In summary
The CanonScan 9000F represents a good buy for photo enthusiasts with a collection of standard-sized prints and film images to scan. It’s also a worthwhile scanner for rank amateurs who are getting into scanning for the first time and want high quality images to archive or print. Its straightforward control interface makes it easy to choose both fully automated scanning modes and user-controlled scanning.
The LED lamps in this scanner produce consistent colour rendition and Canon’s built-in profiles do a good job under most circumstances. However, the ScanGear driver isn’t as sophisticated as third-party software from SilverFast and VueScan so it can’t quite match these applications’ scan quality or colour accuracy, particularly with colour negative films. And it has a couple of other limitations for more serious enthusiasts.
Although Scan Gear allows you to add new settings to the Output dialog box, its fixed preview window size won’t let you preview images that are larger than the non-adjustable pre-set. You can, however, crop preview images to eliminate areas you don’t want to scan.
One feature that will deter professional users is that no facilities are provided for building a scanner profile that will allow it to be integrated into an imaging workflow. While, the built-in profiles work reasonably well, they are generalised for different types of film (colour/B&W, positive/negative) and can’t be guaranteed to produce the best possible results.
Scan Gear isn’t set up for scanning film originals in non-standard sizes, such as older B&W negatives and films shot with panoramic cameras. In the case of the former, there’s no way to adjust the film holders if the negatives don’t fit and you can’t scan films without a film holder. But, even when the films fit into the holders, you can’t over-ride the pre-sets. When we tried to set the image size to match negatives shot with a panoramic camera that used 35mm film, the message ‘An invalid number was specified. Specify a valid number.’ was displayed and the films couldn’t be scanned.
Both these problems can be overcome by investing in third-party software, such as such as LaserSoft’s SilverFast or Hamrick’s VueScan (which is cheaper). We’ll be publishing a review of SilverFast Ai Studio 8, used on the CanonScan 9000F, shortly.
Full review
Replacing the popular 8800F, Canon’s CanoScan 9000F has been on the market for several years. In fact, a Mark II version was recently announced (although not yet in Australia), but the only difference is in the bundled software. Other specifications are identical in both scanners. Configured to meet the needs of most photo enthusiasts, the 9000F’s maximum optical resolution of 9600 x 9600 dpi should be more than enough for most photo enthusiasts.
Angled view of the CanoScan 9000F with its lid closed. (Source: Canon.)
Before perusing this review, a word of warning: digitising images at high resolutions for either archiving or printing is very time-consuming. And, although the 9000F is faster than many enthusiast-level scanners, you will need to be patient when you ask it to extract the maximum potential quality from your original prints, negatives and slides.
Who’s it For?
The CanonScan 9000F represents a good buy for photo enthusiasts with a collection of standard-sized prints and film images to scan. It’s also a worthwhile scanner for rank amateurs who are getting into scanning for the first time and want high quality images to archive or print. Its straightforward control interface makes it easy to choose both fully automated scanning modes and user-controlled scanning.
The LED lamps in this scanner produce consistent colour rendition and Canon’s built-in profiles do a good job under most circumstances. However, the ScanGear driver isn’t as sophisticated as third-party software from SilverFast and VueScan so it can’t quite match these applications’ scan quality or colour accuracy, particularly with colour negative films. And it has a couple of other limitations for more serious enthusiasts.
Although Scan Gear allows you to add new settings to the Output dialog box, its fixed preview window size won’t let you preview images that are larger than the non-adjustable pre-set. You can, however, crop preview images to eliminate areas you don’t want to scan.
One feature that will deter professional users is that no facilities are provided for building a scanner profile that will allow it to be integrated into an imaging workflow. While, the built-in profiles work reasonably well, they are generalised for different types of film (colour/B&W, positive/negative) and can’t be guaranteed to produce the best possible results.
Scan Gear isn’t set up for scanning film originals in non-standard sizes, such as older B&W negatives and films shot with panoramic cameras. In the case of the former, there’s no way to adjust the film holders if the negatives don’t fit and you can’t scan films without a film holder. But, even when the films fit into the holders, you can’t over-ride the pre-sets. When we tried to set the image size to match negatives shot with a panoramic camera that used 35mm film, the message ‘An invalid number was specified. Specify a valid number.’ was displayed and the films couldn’t be scanned.
Both these problems can be overcome by investing in third-party software, such as such as LaserSoft’s SilverFast or Hamrick’s VueScan (which is cheaper). We’ll be publishing a review of SilverFast Ai Studio 8, used on the CanonScan 9000F, shortly.
Features
The CanoScan 9000F is designed to scan most popular media and can handle documents and prints as well as 35mm and 120 film. Holders are provided for both 35mm film strips and mounted slides, although they can only be used for the designated film formats.
