Canon 8800F

[IK13]

Got one of these with the idea to use it primarily for medium format (though I'm still awaiting on my camera to arrive). Tried it with some 35mm reala negs.

My observations:

1. Scan Gear (Canon's own software) - inferior to the scans I got from Costco. Costco scans were with great color, smoother, but with slightly more detail as well. It might be the post processing, though I did my best to match the colors I never got the 8800F scan to look exactly as the one from Costco.

2. Vuescan (trial, so no DNG) using the Fuji Reala gen2 profile. A little better colors off the bat, but still way off the Costco mark and I couldn't get them exactly there in PS either. Detail still not as good (can't quantify that).

3. The focus was better with the film placed directly on the glass (not in the film holder) - just as in Stefan's review.

4. Canon's FARE does a very decent job on cleaning.


As I said I got it primarily because of medium format, but was kind of hoping that it would be at least a bit better than the Costco scan (which is really good actually).

Now I'm thinking of getting a V500 to see which one is better...

 

[IK13]

On my way home after work I did pick up a V500. Spent (literally) the whole night testing it and the results are...well I don't know if I should be happy or not, but the results were close enough so I can't really say which one produced the best quality. Interestingly the V500 unit also seemed to have better focus when the film was placed directly on the glass.

The good thing - I have no longer worries about whether I made the right choice - it it was that close to call it - V500 goes back to the store .
The bad thing - I'll need a lot of coffee to make to through the day (and my boss keeps turning down my requests for a comfy sofa).

 

[ibcrewin]

I could never get the trial version of Vuescan to work well for me. Although the scan gear is easier to use, I find the scans need a good amount of touching up. I think it's decent for the web but that's about it.

I'll have to try placing the negs directly on the scanner. I haven't tried that yet. Here's a MF scan.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ibcrewin/439289714/in/set-72157594565636855/
This was Portra

This is it with e100
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ibcrewin/407818358/in/set-72157594565636855/

I'm not great at scanning but I think they are passable.