How is Canon 9900F for 4x5 scans?

[Arne Norris]

I'm thinking of buying a used CanoScan 9900F if it will do a decent job at scanning 4x5 color and b&w negs. Has anyone had any experience using one of these for 4x5?

Any suggestions about software that would be better than that included by Canon?

[Ted Harris]

Arne,

If you search this and other Forums you will see that there were a lot of folks who had trouble with serious color fringing on the 9900 and the 9950. It was so prevalent that we never bothered to test the machine.

Even assuming you get one that doesn't have color fringing problems its resolution and Dmax will be barely acceptable for scanning 4x5 when measured against even the middle-of-the-road current generation scanners. If you are paying any more that $100 it would be silly. Yes, software is available from Silverfast that is far more robust but will cost you more than the scanner. Vuescan is also available but, IMO it is no better than the bundled software, others love it.

[Martin Miksch]

Sorry, I have a 9950 and I am satisfied with my 5x7 scans. no fringing or something.
Regards
Martin

[BradS]

I also have a Canon 9950F. I've scanned a fair number of 4x5 color transparencies with it and never noticed any sort of color fringing(?). I've made a make-shift 5x7 film holder for it and with that, it'll scan 5x7 film too! I like the scanner. It works fine for both color and B&W. It works with Vue-Scan too.

[Peter De Smidt]

I have a 9950F, and I haven't noticed any color fringing.

[BradS]

Arne,

If you search this and other Forums you will see that there were a lot of folks who had trouble with serious color fringing on the 9900 and the 9950. It was so prevalent that we never bothered to test the machine.

Even assuming you get one that doesn't have color fringing problems its resolution and Dmax will be barely acceptable for scanning 4x5 when measured against even the middle-of-the-road current generation scanners. If you are paying any more that $100 it would be silly. Yes, software is available from Silverfast that is far more robust but will cost you more than the scanner. Vuescan is also available but, IMO it is no better than the bundled software, others love it.

Ted, with all due respect, I think that this assessment s overly harsh - especially since you admit that it is based upon hear-say information.


I invite you to look for example at what I have posted on flickr. Everything that I have posted there that is from a large format negative or transparency is a film scan with the 9950F. I do nothing in photoshop except extremely minimal unsharp mask, some dust retouching and the occasional crop or re-size.
see for example:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bks62464/tags/4x5/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bks62464/tags/4by5/)

and for some examples of scans from 5x7 negatives:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bks62464/tags/5x7/