Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.scanner (
More info?)
I have owned this scanner since it first came out: early 2001. The design
has not been significantly revised since. However the 4000 scans are of such
high quality for my amateur purposes that there is no point for me to
replace the scanner as I use less and less film and more digital.
It is a hi quality machine, but slow even using SCSI. I never scan at less
than 2400 dpi which may be why it seems so slow. You don't want to use this
scanner through a USB1 connection so you have to buy a SCSI card and cable,
which adds another $100 or so to the price. You have to manually set the
SCSI device number, an unusual cludge even for 2001, but this is not
difficult.
Many users prefer Vuescan to the Canon software: in my experience the Canon
software works better with negative materials but Vuescan yields better
color fidelity with transparencies. Vuescan allows many esoteric adjustments
that do not necessarily improve the quality of the scan.
I have scanned thousands of images with this machine and it still works as
well as the day I first got it. The build quality is excellent.
The APS adapter works well, but is slow because unless you know which frame
you want you have to prescan the entire roll. Also the entire roll has to
unspool before any scanning takes place and you have to make sure you have
rewound the film before removing the adapter or the film will still be drawn
out of the cassette and exposed.
If you are into color management the canned profile for the scanner is not
that useful and mostly beside the point once you get the scan made anyway.
If you are going to use a scanner of this calibre it behooves you to
understand Photoshop style color management and image processing if you
really want to see what the scanner is capable of producing: no film scanner
produces an image that is ready for printing without further processing.
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