filmscanners: Canon FS4000 problems

["Soren Svensson (EUS)" <Soren.Svensson@am1.ericsson.se>]

Title: Canon FS4000 problems

I bought a Canon FS4000 scanner a few days ago and I've encountered some serious problems.

The scanner works, the installation was very easy and I had high hopes on this one. But after scanning all sorts of films the last few days I'm ready to send it back.

B/W negs: works VERY well. I was impressed.

Color negs: Works very well for the few I've tried.

Color slides: Absolutely sucks!!

I've tried several different films, Velvia, Provia, Elite Chrome and they all come out VERY dark and bad. I'm not talking about dark highlights, the whites are white, but there's absolutely no shadow detail. It looks like it has a Dmax of 1.0 !! And I choose well exposed slides with easily scanned shadows.

I called Canon tech support and after several hours managed to talk to someone who barely knew what he was talking about and his answer was, get this, "Yes, we know it has problems with 'custom' films but it works very well with 'normal' film, the type you buy at wal-mart"!?!?!

I was so stunned that I almost dropped the phone! I also have to mention that the first two guys I talked to had never heard of Velvia!

I scanned the same slides on my other scanner (Epson 1640 Photo) and even though that scanner is REALLY bad for 35mm (but really good for 120 and 4x5) they still came out better than from the FS4000!!

Is there anyone on this list that have an FS4000? What kind of slide film have you scanned with it? Are the results acceptable?

Regards
/Soren