canon scanner?

[Nate Nagel]

Hi all,

I need a flatbed scanner to scan some old documents, all I have is an
all-in-one and don't want to feed the documents through. A web search
seems to indicate that the Canon "canoscan" scanners are the best,
albeit massive overkill for what I need. I like massive overkill
though, I typically buy the best stuff I can because then if I find I
need something better I don't have to go out and buy it all over again.
Question is, what's the difference between the 8800F and the 5600F? I
can get the 5600F locally for about $70 less than I would have to spend
to get the 8800F online, and the specs appear fairly similar.

thanks

nate

 

[Paul]

Hi all,

I need a flatbed scanner to scan some old documents, all I have is an
all-in-one and don't want to feed the documents through. A web search
seems to indicate that the Canon "canoscan" scanners are the best,
albeit massive overkill for what I need. I like massive overkill
though, I typically buy the best stuff I can because then if I find I
need something better I don't have to go out and buy it all over again.
Question is, what's the difference between the 8800F and the 5600F? I
can get the 5600F locally for about $70 less than I would have to spend
to get the 8800F online, and the specs appear fairly similar.

thanks

nate

Both scanners appear to support reflective and transmission scanning.
The 8800F lists only "white LED" as a light source. The 5600F lists
"white LED and CCFL". That means one of the light source choices is
CCFL (for film scanning), and there is a slight warmup time for the
CCFL to stabilize. The 8800F also has a larger software bundle.

5600F
http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=120&modelid=17142

8800F
http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=120&modelid=15561

If you really wanted to scan film, you'd buy a film scanner. So neither
of these options might be used by a photographer. I scanned precisely
one negative with my flatbed scanner, and won't be scanning any more :-(
Too grainy.

Neither scanner lists a "D value", which is a contrast ratio. Neither
scanner includes an IT8 target, which might be of some use for
calibration. The scanner will have its own internal calibration method,
which is fine for setting exposure time and so on (perhaps a
white strip of material under the cover, right next to where
the glass starts).

Scan time is limited by the mechanical settling time of the scanning
assembly. If you really were to run it at 4800DPI, and scan
a full sized sheet of paper, the scan time could be quite
unreasonable. I don't know how some scanners now, manage to scan
as fast as they do. Too bad neither spec above, includes scan
time info. (I.e. Scan time at various resolution choices. Or
scan time for film versus documents.)

Either scanner should be good enough for single sheet documents.

I don't see a mention of a "descreening" function, which is what
you use to remove the "dots" from glossy magazine or newsprint.
I found the descreening function in my scanner plugin, to be
useful.

http://www.scanhelp.com/288int/scontent/descreen.html

HTH,
Paul