Accessories

excellent scanner
Canon CanoScan 8800F Color Film/Negative/Photo Scanner (2168B002)
Very easy to install. Slides and photos come out great at 600 dpi; can even restore old slides and photos by massaging on Photoshop. Can avoid Moire' patterns in pictures from old journals/books by using high resolution. Text scan is very fast. Slides: 4 per 3 minutes. Be sure to clean slides before scanning. I am very happy with this gadget -- and with Amazon.

Great performance and easy to use
I've already scanned 40 years of slides and am even more impressed than I expected. Looking forward to getting all my pictures organized, using the outstanding Canoscan 8800F.

Lots of Bang for the Buck
I was faced with the task of scanning about 1600 mounted 35 mm slides and felt I had to go with a big ticket scanner for for such a project. Reading reviews on Amazon and elsewhere lead me to believe a much less expensive alternative might do the job. I have been more than pleased with the Canon 8800F. Like many others, I gave a lot of weight to scan speed. At a resolution of 2400 dpi it takes about four minutes to scan a batch of four slides but the limiting factor is the time it takes to pull the slides from their carousels and replace them after scanning so the scan time is not as great a factor as I thought and you would be amazed at the number of four minute chores you will find around the house while the scanner does it's thing. I don't use the scanning software to enhance the images at all but wait until a large batch is scanned and then use either the Arcsoft or Photoshop Elements software that came bundled with the scanner to make modifications. The unit is a terrific bargain with this software. I'm very pleased with the quality of the images produced.
Is there a downside? Yes, unless I'm missing something, file management is frustrating. If I run a session saving the scans to a folder in "My Pictures" the program assigns numeric file names to the images in consecutive order- great. But if I then close the program and come back the next day I am unable continue with new file names where I left off. The program starts from number one as though this is a new project. Very frustrating. Would I buy this product again? Yes, definitely.

Canon 8800F scanner
Like this scanner alot. But, and this is a big but to me, the buttons on the front of the machine are almost useless. Push one and nothing happens. Maybe I will figure them out as I go along. Otherwise the machine has functioned perfectly to my satisfaction. Does excellent job on negatives.

Excellent slide to digital conversion
I had bought a $100 scanner to transfer mainly old slides to digital format without much research. After finding out it had automatic settings that couldn't be altered and scans being inconsistent, I looked into other options. This scanner, for only $70 more, has extraordinary quality. It is a slower process and transferring the slides will be time-consuming, but the superior quality is worth a little extra time, especially given that these slides are irreplaceable. It's pretty easy to set up and the editing software that comes with it works very well. Its versatility makes it a great value.