This scanner is doing a beautiful job on my diverse scanning needs. The 9600 dpi rate digitizes my slides down the the limits of the film itself. Even at 300dpi, it resolves the individual color print dots in the Sunday funnies.The slide carrier is a bit cumbersome to use: it does a good job of aligning 4 mounted slides at a time, but removing and changing slides is a cumbersome process. I have to chase my slides around on the platen to retrieve them after a scan.The backing plate in the top of the scanner has to be removed before scanning transparencies. Unfortunately, the thin plastic latch that holds it in place is pathetically breakable -- so much so that I have to call it "cheesy". Push it down to release the plate, and it may break on the first try -- as mine did. So be careful -- use both thumbs to pull down on either end of the latch bar, rather than pressing down on the weaker center. I ended up reinforcing this weakling component by gluing a toothpick into the grove in the back of the latch bar. Certainly they could have at least made the bar of solid plastic. Nylon probably would have been a better choice than the brittle plastic they used. I'm wondering how long it will be before the latch tabs fail altogether, and I have to tape the backer in place!This scanner gives impeccable results. Be prepared for a long wait for scans at 9600dpi, but that high resolution is wonderful to have when I need it for that prize slide photo.You will need to wade through a maze of menus and submenus to explore this machine's diverse scanning features, but you'll be well rewarded.

There are many things to like about this scanner. But there are just as many things that are less than likeable.First, I experienced streaks in my scans using the slide and film scanner. This has been an intermittent problem, usually occurring when I haven't used the film and slide scanner for a couple or more weeks. The problem showed up immediately, and then only occasionally. Not wanting to take a chance on being stuck with a defective scanner, I requested a replacement from Canon. The rep was courteous, and the replacement scanner was received in a few days. BUT! The replacement scanner was scuffed and obviously well-used. When Canon telephoned me to perform a follow-up service survey, I asked the representative if the replacement was a refurbished scanner, and he admitted that it was ... and that Canon had received numerous complaints from consumers about its policy of replacing NEW scanners (like mine) with used ones!!I'm still deciding whether to keep the used replacement -- or take a chance and continue using the new one (purchased from Amazon.com) for the remainder of the warranty period.My other complaints are: (1) it takes forever to scan multiple pages into another program (Adobe Acrobat, for example), and the contrast settings for each page must be re-set for each page scanned if pages are faded, or otherwise require adjustment, (2) the film strip holder that came with the scanner is a flimsy plastic affair that is certain to break or fail in due course, (3) there is some mysterious coating on the platen that requires constant cleaning.This scanner supplements (and fortunately does not replace) a still working Visioneer OneTouch 8600 scanner that I purchased in 1999 -- which runs circles around the Canon in the useability department.UPDATE - 11/25/2016: My PC with XP installed crashed this past week, and my Windows 10 system would not recognize either device. Both Canon and Visioneer have declined to update their drivers for older scanners. BUT, the good folks at VueScan have come to the rescue. They recently released a software program which allows nearly all old scanners to once again be utilized -- even including my dedicated Minolta slide and negative scanner. The Canon 8600f and Visioneer 8600 have also benefited. Which only proves how greedy many hardware manufacturers are when they refuse to update their software to compel consumers like myself to needlessly purchase new hardware when the older equipment is perfectly satisfactory. Thank you, VueScan. Shame on you Canon and Visioneer!

I've used the CanoScan 8600F scanner for two weeks now scanning about 300 color photos, size 4" x 6". It works great with my 3 year old Dell PC running Windows XP with only 512 MB of RAM.I started off scanning negative film of my photos but noticed that even after careful cleaning of each 6 image strip that, more often than not, I'd see specks or fuzz on the scanned image which took a bit of time to correct using the included Adobe PhotoShop Elements 4.0 software (the dust/scratch removal software too often takes off image details that you will want to keep). I decided to try scanning my 4" x 6" prints instead of the negatives and got better results. I couldn't tell much difference in the resolution AS VIEWED ON MY 1280 x 1024 LCD monitor. I don't usually make prints so I couldn't say how the quality for scanning prints vs. negatives would compare in that department. The good thing was that scanning prints almost always gave me a cleaner image than scanning negatives. And prints scan faster than negatives.You wouldn't think you could scan prints faster than negatives since you can load two 6 image strips (12 images total) into the holder that comes with the unit vs. being able to place only 4 of the 4" x 6" prints on the platten. What happens is that the unit scans negatives ONE IMAGE AT A TIME vs. scanning the prints all in one pass. It takes the scanner about 1 minute per image when scanning negatives. It also takes only about 1 minute to scan 3 or 4 prints so the result is a faster operation when scanning prints than when scanning negatives.One drawback of the software for me was that I found I could scan only 3 size 4" x 6" prints at a time if I wanted to use the "auto-crop" feature. Putting 4 images on the platten resulted in them being too close together for the software to detect them as individual prints. Yes, I could crop them in Adobe Elements but that added more problems with not having specific EXIF information for each image. Bottom line: I scanned 3 prints, size 4" x 6", at a time and was very happy with the speed and quality. The scanner processed faster than I could load/unload the images (I was pulling them out of a protector sheet-style photo album for scanning).I've had no trouble with the unit or the software but I can tell you there is a somewhat steep learning curve if you intend on scanning a lot of images. Figuring out how to customize the lid-mounted buttons/screen-based toolbar (they are duplicates of one another) is essential for faster operation.None of the included software allow you to do any significant EXIF editing. You'll need a different software package for that function. Yes, you can plug-in date of original and a few other items but it is a one image at a time operation and is very time consuming. Get a shareware program like EXIF Utilities to do this on a batch basis.I'd buy this same unit again if faced with the same decision. It is a good value for what I paid at Amazon.com and it came quickly plus was well-packaged.jNote also this unit has a one year warranty vs. the 90 day warranty for the error-prone HP models of equivalent specification.