Customer reviews from usa.canon.com
Canon - Flatbed Scanner with Charge-Coupled Device (CCD)
Average customer rating
4.5
(70 Reviews)
Rating breakdown 70 reviews
5 Stars
54
4 Stars
9
3 Stars
1
2 Stars
1
1 Star
5
90%of customers recommend this product.
(
61 out of
68)
Customer Reviews for Canon - Flatbed Scanner with Charge-Coupled Device (CCD)
Customer Rating
4
OS x Lion Failure
on March 21, 2012
Posted by: Pirate
from North Central Texas
This scanner was good for photos and documents, passable for negatives and not so good for slides. Then I upgraded to OS X Lion, and now I have some plastic, glass and circuits that look like a scanner, but are not a scanner. Canon has not come up with a compatibility patch for Lion. Boo Canon. I am dead in the water until they do.
Pros: very good for photos and documents.
Cons: worthless after upgrading to os x lion.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Written by a customer while visiting usa.canon.com
Customer Rating
4
Good Product
on May 17, 2010
Posted by: Robert
from Tucson, AZ
The scanner does a great job on 35mm positive and negative film. Instructions for the scanner seem a bit sketchy. It came with three film holders, 35mm slides, 35mm film strip and one for film strip about 2 1/4 inches wide. Each has a reverse "R" on them with no instructions as to what this means. I have some film the same outside size as 35mm slides but the photo is 1 1/2 x 1 1/2. It will not scan the full photo. It cuts it to the size of normal 35mm slide. In the size adjustments, it will not let me increase the size to the 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 inch size. I have not been able to find out how to scan film sizes other than the standard 35mm.
Pros: Compact Design, durable, Fast Connectivity, High resolution, High-speed scanning, easy to use
Cons: needs better instructions
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting usa.canon.com
Customer Rating
5
Great machine!
on September 28, 2011
Posted by: Dave
from Higganum, CT
I've had the 8800 for over two years and have scanned over 2000 slides, photos, documents, and objects, new and old. The slides and documents can be color corrected easily and quickly. Scanning only 4 slides at a time can make for a long time at the machine, but the results are worth it- simple as that. Anyone looking for a well-built machine that can take a workout, look no further. This 8800F will do it all and do it extremely well.
Pros: durable, Fast Connectivity, High resolution, High-speed scanning, easy to use, great color correction, does slides really well
Cons: only 4 slides at a time
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting usa.canon.com
Customer Rating
5
CanoScan 8800F
on August 26, 2009
Posted by: CascadeThumper
from Seattle
This is one great scanner. Everything works well, the user interface is intuitive and easy to use. There are just the right amount of scanning options from large TIFF files to smaller jpegs. The footprint is large, but if you want a flatbed with the ability to scan legal documents it's going to be a little longer than 14". This is the best scanner I've owned.
Pros: Compact Design, durable, easy to use, High-speed scanning, Fast Connectivity, High resolution
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting usa.canon.com
Customer Rating
4
Good, but
on November 8, 2009
Posted by: Charlie
from Tacoma, Washington
Purchased the 8800F to convert 35MM slides to digital storage. Machine was easy to set up and load software. I can capture images, but haven't learned how to select, classify, and store yet. Machine was well packaged in orginal box, shipping box was open upon receipt. All worked per instructions, VERY WELL packed.
Pros: easy to use, Fast Connectivity
Cons: Slow-speed scanning
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting usa.canon.com
Customer Rating
3
Good & bad
on August 5, 2010
Posted by: Dave of Maryland
from Maryland
Great hardware, or so I presume
Lousy software.
Lousy software.
If what you want is to scan slides, or turn sheets of paper into pdfs or OCR, then this is a good scanner.
For all other jobs, it's poor.
And I'm still stunned by that. I thought Canon would have plain vanilla basic scanner controls that I could work with. It doesn't.
You simply can't save WHERE you want, with the FILE NAME you want. The machine wants to save under today's date. WHY? I'm still puzzled by that. WHY save under a date? Uncheck the box, save where & how you want, go scan the next item & it's back again. Save under the date. WHY? I can't figure this out.
I want to crop an image on the glass, I want to zoom in on the image on the glass. Canon makes this virtually impossible. There is a routine in an area called the "driver" that has different format sizes, with incomprehensible labels - B4 A3, Hitaki (or some such). Experimenting with them, I found one that was about 5.5 x 8.5 inches, which, as it happens, will work for one of my major jobs: Scanning book interiors. I'm glad Canon put those there, even if under incomprehensible names, because you can't easily crop on the platen itself.
Auto page numbering. You're stuck with it. I scan & reprint entire books, auto page numbering ought to be perfect for me. It isn't. Canon forces an XXX_0000 format. Again, why? The scans for Joe's book go in Joe's subdirectory. All I need is 1.tif,2.tif, 3.tif. Scans for Sally's book go in Sally's subdirectory. There's never any confusion between Sally's 1.tif & Joe's 1.tif. Plus, a lot of books have introductory Roman numbered pages. That's i.tif, ii.tif, iii.tif, etc. When I go to set these scans in my old page layout program, the window that opens for me to select a .tif file is only so big. It can display 25 raw numbered scans (1.tif, 2.tif, etc.). Make that "joe_0001.tif & there's only half as many displayed. Which means you have to fast forward to the middle of the file to get the tif you want to set. The average book has 200 pages / tiffs in it. Some of those pages are invariably blank. Auto numbering forces you to scan those pages, because when you come to set them in the desktop program, you need an exact one-to-one match between tif & final page number. (I presume you can delete blank pages from the thumbnails. I'm finishing up work on a book at the moment & won't be scanning another for a couple of weeks.)
