The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Canon 5600F Scanner Barrie Smith |
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Newcomer to PC Update is renowned photographer and image manipulator Barrie Smith. Here he reviews one of the latest Canon scanners. |
Having used a scanner for some years now, not only for capturing images,
graphics, 'objects' and -
crucially - documents, I'm of the opinion that this type of device has a firm
place in our world.
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I junked my fax machine and its dedicated phone line some time ago. Today, if I
need to
fax anything it gets scanned, saved as a JPEG or PDF, then attached to an
email. Easy.
I used to run a Canon film scanner but when the company failed to issue system
updates it became redundant and now sits lonely and unloved while I scan any
film with
a desktop scanner that has a film option. Like this one under review. The CanoScan 5600F is another in a long line of scanners that can handle photographic prints, documents and film originals (slides, negatives, colour, B&W). The resolution is 4800x9600 dpi with 48-bit colour depth. This one is a departure however, in that it uses LEDs as the light source, so offering high brightness and zero warm-up time when turned on. The Multi-Scan mode can scan multiple images at once, then automatically detect, straighten and creates a separate file for each image. The film scanner can scan up to six frames on a 35mm film strip or four 35mm mounted slides. Output file formats include JPEG, PICT and TIFF. |
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Setup
Getting the scanner going
was surprisingly easy: load the software, unclip the machine locks, place a
graphic or film on the platen and kick off the MP Navigator application.
Fortunately, that trip was uneventful and quite enjoyable, You can go auto or
manual.
Going with the auto approach all the brainwork is done for you and you end up
with a scan in seconds. Travelling manual, you engage
with the scanner driver and deal with a whole phalanx of options — such as
resolution, output size required and settings concerned with FARE Level 3
scheme which minimises dust, scratches and
fading. There appears to be no way to set highlight and shadow points.
Film
I scanned a strip of stills made on
a short end of old Eastmancolor
movie film negative from the
60s. I set up the scan so that it would print out at 4800 dpi; this would
result in an 86 MB TIFF file to print out at 37x57cm. First a preview: from
this it was obvious there was need for some correction to colour fading and a
touch of grain reduction.
All of this took around six minutes in the final scan.
The result was pretty good: colour saturated, definition OK. Of course some
chemical spots would take a bit more treatment to remove but overall I was
happy with the result and it brought
a shot back from the dead!
OCR
I also enjoyed doing some Opitcal Character Recognition work: dropping a
document in the scanner's platen, it was simple to let the 5600F do all the leg
work. The scan took seconds, as did the text translation and I ended up with a
readable text file ... no dealing with OCR software, the scanner handles the
whole chore.
Button Up
You can make life even easier by using the buttons set into the front of the
CanoScan. These can take care of chores such as
copying and sending a document/ image to a Canon printer, scanning a document
and saving it as a PDF file, scanning and attaching a document to an email and
more.
Comment
I enjoyed my time with the CanoScan and can recommend it to anyone who needs
the multiple modes it offers.
Reprinted from the March 2009 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
