Canon Canoscan 8600F Reviews

Hi - can anyone share any experiences with the Canoscan 8600F flatbed film

scanner? I'm looking for personal experiences, possibly.

 

I recently have a Epson 2400 with the attachment (4x5, 120, 35mm) that didn't

come originally but was purchased later at Epson.

 

I was looking for something that could scan strips of film rather than single

frames at a time and possibly have an aftermarket film holder that would scan

4x5. Although, not that important on the 4x5 but nice to have. The Canon seems

to be a good choice at the moment but haven't seen the attachments.

 

Thanks.

Hi Darrell.

It is a superb scanner, higher resolution than many, if not most other scanners.

Will do 35mm strips, both positive and negative, colour and B/W.Separate Film holders for 35mm negs, 35mm slides, and another for 120 film(2 1/4 X whatever), in other words, square or rectangular negs.

It also has capabilities to minimize dust, cracks, folds, etc, and generally produces a better result than you started with.

Has excellent Software package included.

 

I tested a 4400F for a couple of weeks, but it held fewer negs and slides, so I bought the 8400, which also included the 120 film format.

You can scan as many pics , negs or slides that will fit the scanner, at one time, and save them all as separate files.

 

The next model up, I believe its the 9400F, will also handle 4X5, but I found the price jump prohibitive, and didn't have enough use for 4X5, to warrant the extra.

You'll love it.

Regards. Doug Bays.

Thanks Doug. For the price I think it's a pretty good scanner myself. I'd prefer one that can scan 4x5 but, you're right, for the price range I just don't shoot enough 4x5s to upgrade at the moment. I can still go to my local photo lab and have them scan it if I really need one. Thanks again, for your helpful comments.

Darrell,

 

I've been working with the 8600 for a couple of days now. Mostly with

6 X 6 images (120). Also, my work at the moment is focusing on Black and White using both plus-X and T-Max 100 as the original negatives.

 

I've found that the results are excellent when producing work for smaller print sizes, say at about 8.5 X 11 or 11 X 14. However, my mission is to try to push the envelope so I'm working some files from 6 X 6 to print at say 44" square. These images are softer than I would like to see and I'm planning to compare them to scans done professionally. To be fair, the images look good and I'm only seeing slices as tests on 8.5 X 11 paper, but it's clear that 4 X 5 would be a better choice here so far. When I work to 50% of that size (22 inches) the images are still suffering from a little softness. I'm saving all files uncompressed as .tif. Files are large, 276 megs for a 44" scan at 400 dpi. I don'e expect there would be much benefit to increasing the dpi, but worth a try for that size I expect. I find the interface for PhotoStudio 5.5 a bit dull, but the product seems to work well.

 

I'm now working in photo shop to see if I can overcome some of my issues. I've made some progress. I feel that when I make the scans, which are very large in size, I'm seeing the film grain, but also some added noise from the scanner. I'm sure that this can be taken care of with noise ninja or similar. The grey scales straight out of the scans are great and are pretty much in line with the detail and density on the negs.

 

When working at these larger sizes and pushing the limits, it is clearly going to involve much more work. I'll be glad to report the comparsion results of pro scans once I've done them.

 

 

Norm.

Thank you, Norm. I did receive my scanner in the mail last week and have so far scanned 6x6, 35mm both color and black and white. You are absolutely right about the results, it does have a bit of softness about them. I know I used a Ilford HP5 for some of the 35mm bw but, comparing with my older Epson 2400, I find the Epson had better sharpness and clarity. I'm beginning to think that perhaps the Canon software have something to do with it. I'm waiting for Mr. Hamrick to get back with me on the news with Vuescan. I downloaded a version but the Canoscan 8600F was not included in the scanner list yet. I'll see how it goes when I get the news.

 

For now, I'm thinking that my Epson isn't ready to retire yet. It's been a very good scanner. But I'm willing to give the Canon another chance to prove itself.

Hi,

 

Can anyone tell me what the dynamic range is like with this scanner. I have a coolscan III and it's a real pain trying to get detail out of dark areas in slides. I'm considering buying a flatbed and have been thinking this scanner as one of the options.