Lighten-darken. On the driver, it's hidden. (The Driver is the best of the available software.) When you're scanning pages for publication, the exact setting is critical. Too light & it's washed out. Too dark & the entire book has a leaden feeling. Which goes back to format size, in other words, the fraction of the glass that actually gets scanned. You don't want that area to be any bigger than it has to be. You don't want to pick up the gutter, you don't want to run off the edges of the book, you don't want the file any bigger than it has to be - and at 600 dpi (minimum), they're on the big side. In other words, you need controls that just aren't there.
The setup for a book is critical. You start by scanning a random page in the book, which is transferred to the desktop publishing program, which is then reduced to a pdf set to the book printer's specs (not your computer printer, I'm talking about people in Tennessee who make books). You print that on your computer printer & study it. Too light? To dark? Too big? Too small? You make adjustments to the image on the scanner & start over again. Canon does not make this process easy. Regrettably, I am unable to work directly with pdfs. I have to go the tif to pdf route. Someday I'll have all the modern software.
Zooming. I want to make an initial scan, crop it, hit zoom, and watch just that part come up on screen. Big as life. Canon will do something like that, but it isn't easy & it isn't clear. Canon compulsively wants to scan in its predetermined format size (A4 or Letter or Legal or B4 or Hitaki or whatever). It doesn't want to scan in your "custom size", which is what cropping amounts to. Scan the next item & Canon immediately returns to its default scan size, with your crop marks floating in the middle of it. You must start all over again.
There's some sort of photoshop-ish software bundled with the program (Arcsoft). I've seen programs like that before. I regret they're all gibberish to me. Canon's comes with a stack of icons on the right-hand side. If you're into that sort of thing, I presume they're fabulous. It might be that some of the controls I need are in there someplace and, if I put a lot more time into a single scan than i ever used to, I might find some satisfaction there. But for me, all I want is a simple scan. It's all I understand.
I gave up with the bundled software & went looking for 3rd party stuff. And it was worse, if anything. I am the only person in the world doing what I do. Here's another of my jobs.
I run an on-line bookstore. I scan book covers at 25%. My 15 year old workhorse scanner, which is almost worn out, could make those scans. Set the exact cover size (ie. crop) & go cover to cover to cover. Make minor adjustments to each. Canon makes that nearly impossible. Turn the cover over. There's an author's picture back there. I need the picture to be as wide, on my web pages, as the cover itself. Well, heck, that was easy. The old scanner would give me the exact dimensions of the reduced cover (1.4 inches was typical), it would scan the author's picture big as life. All I had to do was draw a box around the author & then manipulate magnification (percentage), or the crop dimensions, until it matched. Canon makes this nearly impossible.
I thought I could simply replace my aging scanner (I'm not allowed to tell you its name) with the Canon. Instead I've set the Canon aside & will go on with the old machine. Canon's software limits it to 1. slide scanning, 2. interior book scanning (hopefully), and OCR work. From time to time I OCR books. Of the nearly 40 titles I've reprinted, I've OCR'd maybe a fourth of them. I never do it unless the original is lousy, as resetting a book from scratch is time & labor intensive. I used to be a photographer. A month ago I dug up all my old work. I want to use it for covers for the books I reprint. One good slide (I did 6 x 6 chromes) can make a cover. That's a critical need, but by itself it doesn't justify the cost of the scanner.
I tried Canon's OCR, by the way. Scans were very fast, as I would expect. Regrettably, the bundled OmniPage Scansoft OCR program, with its traditional interface, wasn't so hot. I ripped it out & reinstalled v.15 from five years ago. The full-size version of the same program was better than the bundled fraction.
Most of you will LOVE this machine. Those of you who do more than scan slides & OCR documents, won't. It simply amazes me that Canon never sat down with someone who scans for a living - which I do - and wrote software that would make his life easier. I have no problems with the machine. If there's anyone at Canon who's listening, I would LOVE to be of help. You've got a FABULOUS scanner, but you've crippled it with bad software.
Cons: add a con
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Written by a customer while visiting usa.canon.com
Customer Rating
5
Graet Scanner
on February 15, 2009
Posted by: Horse
from St. Louis, MO
I had over a thousand family slides I wanted to digitalize for my 3 children. Using the packeged software I was able scan them and adjust for minor blemishes, dust, exposure, ect. I put each roll in its own file named first with the year. Transfered them onto fashdrives for a very nice Christmas gift.
I have also OCR program include and worked quite well.
I have also OCR program include and worked quite well.
Pros: easy to use, Fast Connectivity, High resolution
Cons: Large Footprint
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting usa.canon.com
Customer Rating
5
Good reliable scanner for Mac OS
on December 30, 2009
Posted by: Peter
I have had this scanner for more than a year and mainly use it to scan black and white, and colored, documents with Mac OS 10.5 and Mac OS 10.6. The scanner is very good and it has worked flawless. I have had no technical issues. The software is reasonable; not great in itself, but great in combination with other software that can manipulate images and PDF files.
Pros: durable, High resolution, High-speed scanning, easy to use
I would recommend this to a friend!
Written by a customer while visiting usa.canon.com