Canon CanoScan 9950F

Review Date
December 12, 2009

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Reviewed by
Lou , Expert

Price Paid
$450.00 at internet dealer

Photography Experience
21+ years , People

Summary
A scanner advertised as an high-end scanner capable of 4000ppi resolution, this product is a big disapointment. It is hardly capable of 1200ppi if you look at scans, the rest is blurry (like interpolated). As a consequence, this is totaly unusable to scan 35mm film, only half decent with medium format, and maybe ok for large format. Of course it is cheap, but I really don't think this should be advertised as 4000ppi scanner, this is a total lie. Film holders are anything except robust and well designed.

I have a 35mm film scanner that is claiming 2800ppi, and I have been please with it.

All in all, a cheap scanner, for cheap results.

Strengths
Affordable

Weaknesses
Low resolution
Poor supporting software (use VueScan instead)
Very bad at scanning color negatives
No customer support whatsoever

Similar Products Used
35mm film scanner.

Customer Service
Very bad, no support on the internet, software is completely obsolete and unsupported. Shame on you Canon.

Review Date
July 22, 2006

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
4.04 of 5, 26 votes

Reviewed by
andrewsfoto , Expert

Price Paid
$576.00 at Sydney Australia

Photography Experience
11-20 years , Outdoor

Summary
Canon no longer makes a dedicated film scanner because high quality, multipurpose flatbed scanners like this one make film scanners obsolete.
The 9950F has dedicated holders for 35 mm strips or slides, any medium format from 645 up to 6 x 22 panorama, 4 x 5" large format or printed material up to approximately A4 size.
It handles all these types of materials with no problem at all, giving high quality scans in every case. There are settings for B&W neg or transparency, Colour neg or transparency or opaque materials. Film is scanned up to 4800 dpi resolution, and 48 bit colour, sufficient for any purpose.
In 6 months of use I have had no problems with the unit at all. Recommended for all high quality scanning requirements up to A4.

Strengths
Easy installation and setup, easy operation. The unit is best driven from the computer, ignoring the buttons on the scanner itself. Simple mode gets the beginner started, and advanced mode enables great control to be exercised over all aspects of the scanning process. High quality scans are readily produced without difficulty from all source types. A very versatile and capable machine.

Weaknesses
None really. I never activate dust or grain removal scanning software as this slows down the scan time excessively. Colour transparencies can be slow to scan at maximum resolution and bit depth, sometimes taking more than 10 minutes for a 35 mm tranny.

Similar Products Used
None

Customer Service
Not required