Canon 9900F review

The Canon 9900F scanner

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The 9900F for film scanning.

At an optical resolution of 3200 dpi the 9900F offers far more resolution than most dedicated film scanners. Why do you want extra resolution? A high scan resolution means you are going to capture more of the detail that is on your film. High resolution is necessary for producing quality 10 x 8 (A4) and larger prints, an essential pre-requisite for any professional or keen hobbyist photographer. Of course there is a price to pay, more resolution also means bigger file sizes, which means you have to have a powerful computer to work with the images. For photographers, a scanner that can produce a quality image at an affordable price could mean the end of their "red light zone" days. They can at last emerge from the darkroom and enjoy the light of day again. So lets have a look at some film scans and see if this scanner is the solution for you.

Compared to.

Just to give you a quick idea of what the 9900F can do, here is a professionally scanned 6x7 transparency. The scan was made using a Flextight Precision II scanner, this is a high end scanner that costs' in region of £4000 + (I haven't the exact cost to hand), it's a well specified scanner and popular with professionals.

© Michael Jones photographer 2003

The original 6x7 transparency 177.23mb at 3200 dpi

Professionally scanned with a Flextight Precision 2 at 3200dpi

Scanned with the Canon 9900F at 3200dpi

The Canon 9900F produced a slightly contrasty image, but has managed to keep most of the shadow detail, on this first scan there are no blocked up areas. Look at the dark tube against the shadow area. There is good sharpness throughout with detail being kept in both highlight and shadow areas, although perhaps not as open as the Flextight scan. As the Flextight scan had Unsharp Masking applied (which I asked the lab not to do), I also applied some USM to the Canon scan using Photoshop. The USM filter in ScanGear CS is basic to say the best. On this test the sharpness is on par with the Epson 3200, any appearance of it being sharper is due to the higher contrast. Before I move on to the various formats, I will have a brief look at the hardware.

The Hardware.

The 9900F is supplied with three film holders. There are two holders for 35mm film, a slide holder that holds eight mounted transparencies and a film strip holder which holds four strips of six frames. The mounted slide holder has eight large apertures for positioning the slides, (the slides actually rest directly on top of the document glass). There are recesses on each aperture so you can easily lift the slides out without putting finger marks on the glass.


35mm mounted slide holder	35mm film strip holder

Fitting your 35mm strips in the strip holder is straightforward, just lay the film in the grove. At the end of each strip there are two small tabs to hold the film, these are small tabs and more often than not the film jumped out. Film is placed emulsion side down, i.e. towards the scanning optics and is held in place by a top guide which runs the length of the strip. There are small white marks to line up the spaces between frames, but if I line up these lines then the film doesn't fit in the tabs. Perhaps the tabs needs to be just slightly longer.The film holder doesn't seem that robust and doesn't inspire confidence. However, the film does seem to be kept flat and the top guides provide enough grip, I will check for focus later in the review.

The other holder is a joint 120 roll film and 5x4 inch holder. The 120 section will hold; 6x45, 6x6, 6x7, 6x8, 6x9 and 6x12 film formats. The 5x4 section holds one sheet of film. The film is kept in place by a rather flimsy guide, although it does keep the film in place. In the electronic manual it states that "120 and 4" x 5" format films cannot be scanned together at the same time. Place only one in the film guide at a time" I don't know why they say this, but I will find out shortly. At the top of each holder there is a calibration slot (under the hazard symbol on the 120 holder shot), this should not be covered.


120 & 5x4 film holder	The protective sheet must be removed for film scanning

Canon seems to have cut costs on the film holders, they could do with being more robust. As with the Epson 3200 there is a serious omission by not including a 120 film strip holder (3 6x6 or 4 6x45 frames), this holder would be essential to any professional photographer or keen hobbyist. As this Canon scanner is aimed at the professional photographer/designer, did Canon actually research the professional market and ask them what they wanted?

Before making any film scans, the protective sheet on the FAU lid must be removed. Removing it is the easy part, refitting it takes some practice - you have to insert the bottom first then position the top two holes over the clips and then slide the cover down. I can get it right 80% of the time.

Next, the film scans