Canon 9950F... Terrible Shadow Detail, Bad Colors

[Wayne Cornell]

Received the 9950F for Christmas. Setup took a little while as with all USB connections somer ports eem to work better than others. Now it is working flawlessly. I have scanned more than 100 color negatives and slides and the results have been outstanding. The software handles dust and scratches well and color rendition is super. One observation -- I turned off unsharp mask in the scanning software and use Photoshop.

When you compare the price of this unit to what you would pay for a dedicated film scanner with this resolution and software, the Canon is a no-brainer IMHO -- and I work in graphic arts every day. Yes, there are scanners out there that probably are better -- if you are willing to spend three times the money or more.

[Kirk Gittings]

I can't speak for how this scanner works with 35mm slides or negs, but with 6x9 color trans and negs as well as 4x5 b&w negs, it has subtle streaking problems that show up in clear sky areas along the direction of the scan. They replaced mine three times and all had it. The second one they sent me was much worse. I bought one for my son at the same time and it had the problem also. So I have tested 4 of these from 3 different sources (different assembly times possibly?). He kept his because his quality requirements are much less than mine as he is an IT professional.

The Digital Ice dust supression in the 4870 is slower than the dust supression software in the 9950F, but the DI is superior in the 4870. I had similar problems with my first 4870 also but the replacement has been perfect (6 months and maybe 900 scans). While the scanning software and user interface is better in the 9950F, the Epson 4870 is a higher quality scanner for medium and large format and right now they are selling for under $500.00.

[Craig Schroeder]

I got mine about the same time as Kirk and assume it was one of the initital production runs. I don't have the streaking problem but have struggled to get things as sharp as I expect they should be. I have been so distracted with other projects that I haven't had the time to really get at sorting this completely but just last evening I scanned some snaps from family Christmas activities. I was stunned at the nice prints I got from some 35mm (cropped, besides!) FP4+ in Ryuji's DS-10. I have seen, in general, that the prints seem better than my preview work would suggest. I've decided to keep the 9950F as it is quite good at general platen scanning and will be sufficient for the transparency scanning that I will expect from it.

I feel that it seems to not meet expectations when I'm pressing it at its resolution and bit depth limits. I get artifacts, an overall black speckle pattern and other anamolies at 4800 that don't seem to be a problem at 1200 and 2400. I've also learned to scan b&w in color negative mode with better results than straight grayscale.

[Wayne Cornell]

On virtually any scanner I've used, including some very high end equipment you get a better tonal range by scanning B&W in color rather than grayscale, then converting to grayscale. I haven't had a chance to scan anything larger than 35 mm yet but will be checking out those formats in the near future (almost all black and white).

[Gyuri Godja]

Hi All,

I'm new to this forum as well as to digital stuff, so sorry for stupid questions (and also for my poor english).
Does anybody also have bad experience with the 9950F using medium format? A mostly shoot 6x6 with my Yashica Mat and after reading Mr. Kirk Gittins' comments I cancelled my order this morning.

Has anybody read this?
http://www.photographyblog.com/index.php/weblog/comments/photo_i_abandons_canon_canoscan_9950f_review/

I couldn't figure out what those "teething problems" are but it sounds officialy admitted bug.

[Wayne Cornell]

I believe that reviewer later changed his mind and completed a fairly favorable review. He apparently had driver problems that were finally resolved and made it possible for him to finish the review. (The first thing I did was download a later driver version from the Canon site).

Although I haven't scanned any medium fortmat yet (I plan to give it a try this weekend) The only problem I have had was with my initial USB connection. Scanner kept locking up. Moved it to a different USB port -- the same one I had been using for my Pacific Image film scanner -- and haven't had a lockup since. I may try it with a firewire connction but I don't have the proper cable right now (it requires a 6-pin connector on both ends of the cable).

Something one needs to remember is that although the Canon 9950f is more expensive that a lot of entry level flatbed scanners -- it's relatively cheap compared to say, a Nikon Coolscan IV or V. Obviously, when you try to be all things to all people (flatbed and film) there are some tradeoffs. But for the price I don't believe it's fair to compare the quality of the scans to what you would get from a dedicated film scanner costing at least twice as much -- if not more. And the price goes even higher if you want a dedicated scanner that will handle larger formats.
I haven't had a chance to really wring out the scanner yet but given the results obtained from 35mm color slides and film, I am more than satisified with the bang I received for the buck.

[Wayne Cornell]

Here's the link to the completed Photo i review


http://www.photo-i.co.uk/Reviews/interactive/Scanners/Canon_9950F/page_1.htm

[Gyuri Godja]

Thank you for the answer, Wayne. I'm looking forward to hearing about your medium format results.
Well, I'm completely confused now about this 9950f issue since opinions are so different. I think I will wait for a while with the purchase, maybe I will wait for tests of the new Epson.

[Wayne Cornell]

New models of anything computer-related almost always have teething problems But it has been my experience that most of the problems are software related and get sorted out pretty quick. Usually, it's possible to get around initial problems if you have some scanner knowledge and can manually tweak the settings. If you don't have the background it's a good idea to wait awhile until the major bugs are identified and squashed.

[Gyuri Godja]

Thanks. I have no serious scanner knowledge, that's why i decided to wait and see others' opinion.