Canon CanoScan 8800F Color Image Scanner, Gray/Black - High-Speed Scanning for Professional Quality Results

Bruce K.: We decided to digitalize some of our old pictures. I have an Agfa SnapScan 1212u and love it. But after a few hours of scanning, it's showing its age. The scans take a long time and progress was definitely limited by 90s technology. So I did a lot of research on the web. It seemed to come down to two scanners for photo scanning, Canon's CanoScan 8800F and Epson's Perfection V500. Both retail for the same price, but the Epson is much cheaper discounted, including on Amazon. The Epson Perfection V600 is not discounted and I didn't really see a difference between it and the V500 so I never considered it.

Based on the reviews, the 8800F and V500 seemed to be pretty much equivalent. But on most reviews, the Canon usually was the preferred scanner chosen. The overwhelming 5 star reviews on Amazon seemed to support what others on the web were saying. So based on those numbers, I chose the 8800F.

Ok, on to my experience. The scanner shipped immediately even though I picked free shipping. Showed up in 3 days from Phoenix. The scanner itself has a slightly larger footprint than my Agfa and not as tall. The lid kind of surprised me. It is thick with some kind of electronics in...

United States on Apr 08, 2010

Brent: This is a well-designed product. Easy to use, fast, reliable, nice-looking.

Here are its best features:

1. Copy

Scanned then immediately printed (the computer must be on, but no interaction is required).

2. Scan

Grab a photo and either
a) Write it to disk, or
b) Send it to Photoshop (whitespace already trimmed!)

3. Create PDF

To scan a multi-page document, then send a single file to someone, the scanner will create a PDF.
Press one button to add a page and another button to complete the PDF.

4. E-Mail

This button scans a smaller version, then automatically opens a New E-Mail window.
Just type your message, then click Send.

Pressing a button on the scanner not only starts the scanning process, but opens the software interface on the computer. This can come in handy, as mentioned below. There is an option place several scans into a single PDF file. I find this very useful.

This is NOT a small scanner (it's nearly a foot wide and 1 1/2 times that deep). But it's the best I've found. Fast startup, reasonably quick scanning, great quality, and usable software. The LED lighting really makes a...

United States on Mar 27, 2010