If you want quick scans, a panel of seven ‘EZ’ buttons provides direct access to different scanning functions when scans are made through the supplied MP Navigator EX interface (which is used when you’re not scanning through an image editor). They can be handy when scanning batches of documents or images.
The direct buttons on the control panel of the CanoScan 9000F.
The Auto Scan button detects the type of document loaded and configures the scanner accordingly. It then scans the document and saves it to your computer.
The next four buttons scan to output in PDF format. The Colour and Black and White buttons scan letter-sized or A4 originals at 300 dpi by default. The Custom button scans images using settings you specify beforehand. The Finish button ends scanning and saves the scan as a PDF document.
The Copy task button scans the original and sends the resulting file to your printer, emulating a copy machine. The Email task button attaches the scanned image to a new email message.
To assign functions like Auto Scan, Save, Copy, Print, Mail, OCR, Scan or Show Main Menu to the Auto Scan, Copy or Email button, use MP Navigator EX’s Scanner Button Settings preference panel. Frankly, we only found these buttons useful when we had a batch of originals to scan to PDF or for emailing, where they can speed the process up. For originals we wanted to print, particularly at larger sizes than the original, you really need the controls a dedicated driver provides.
Setting Up
The 9000F comes in a large box with Styrofoam packaging that is split to make it easy to lift out the scanner. The scanner itself is inside a large plastic bag and as it only weighs 4.6 kilograms it’s easy to remove and install on a desktop, where it has a footprint of 270 x 480 mm.
Once you’ve removed all the packaging tape (which secures anything that might move during transit), and unlocked the sliding security lock behind the platen, you can plug the 9000F into the mains power. A printed ‘Quick Start Guide’ takes you step-by-step through the setting up process.
Before connecting the scanner to your computer via the supplied USB cable you must install the software, which is provided on a CD. The GUI gives you the option of ‘Easy’ or ‘Custom’ installation, the former installing all of the bundled applications, which include Scan Gear (the scanner driver), MP Navigator EX (which provides an easy interface for scanning single and multiple originals and includes facilities for scanning images larger than the platen), Solution Menu (which starts accessory software for printing photos), ArcSoft PhotoStudio 6 (a basic editor), Adobe RGB (1998) and an on-screen instruction manual.
The applications supplied on the software disk.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 is provided on a separate disk. This is a superior image editor to ArcSoft Photo Studio, although a bit ‘long in the tooth’ as it was released in September 2009, whereas the current version (Version 11) was released in September 2012. The disk provided was labelled ‘MacOS’ and wasn’t recognised by our Windows computer.
Once the driver has been installed you can connect the scanner to the computer via the supplied USB cable and switch the power on with the button on the left hand end of the front panel. You are now ready to scan.
Prints and document are placed face down on the platen for scanning, with the top corner lined up against the relevant one of three indicator marks (for Letter, A4 and B5 originals) on the top edge. When you want to scan film, you must first pop out the document cover to allow the lamp in the lid to shine through.
The film scanning slot is wide enough to accommodate two 35mm film strips, each with six standard-sized frames. The 9000F comes with three film holders; one each for 35mm film strips, mounted slides and 120/220 film. Each holder has locator tabs that fit onto a peg on the top edge of the platen and a slot on the bottom edge.
A film retainer sheet is provided for preventing curled 120 film from touching the platen and producing circular stripe patterns (Newton’s rings) on scans. The on-screen manual provides detailed instructions on how it should be used.
Scanning
If you don’t want to use the direct buttons, you can open MP Navigator EX and select the Scan button to open Scan Gear (the TWAIN driver). Seven settings are provided in the ‘One-click’ menu: Auto Scan, Save, Copy, Print, Mail, OCR, Scan and PDF.
The MP Navigator EX GUI lets you allocate a file name and select a file type for your scans. If you check the ‘Use the scanner driver’ box you can select the correct settings for the Document type, Colour mode, Document size and Resolution.
Clicking on the Scan button in MP Navigator EX opens the scanner driver.
Clicking on the Preview button and displays a preview of the originals on the platen. A toolbar in the top left corner of the workspace lets you switch the thumbnails view on and off, clear the preview area, rotate the preview image right or left, check and uncheck frames, select frames or cropping frames, auto-crop, move, or mirror selected images.
Previewing images on two strips of unmounted reversal colour film (slides) in the Advanced scanning mode.
Scan Gear has three scanning modes: Basic, Advanced and Auto Scan. The Basic Mode is largely automated. All you need do is select the source (original) type from the dropdown list shown in the screen grab below and then preview the scan. You then set the output size, select the cropping frame, adjust the colour via a thumbnail ring-around, apply corrections for fading, backlighting, etc., and scan.