 

Regards,

 

WJ

No one seems to know the scan density range for this scanner. I've heard someone say around 3.3-3.8. If you do a search in the forum you might find it. Regardless, I'm selling my 8600F and decided on a Nikon instead. Look for it in the classifieds by the end of the week. I've only used it to run a roll of 35mm and a roll of 120.

Hi- I would like to use the 8600F to scan XPAN negatives and slides. They are 24mm x 65mm. Is it possible to choose that specific size and make a parallel scan of multiple XPAN negatives / positives or is the scanner SW limited to the native 24mm x 36mm and 60mm x 60mm sizes?

Until now I use the Epson ED 4000 where I scan two halves and stitch them together in PS. The results are good but quite some work...

Thanks for your help!

Hiya,

 

My experience of this scanner has been pretty poor. I can't get the Canon drivers to scan slides. They crash every time with an error 18,0,0 -not enogh memory. I have 1g installed and 700mb free 3000ghz Amd and shed loads of disk win2k sp4. I must have reinstaled them 7 or 8 times with various versions even the latest ones. This means I can't use FARE or multislide scanning. I can use the silverfast drivers but that is one slide at a time and no FARE.

 

You're right slide scans are very soft. I don't like the effect it's as if it's out of focus. The dynamic range seems pretty poor. lots of issues in dark areas. You have to spend ages just one to make it look decent.

 

I'm really not going to bother with slides on this one. Just consider it a good print scanner.

 

I've spent a month with Canon UK trying to resolve it they don't respond to emails an the phone support is a joke if the lines are up.

 

If any one has any ideas I'd appreciate some help.

 

Thanks

I have spent about a week scanning old black and white negatives (not continuously, just about 2 or 3 hours a day) and have the following good and bad things to say about the Canon 8600F

 

Installation: Fairly straight forward, the Canonscan is pretty large. It looks like there are 2 traveling assemblies, one in the bottom and one in the top for the film backlight. Looks cool - sort of - .

The software took longer to install than I would have liked but was uneventful. I believe I left out one app, can't remember which.

I am running XP on a 1 year old laptop (AMD 64 Athlon - EMachine)

Setting up the scanner buttons (assigning them to applications) was a bit confusing for me; my original scanner had none, but turned out in hind sight to be solid and flexible options.

 

I noticed some clicking during the first film scan like something was sticking inside on one of the sliding pieces.

 

GOOD: The software that comes with it is pretty decent, the adobe Photoshop elements 4.0 is feature rich enough for me. It does take me some time to edit the negatives, change the lighting etc but I have had very good results. Though I was hoping for a larger negative scan area I was able to knit together a negative (an X-ray of a jaw in 3D) that was 12"x5" in 4 scans. It was a bit tricky but it was of course my first time knitting. The end result was spectacular since playing with the Adobe elements filters and enhancements I was able to see incredible detail in the negative such as blood vessels in the bone. Something that was invisible holding the original on an x-ray viewing bed. In addition of course it is just cool to have an X-ray positive.

 

The old negatives were in very bad shape, some were water damaged. The Fare 3 tech. did very well (not perfect but very good) in removing the smaller pieces of dust. Sometimes I didn't even wipe the negatives and they came out great. I was able to put the negatives directly on the scanning surface by taking out the film holders. Most of these negatives were non standard sizes 126, elongated 120 frames and another size not quite half format. I believe that putting them on the glass made the scan clearer and allowed negatives larger than the machine was designed for. I was looking for a scanner that did 8.5 x 11" transparencies but price wise settled on the Cannon. The knitting I did was not with color but I bet with some practice you could do a full size full color.

 

Once you get into a routine of scanning film with non-standard sizes on the glass it becomes second nature as to where to place them. Don't expect to get it right the first time. The most useful functions for the black and white negatives are the shadow enhancements and the brightness tweaks.

 

 

Slide placement is easy, 4 at a time if you use the tray; or if you are ambitious, 10 on the glass scrunched up together. The scanner software will actually recognize all 10 slides if they are light enough. There is a section on the glass (closest to the hinge) that you cannot cover or the scanner will get confused while adjusting its light. If you are doing mass scans of film you can put tape markers on the glass to make sure you don't cover this area. When using the glass, always use the 120 12x6 size in the scanner driver software. It seems to prevent the driver from looking for the film holder boarders. By the way, this can only be done from the advanced settings tab in the scanner driver. So if you wanted to scan 4x5s, you can just use the glass, don?t buy any aftermarket holders.

