great scanner for the price

I've owned multiple scanners, and this is my second Canon scanner. I use it both at home and in my classroom. I've owned the 4400F for about a year now (and have it in my classroom for about the same time), so after a year I figure I can give a pretty good review of it.

Ease of set-up: Extremely easy. Install the software, plug it in, and it's done. It's worked from the get-go without any glitches, both at home and on the 3 computers that I have it connected to in my multimedia classroom.

Ease of use: for me it's extremely easy to use, as I've owned scanners before (my first was a Visioneer multiple years ago). The CanoScan toolbox is extremely user friendly. Other teachers that have it in their classroom have also commented about how easy it was to learn to use its functions. My students use it for much more detailed assignments: scanning photos, negatives, and slides. Most have never used a scanner before and easily adapted to it. The 4400F performed well in every task we put it to, provided we adjusted the settings to accommodate our desired output. Scanning a photograph in low resolution will give you mediocre results. I've taught my students the need to know about resolution (dpi) and how it will alter the outcome of their scanned image. It makes a difference.

Software included: As stated previously, the CanoScan toolbox is nice. I never use the buttons on the front panel of the scanner, as the software is so easy to use. The photo editing and OCR software is mediocre at best, though. My old Visioneer came bundled with PaperPort, which is far superior to what Canon includes. I work at home and at school with the Adobe CS2 suite, so we integrate all of our scans into Acrobat Pro (and then into Word for OCR use) or Photoshop, so the bundled software to us has been useless, other than the toolbox as previously stated.

Reliability: so far, so good. I may be speaking too soon, though, since right before this I had a more expensive Canon 8400F scanner (that did come bundled with Photoshop Elements and better OCR software), but died after 18 months. At $79.99 on Amazon.com, I couldn't pass the 4400F up, especially since I had already been using it in my classroom and seen my students get great results with it. It's the only scanner in its price range that can handle slides and negatives. My students range in experience from novice to near-expert computer users, so these scanners get a beating multiple times a day. They have all held up well.

Scan quality: Photographs: excellent, provided you set the scanner at the appropriate dpi. Most photographs will work at 300 dpi, but for photo restoration (something that I do quite a bit, particularly with photographs that are 60-80 years old), you need to set the dpi at 600 to get your best scan. Once again, however, I'm using Photoshop to edit my images, which greatly increases my ability to work with any scanned image. Set correctly, scans have always been exactly as expected and have given me remarkable results and ability to restore old, damaged, faded prints. Documents: to make a straight copy, I leave the scanner set in default color mode, 300 dpi. You'll get your best copy that way, otherwise you receive a "shadow" if it's a 2-sided document and you set the scanner on b&w. For PDF conversion, the same holds true. Even if you intend to print in b&w, scan the document in color if it's a 2-sided document. You'll get a clearer scan that won't show the bleed-through from the flip-side (however, this does result in a larger PDF file size). Negatives & slides: the few times that my students have used the attachment to scan slides and negatives, they have been very pleased. Once again, however, note that we were using Photoshop to edit the image, and not the provided Canon imaging software.

All in all, this is a great scanner for the money. I've spent much more on scanners that did far less (the Visioneer did much more, but was three times more expensive many years ago). I've been very pleased with the 4400F's performance in a variety of situations. Most won't use it for the variety of tasks that I throw at it. If you're looking for a good, basic scanner that will copy documents, convert some files to PDF documents, and scan a few photos, you can't miss with the Canon 4400F. And, even if you're looking for something a bit zippier and don't want to spend your next paycheck on a scanner, this little machine can handle it all, provided you figure out how to get it to work for you. Play around with it and determine what suits your needs. But by all means, use a different photo editing software!

Update 11/9/08:  one of the three scanners that I use at school malfunctioned after Hurricane Ike hit our area (I just had it diagnosed this last week -- school districts work sort of slowly).  Apparently the power surges that occurred afterward "fried" (in my tech's talk) the actual scanner.  I replaced the actual hardware with another one we had ready to go.  However, the drivers must be connected to the serial numbers of the scanners, so that required an entire re-installatiion of the software (not really a big deal, just a few extra steps).  I thought it was worth noting here, since I believed initally I could swap out one piece of hardware for another (much like printers), but apparently that is not the case with the 4400F.

I did find another very helpful feature buried within the Copy section of the software, though.  This is extremely helpful to one of my students who (because of a very rare disorder) is gradually losing his sight.  The cover on this scanner is wide-hinged to accommodate books being placed on the flatbed.  Through the Copy section of the Toolbox, with the book placed sideways, you can choose to print 200% landscape.  This literally doubles the size of the print of the book (or anything, for that matter, that is placed on the bed).  While it may not seem like a great feature for many, for him and others who do not have books available in large print, this is a capability that makes life so much easier.

I continue to be amazed at the myriad of tasks that this reasonably- priced scanner can handle with beautiful results.  Every day I find new things it can do for me and my students.  After over a year of hard work, survival of a hurricane and multiple power surges, this model still gets a double thumbs-up from me.