Canon CanoScan 9000F

Canon CanoScan 9000F Film and Negative Scanner

One step up in Canon's line from the CanoScan 8800F ($199.99 direct, ) that I reviewed two years ago, the CanoScan 9000F Film and Negative Scanner ($249.99 direct) is Canon's latest high-end consumer-level flatbed scanner. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it closely parallels the 8800F in both strengths and weaknesses. In particular, it does an extremely good job with photographic prints but is less impressive for film (slides and negatives). As with the 8800F, that makes it worth considering if you're primarily interested in prints, but want the ability to scan film occasionally as well. Like its closest competition, which includes the 8800F, the Epson Perfection V600 ($249.99 direct, ), and the Editors' Choice Epson Perfection V500 ($249.99 direct, ), the 9000F can serve as a general-purpose scanner for both documents and photos. It even comes with software for optical character recognition (OCR). There's no question, however, that it focuses on photos, with features that include restoring faded colors in photos and digitally removing dust and graininess. Simply having the ability to scan film is another indication of the design focus on photos, but - as with its closest competition, and quite apart from any questions about scan quality - the film scanning is limited.