New Scanners at Photokina?

[Don Miller]

The Canon 9950f looks good. It comes with a 4x5 adapter and looks like it can be modified for larger sizes.

http://www.photo-i.co.uk/News/Sept04/Canon%20scanner.htm

Anything else for LF announced? I don't see the f-3200 from Epson.

Don

[yh Kil]

GT-X800:

35mm~8x10, 6 line CCD, Max OD 4.0!, 4800dpi, 48bit, Digital ICE, USB 2.0 & Firewire.

http://www.i-love-epson.co.jp/products/scanner/gtx800/gtx8001.htm

[David R Munson]

GT-X800

Color me excited.

[Don Miller]

Was the GT-X800 announced at Photokina, or does it just appear on the i-love-epson website? I think the kanji on this website says "Please disregard this website, the products listed here are posted just to confuse the white man"

[Don Miller]

I do have a prediction.

I've had Epson scanners for many years. I currently use a 3200 for lesser prints. It's not good enough for big or important prints. Neither is the slightly improved 4870.

I think the Canon 9950f is going to be a break through scanner for large format. It looks like this is a real "new" scanner in terms of optics and electronics. Canon is the worlds leading digital/optical company. If they finally put their full effort into producing an inexpensive high quality flatbed scanner they will "own" the low and middle end of this market.

The optics of the new scanner should make an improvement of real dmax possible (if the sensor is adequate). Canon is by far the leader in low noise digital capture. So if they've finally decided to "do it right" this will be great for us.

The scanner should go to 8x10 with a custom adopter, as it appears capable of scanning film over the enitre surface.

So I'll take bets on this one. The first review should be from Vincent at photo-i.co.uk .

Don

[Ken Lee]

Here is a listing on it from Canon.

If it really delivers 4800 ppi, runs quickly, and only costs $399, then great.

[Don Miller]

The U.K. press release for the 9950f contains a lot more technical detail. It's reproduced on the photo-i.co.uk site.

It's interesting how the UK Canon marketing people position the scanner somewhat differently from their U.S. counterparts.

If it delivers half the rated dpi it could be a great scanner for LF.

[tim atherton]

Hmmm - wonder if it will scan 8x10? You would think so if it will take that many 35mm negs at once?

[paulr]

This does look really good. Right now I'm using an Epson 1640XL scanner at work, which seems fine (I've never tried scanning my work on a consumer model, so I don't know how big the differences are). I do know that this epson has a good reputation and that it cost a few grand. I'm wondering if the Cannon scanner's superior looking specs will actually translate into a superior scanner. If so, I'll be tempted to get it, just to be able to scan at home and really take my time (and not have to share the document glass with a cage full of paint and glue-covered graphic designers)!

[Don Miller]

The most information I've found on the 9950f is contained in this pdf:

http://www.brochures.canon-europe.com/pdfs/CanoScan_9950F-p7953-c3854-HQ-1095769115.pdf

I don't care about the specs, but rather that it appears to be a truly re engineered scanner. At some point we will get a cheap LF scanner that matches or exceeds older mid-level pro scanning equipment.

Scanners are just specialized digital cameras and can follow a similar price/performance curve if companies like Canon decide to make it so.

The new lens design appears to allow critical sharpness over the entire A4 surface. So 8x10 and 6x22 should work. At $400 I'll buy one just to see if it's truly usable for important work or just another incremental improvement in consumer desktop scanners.

I've never owned a Canon scanner so I'm not sure if their software is any good. So perhaps the price of additional software will need to be included in the final cost.