Great Bang for the Buck

My best friend bought me this scanner for Christmas, after I researched some models and let him know which one to get. I picked this particular model because of the low price, high resolution, and because it is a flatbed scanner that can also handle negatives.

I've been using it for several days now and I have to say, I LOVE this scanner! It has to be the quietest scanner I've ever seen. I was on the phone with my mom while scanning and she never heard it running at all. The scan time is also a lot faster than I expected. At the highest resolution, previewing for negative scanning takes maybe 20 seconds. The actual scan takes less than two minutes. The quality of the scans is awesome, regardless of whether you are doing flatbed scanning, color negatives, or black and white negatives (true black & white at that). This is such a huge change from the Canon scanner I had seven years ago!

The scans themselves are great. I've scanned from regular photos, Polaroids, color negatives, and true black & white negatives. I've been pleased with the quality of all the scans. They have all had rich color, nice sharpness, and it picks up the details from both photos and negatives very well. It even managed to pick up some details in some really crappy old photos I had. The only time a picture didn't come out nicely was from my own photographic boo boos. You can see some examples of the scans I've done on my Flickr account:

http://flickr.com/photos/collectonian/tags/scannedfromnegative/ - from negatives

http://flickr.com/photos/collectonian/tags/scannedfromphoto/ - from photos

I also have one shot of a courthouse that offers a way to compare the results of scanning from a negative with the 4400F (http://flickr.com/photos/collectonian/332070127/) versus what you get something from a store photo CD (http://flickr.com/photos/collectonian/132217101/).

Software-wise, the TWAIN driver is very nice with tons of options. It has some basic color corrections, some sharpness corrections, and two modes depending on your experience level (basic automates most settings, while Advanced lets you tweak to your hearts desire; I stick with advanced). The driver works perfectly on my older XP Pro system. The bundled PhotoStudio sucks, however, and I don't use it. None of the actual options seem to take and I just couldn't seem to figure out how to do very basic corrections like adjusting contrast, color, and sharpness. I find that Irfanview (available free on-line) works quite nicely for most of my needs, including acting as a facilitator for batch scanning to file. I have not tried the included OmniPage SE, however I have used an earlier version so I expect it will perform well.

The only review that I found on Amazon before choosing this scanner dismissed this scanner as being more cheaply made versus the 8400F. Well yeah, the 8400F also costs twice as much money. I have no problems with construction of the 4400F at all. If you are abusive towards your equipment, then yeah you should go spend twice as much for something with metal joins and stuff. I, however, treat my equipment very well. This scanner comes with a plastic negative holder which looks like it might be flimsy, but it is pretty easy to use and I think it will hold up just fine. The hinge on the scanner's lid is all plastic, but it opens smoothly and seems well designed. One big perk for me is that this scanner is pretty light weight. I have a glass desk with weight limits on each pane, but it can sit safely on my corner glass which has the lowest allowed weight. I like the sleek compact design as well. My only minor complaint about the design would probably be the cover that you slide down over the negative carriage when not in use. It's basically a piece of thick cardstock like paper. It works, certainly, but I imagine the paper will wear out long before the actual scanner stops being useful. Sliding it into place will require a little patience and practice, but once you get the hang of it, it is pretty easy to get on and off.

The USB cord that is included with this scanner is a pretty good length. It was long enough to have my scanner on one end of my desk and still stretch to the other end to plug into my tower, maybe a four foot distance. The power adapter is the typical big block design, so plan to have to find room for it in your power strip. One thing I can't really comment on is the quick task buttons on the front. They are there and look nice, but I don't use them. I want to play with the settings of stuff too much to go with full automation, however if you like the buttons there are four buttons for scanning straight to PDF, a button to make copies, one for photo/film scanning, and one to scan straight to email.

All in all, I would highly recommend this scanner for anyone looking for a good, fast all purpose scanner for under $100. Well worth the price paid. Certainly the best Christmas present I got.