Scan Films and Photos Easily: Canon CanoScan 4400F Color Image Scanner

You looked beautiful when you were young and your pictures prove it.  Trouble is, you are getting old and your old pictures are starting to fade.  Without the pictures, what proof have you got?  Save your old pictures and films from annihilation by using the color scanner, Canon CanoScan 4400F.

Overview:  The Canon CanoScan 4400F is only one among the many Canon scanners available.  This is a dual-purpose flatbed scanner and it is primarily intended for scanning film (35mm negatives and slides) and pictures from old photographs, hand-drawings, etc.  The software it comes with will let you customize scan settings.  It comes with photo-editing software and a bunch of other programs, including optical character recognition software for converting scanned text into documents.  The lid  can be raised by 1 inch for scanning images and thick materials like books and notebooks.

The main flatbed scanner comes with plastic film guides (for scanning films), a USB 2.0 cable for connecting to the computer, and an AC adapter.

What You’ll Love:  Good, solid build but relatively light at 6.2 pounds.  The high-resolution scans (maximum of 4800 by 9600 dots per inch, which can be further improved to 19200 by 19200 dpi using the included software) with great detail.  The 48 bits per pixel ensures vivid-color reproduction.  Old pictures, slides and negatives come to life with the Canon CanoScan 4400F.

Versatile; it can scan in color, black & white as well as grayscale, and it works great for scanning text, pictures and films.  Fast transfer; the USB 2.0 interface means faster data transfer between scanner and computer.  Easy PDF file creation.

This scanner is recommended to those who have treasures slides, negatives and old photographs to scan.  It is great value for your money, too, especially as it currently costs only around $86.

Full Disclosure:  The hinge and the film guides are made of plastic and seem rather easy to break or snap, making careful use a premium.  The lid is not as heavy as some would want for scanning heavy materials, and the unit can’t scan with the lid all the way up,  thereby precluding scans of very thick materials.  While data transfer is fast, scanning itself is rather slow (especially the first try) but this is just norm for high-resolution scanners.  And for people who want to multitask, the program window for the Canon CanoScan 4400F is a veritable prima donna; it won’t be relegated to the background and it won’t let itself be ignored.  It always comes on top of other windows you might be using.