very happy with it's ability to produce a good scan (each scan needed alot of correction in Photoshop, poor color, streaks, color noise etc). Upgrading to the Canon Canoscanner was like a breath of fresh air! It's built-in slide scanner is easy to use (scan up to 4 slides at a time)and more to the point the quality is excellent! I immediatly wanted to go back over all the slides I'd done over the years with the Microtek and redo them with the Canon! The scanner software is very good. All in all this was a great purchase for me!!
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