When I first installed the software that comes with my new Canon scanner, there were a number of limitations forced on me by the software, which would have resulted in lower quality scans, so we’ll cover this first, in case you have bought the same or a similar scanner. Of course, if you never want to make any large prints, and your final use is the computer screen, then that resolution would be fine.

We’re talking about creating images that are around 10 to 15 megapixels, even when scanning medium format film, and that is just too low to be of any use in my opinion. Also, not that all of the dedicated film scanners that I could find online were relatively low resolution. Regular flat-bed scanners designed just for documents shine light onto the document while scanning, but to be able to scan slides or negatives, the scanner has to have a light built into the lid to shine through the film, so this is something to be careful of when buying a scanner for this purpose.

This is a sure sign that Canon is probably preparing to release something new, which I would like to have waited for, but I didn’t have that luxury with my old scanner having broken. Note though that B&H Photo and don’t seem to stock this scanner anymore, and Canon’s website here in Japan also marks it as running low on stock. This scanner is also a few years old in design, but it’s the latest model that I could find that offers high-resolution scanning and the film guide for 120 film. When I came to scan the film that I had processed recently, I found that my scanner had broken, so I replaced it with a Canon CanoScan 9000F Mark II. Four years ago I walked you through scanning 120 format film on my Epson Scanner, which was around six years or so old at the time, making ten now.

Canon canoscan 9000f review