The GUI for ScanGear’s Basic mode.
The colour ring-around in Scan Gear’s Basic mode makes it easy to select the correct colour balance.
All the adjustments in the Basic mode are made via check-boxes, which don’t provide scope for fine-tuning. If you opt to retouch the scanned image before saving it, you’re taken to a very basic set of adjustments in MP Navigator EX, which offers two alternatives: Auto and Manual. The Auto mode has three buttons: Auto Photo Fix, Face Sharpener and Digital Face Smoothing, while the Manual mode provides sliders for adjusting Brightness, Contrast, Sharpness, Blur and Show-through Removal. As you can see, these are very basic.
Image adjustments using the Manual mode in MP Navigator EX.
The Advanced Mode provides more options with some opportunities for fine-tuning adjustments, as shown in the screen grab below.
Clicking on the Preferences button at the bottom of the control panel lets you select a Quiet Mode or Play Music During Scanning. You can select from a number of preview settings and cropping frames and determine the status of ScanGear after scanning. You can also enable 48/16-bit output instead of the default conversion 48-bit to 24-bit colour and 16-bit to 8-bit grayscale and set colour profiles for the scanner, target and monitor or opt for automatic colour matching. But, aside from being able to select your monitor’s profile, unless you use a third-party driver that supports ICC profiles, this function is redundant.
Accessing profile settings in the Preferences section of the Advanced Mode GUI.
The final mode is Auto Scan, which provides no adjustments at all, except for a check-box that sets the driver to apply automatic corrections. A second check-box is provided to let you view scans.
The GUI for ScanGear’s Auto Scan mode.
ScanGear has facilities for batch scanning, although they are fairly basic. When you load a strip of film or four mounted slides, all the images will be displayed on the preview screen, although only the first one will be checked for scanning. Checking the boxes below the other images allows multiple frames to be scanned.
Scanning two 35mm negatives strips in ScanGear’s Advanced mode. Note the checked box below the lowest image, which indicates that only this image will be scanned. The superimposed time bar tracks the progress of the scan.
The platen is also large enough to accommodate four 6 x 4-inch prints. However, they must be at least one centimetre apart if ScanGear is to recognise them as separate images. Closer than that they will be seen as a single image and it can be difficult to crop them for scanning individually because you can’t rotate crop boxes.
The lid has two locking positions, at 45 degrees and 90 degrees, that prevent it from dropping while you’re arranging originals on the document table. But, while it can accommodate the thickness of a typical magazine, it can’t be lifted to accommodate books and allow small, three-dimensional objects (such as jewellery) to be ‘photographed’.
Scanning Performance
Although the CanoScan 9000F boasts an ‘instant’ warm-up time, it actually takes roughly five seconds before it starts working after one of the direct buttons is pressed. This is because each scan involves capturing a preview which includes preliminary adjustments. Actual scanning times thereafter are dictated by the size of the original, the sampling resolution and the automatic corrections the scanner applies.
These come from Canon’s FARE (Film Automatic Retouching and Enhancement) technology, which automatically removes dust and scratch marks from film originals, restores faded colour and subdues granularity. It’s only applied to film originals by default – and not to B&W negatives. There’s a check box for correcting faded prints in the Basic Mode.
The default setting in all modes is to scan at relatively low quality. If you want high quality scans, you need to click on the Exposure/Tone Settings icon and open the drop-down menu that includes a check box for High Quality.
The table below provides some idea of the typical scanning times for different types of originals, all scanned to produce either same size, A4 or A3 prints.
|
Original |
Scan Mode |
Output size |
Pixel dimensions |
Scan Time |
File Size |
|
3 snapshot prints |
Auto Scan |
15 x 10 cm |
1800 x 1200 |
36 seconds |
1.2MB each JPEG |
|
6 x 4-inch snapshot |
Advanced |
15 x 10 cm |
1800 x 1200 |
10.5 sec |
2.5MB JPEG |
|
6 x 4-inch snapshot |
Advanced |
A3 |
4960 x 3507 |
1 minute 58 sec. |
21MB JPEG |
|
A4 colour print |
Advanced |
A4 |
3507 x 2480 |
1 minute 14 sec. |
11.3MB JPEG |
|
One 35mm colour negative |
Advanced |
A4 |
4200 x 2550 |
3 minutes 36 sec. |
2.31MB JPEG |
|
One 35mm mounted slide |
Advanced |
A3 |
2372 x 1593 |
2 minutes 36 sec. |
1.2MB JPEG |
|
One 35mm B&W negative |
Advanced |
A4 |
3507 x 2480 |
1 minute 42 sec. |
726KB JPEG |
|
One 35mm colour negative |
Advanced High quality |
A3 |
4960 x 3507 |
4 minutes 30 sec. |
2.88MB JPEG |
The quality of the scans was generally good enough to meet the requirements of most potential purchasers. However, scans of film images (particularly those that were taken more than 20 years ago) appeared a little soft when compared with scans of prints. They also tended to contain less detail than scans of the same originals made with the SilverFast Ai Studio software we are currently testing and colour saturation was often boosted. Some examples are shown below.