If you want to scan anything larger, you can knit the images together very well. (at least with black and white)

 

PDF scanning is simple if not fast.

 

The copy function is great; I tested it on the back of an Efston science catalog onto photo paper on a cheap HP printer. Looks good and is reasonably fast. The first time you use some of the buttons it will prompt you for some question or another. You can check the "don't bother me again" box and then you won't have to go through it again. Of course if you want to go through it again, make sure you know how to turn it back on first. :)

 

 

BAD: The scanner driver is a bit finicky in terms of which options it picks (sometimes automatically and in a way that overrides your choices) for film scanning. I don't have them all figured out but if you have time and patience you can get what you want done. It appears to have several safeguards against counterfeiting. For fun I placed a 10 dollar bill on the machine and it immediately died on the scan. I thought something else was wrong but since it died repeatedly until I took it out and searched around for something else to test with. (the catalog) My 10 was the only thing I had with color on hand at the time - honest. :) 90% of your problems will be solved if you turn off the thumbnail setting in the scan menu. Of course it is a toggle switch and you can?t tell if it is on or off until you actually do the scan.

 

PDF problems. I was excited about the prospect of being able to scan stuff like old gas bills, so that I could finally through out all those files in the basement. However, the PDF software in conjunction with this scanner inaccurately captures the text! This was very disappointing since it is the #2 reason I bought this scanner. It does capture the PDF documents as an image but does a lousy job with the PDF text. Don't expect to be able to convert those 30 years worth of National Geographic?s into a searchable library so that you can finally ditch the actual paper weighing down your library.

 

EVEN WORSE: The scanner comes with a locking mechanism on the bottom to prevent the sliding mechanism from being damaged in transport. Great idea - however, I think I mention at the beginning that there are 2 sliding mechanisms. One on the top for transporting the light for the film scans. When I first fired up the scanner, there were clicking sounds - I wasn't sure where they were coming from, everything looked ok and the scans were clear and not stilted. Then after about 50 scans, the clicking got really bad and the light on the lid stopped traversing past half the scan. It would only scan the first film shot, then started jamming etc. Sounded nasty.

 

Took it back to Future shop. They replaced it without question. Brought the new one home..........it started clicking too. Will see how long it will last, I still have a lot of negatives to scan. If anyone else has that clicking jamming sound coming from the lid, please let me know. If there is a basic problem there might be some easy solution, to prevent the failure, such as moving a wire out of the way inside the lid.

<div></div>

Hi Darrell,

 

I bought mine the week they came out a few months ago. I have to say that I am

impressed with what I've seen so far.

 

My main reason for getting the scanner, was to scan 35mm negatives that I would be

developing. It worked great. The images are a bit soft, but tonight, i'm going to try that

trick that someone posted to your questions about placing them on teh glass. (great idea).

 

Just a month ago, I picked up a Hasselblad 500c/m. Now I've put the machine to the test.

I've tried every thing you can with the scanner... all teh way to a 4800dpi scan at 6"x6",

and it all just about looks the same. It just depends on what size you're going print, and if

you're going to go to web w/ the images. You'll find your groove with it.

 

All in all.. I love it. It's not the Nikon 9000ED that I wish I had, but it will tide me over till

then. If I need a crazy detail scan, I can have it done, but for now... I can see what I

developed, and re-print all of my old film! :)

 

cheers, and good luck!<div></div>

Can you describe with more precision the quality of the film holders? Do they true film flatness, especially for 120 films?

 

Thanks.

 

Pedro

The 35mm tray has much to be desired. Often time, wishing I could toss it against a wall,

and watch it shatter.

 

The 120 tray is better, but thanks to this forum I discovered the fine art of taping the neg

to the glass, and using a ruler to get the neg straight. I marked on the glass w/ a grease

market so I know where my limit is, as the top area needs to be exposed so the scanner

knows what to calibrate to, and to check if the lid is closed. The 120 tray is good

enough..and even when I do use it to catalog my negs, it's more than good enough, and in

some case, amazing what it produces!

 

Just the other day, I scanned a 120 b/w neg at 2400dpi, with an output size of 6x6 inches.

