I have a CanoScan 4400F flatbed scanner. It’s far from the most expensive or feature-rich model on the market, but it’s been perfect for our needs.
We moved house recently, and i’ve just unpacked the scanner to do some scanning. There is a sort of shadow down one side of the scans. The glass bed of the scanner is clean and streak-free, so i can only assume that this is a problem with the scanner bulb/light, or something similar.
I’ve uploaded a sample scan here. This scan was taken with nothing in the scanner; it’s just a scan taken with the cover closed. I’ve put a red line around the edge of the page, just so you can differentiate it from your browser background.
If it is the bulb, is it worth trying to get it fixed? Or would it be cheaper and easier to just get another scanner? It works OK, as long as the thing you need to scan is narrow enough to avoid the problem section.
Did you lock the scan head before packing it up for your move? If you didn’t then it may have gotten knocked around and damaged.
Scanners are cheap these days, and as long as you only need to scan papers, I’d say to get a new one.
That unit scans negs and slides, too, right? (I’m assuming from the ‘F’ designation. I have an 8000F) Since that uses the center section, you may still be able to use it for that, although Canon flatbeds sorta suck for negatives, YMMV.
Definitely locked it. In fact, one of the first things i checked when i retrieved it from the box was that the lock was still in place.
Might have to do that.
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Yeah, it does slides and negs. The center section seems unaffected, so it could still be used for that. I’ve only done a few negs, just to see how it worked. I’m not sure i’d want to create high-quality blow-ups from it, but it’s fine if all you need to do is convert them for posting on the web.