Scans of Kodachrome slides produced different colours with different drivers. The images above show scans of the same rather dusty 35mm slide. The top scan was made with ScanGear and the bottom one with SilverFast Ai Studio 8. Both scanners produced similar results for dust removal.
A strongly backlit subject shot on Fujichrome film, scanned withScanGear (left) and SilverFast Ai Studio 8 (right) with backlit correction applied.
The images above show scans of the same 35mm Fujichrome slide enlarged to 200% and cropped in Photoshop. The top scan was made with ScanGear and the bottom one with SilverFast Ai Studio 8.
The images above show scans of the same 35mm Agfachrome slide enlarged to 100% and cropped in Photoshop. Auto Tone, Auto Contrast and Auto Colour adjustments were made in Photoshop and 100% unsharp masking was applied to each scan before cropping. The top scan was made with ScanGear and the bottom one with SilverFast Ai Studio 8.
We have a few comments on general scan quality with respect to different types of originals.
Snapshot colour prints generally scanned well, with little loss of detail ““ provided it was present in the original print. Colour recovery was quite good, although greens occasionally ended up a bit over-saturated. Most scans sharpened nicely with either the sharpness adjustment in the Correct/Enhance tools or unsharp masking in Photoshop.
A scan from a 6 x 4-inch colour print.
Black and white negatives suffer from having no dust and scratch correction because the emulsion is incompatible with the infrared scanning used to detect these flaws. However, we found no fault with exposure levels and tonal gamut and, while the scan produced a slightly warm-toned image, it was easy to remove this colour cast when we corrected the dust and scratch marks on the scan with editing software.
Dust and scratch removal is disabled when scanning B&W negatives.
Colour negatives suffered from ScanGear’s ‘one-size fits all’ approach. The wide variation in base colours found in colour negative films really require built-in profiles to correct for them, scans made with ScanGear tended to be less colour accurate than scans from B&W originals. Third-party applications like SilverFast and VueScan allow users to build profiles but require you to purchase IT8 targets.
Colour reproduction was variable when scanning 35mm colour negatives, although most scans tended to have a slight orange bias and saturation was boosted a little, as shown in the scans from these Agfa (top) and Konica (below) negatives.
SilverFast provides a dropdown list of the most popular film brands and emulsions and can easily handle colour transformations. Colour variations in scans made with ScanGear can usually be corrected with a capable image editor.
Colour slides varied in quality, depending on how much highlight and shadow detail was captured in the originals. Dust and scratch removal was effective on all of the films we tested (including Kodachromes), although the FARE system had a few problems with larger pieces of fluff. Reds and oranges tended to be over-saturated in some scans.
A scan from a 30-year-old Kodachrome slide with FARE and Fading correction set to High.
SPECS
Type: Flatbed (Film, Photo and Document)
Scanning head: 12-line Colour CCD
Light source: White LED
Platen size: 216 x 297 mm
Film handling: 35mm filmstrip (negatives/positives): 12 frames; 35mm mounted slides (negatives/positives): 4 frames; 120 format film: max 6 x 22cm (6 x 4.5″, 6 x 6″, 6 x 7″, 6 x 9″, and 6 x 12″ film strip only)
Optical resolution: 9600 x 9600 ppi (film scanning); 4800 x 4800 ppi (reflective documents)
Output resolution: 25 – 19200 ppi
Bit depth: 48-bit input (16-bit for each colour); 48- or 24-bit output for colour, 16- or 8-bit for greyscale
Scanning speed: Preview: approx. 3 sec.; Colour/B&W print: 1.2 msec/line (300dpi) to 12.1 msec/line (4800dpi); Film: 1.5-48.4 msec/line (Colour, Greyscale, B&W)
Dust and scratch reduction: FARE Level 3 (backlight correction, Dust and scratch removal, Fading correction, Grain correct)
Bundled software: ScanGear, MP Navigator EX, ArcSoft Photo Studio Adobe Photoshop Elements 8
Interface: USB 2.0 Hi-Speed
Power consumption: 15W (Max), 0.9W (stand-by mode using supplied built-in AC adaptor)
Dimensions (wxdxh): 270 x 480 x 111 mm
Weight: Approx. 4.6 kg
Rating
RRP: n/a. ASP: AU$340; MSRP: US$200
- Build: 8.5
- Features: 8.5
- Scanning speed: 8.5
- Bundled software: 8.0