It's an image of the SFMOMA exterior.. 1000's of little bricks. I shot f/22, so the building

behind the SFMOMA was there to be seen as well. The detail was off the charts amazing.

I'll post the image here. The 1:1 is amazing. I was about to explain to my wife that I

needed the new Epson v750m, and now I'm thinking of saving that cash for my next new

toy...whatever that may be.

 

Overall.. solid scanner. for the money, you can't go wrong. Granted, the scan I did of the

SFMOMA took 30min, but the pay off is worth it for a $180 scanner!

 

cheers, and good luck!

 

J<div></div>

I should add, that the tray is the standard 'lay the neg in, and clamp a support bar down

on the edges' type.

 

Also, the image that I posted, had great care taken when I developed it. Here are my

details:

 

Hasselblad 500cm / Zeiss 80mm T*

Kodak 400TX Pro : Tmax developer 1:4 : careful slow agitation every min with slow 180

turn for only 7 seconds : exatly 8 min dev time.

 

J

See this link:

 

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00Hwmc&tag=

The glass surface of the scanner is especially prone to marks - how would you advise cleaning the glass properly? There is nothing in the manual about that and I worry it will hurt the sharpness and accuracy of the scanned images.

I bought the 8600f yesterday, primarily as an inexpensive way to scan 120 film. I already have a Nikon LS-30 dedicated film scanner, and though it's not the best scanner in the world, it's pretty good.

I tested the 8600 on some 120 B&W negs, and the results are really very good. It worked well scanning a 120 colour contact sheet as well. Very sharp, good colour rendition.

Where it breaks down is on 35mm mounted slides. I scanned the same slide on the 8600 and on my LS-30, and though the Canon scans at 4800, compared to 2700 on the Nikon, the Nikon was much sharper. I guess it has to do with the point-of-focus on the flatbed, but the scans were a lot softer, whereas the same scan on the Nikon was razor sharp.

I didn't buy the 8600 for scanning slides or even 35mm filmstrips, as the Nikon does that already, but I must admit I did like the idea of the Canon being able to scan 4 slides at a time, something the LS-30 cannot do.

I would only use the Canon for scanning mounted slides if the intent was web, but certainly not print.

 

Bob

I think the softness issue that people experience with this scanner is not due to its optics. In

my experience all Canon products including their professional digital SLR cameras have very

minimal to no sharpening applied to the raw image by the hardware. Some people see this as

a fault but it is very straightforward and mandatory to sharpen photos in software like

Photoshop.

 

Other manufacturers have higher levels of in-built sharpening that can sometimes detract

from the image.

Review on the way!

http://www.stockholmviews.com/canon_8600f_review/index.html

 

regards/ Stefan

Has anyone scanned old super slides using this scanner?

I just received my scanner. It seems to cut off the slides at strange places making some very thin and long.

Any ideas on how to fix that?

I had a great deal of trouble scanning negatives, what I found out was that you have to cover open slots with black paper or the software fails all kinds of ways. Everything just started working then.

 

You also need to go to ScanGear directly (the interface software for the driver) to get support for negatives and higher than 600dpi resolution.

You get to ScanGear by using your imaging software and importing or acquiring images, rather than starting with Canon's CanoScan. In ScanGear select "Advanced Mode" in the upper right hand corner.

Select "Color Negative Film" in the pulldown menu.

 

Canon tech support just told me to update the drivers, etc.

 

 

Attached is a scan.

 

-Doug<div></div>

>Has anyone scanned old super slides using this scanner? I just >received my scanner. It seems to cut off the slides at strange >places making some very thin and long. Any ideas on how to fix that?

 

Turn off the thumbnails in ScanGear and set the cropping yourself if it looks wrong. Every so often, the sw doesn't set the crop area correctly.

In ScanGear I only have options for prints in the Select Source menu, there are no film options to select. The scanner is great for print, but I can't get it to scan film. I've put the 35 mm slides into the holder and removed the protective sheet, of course. I have downloaded the newest drivers and software at canon.com/support-hub/vista but I still don't get any film options in Select Source. What is my problem????

 

Thanks,

Jim T.

Got an answer to this question about film options not showing up in ScanGear Select Source menu - disconnected the film adapter unit and reattached, problem solved!

 

Jim T.