Canon Canoscan 9950F film holders and Calibration

Wolfram Malukker · Feb 21, 2025

Got a used Canoscan 9950F. Price was good, and guaranteed working, but no film holders. I found a film holder to buy, for the formats I want to scan, so they are not quite unobtanium.

Unlike the Epsons, the Canon film holders have a calibration stripe on the film holder. Since I don't have one, I think my calibration may be wrong. I am getting some wide color/shadow bands in the scanned images I've tried so far.

Scanning reflective things like a printed page work fine, no artifacts at all. Scanning in transparency mode, the lamp comes on, and the scan works, but I get some weird striping that runs the whole vertical length of the frame.

Since I do not have a film holder yet, I am wondering if anyone else has used a sheet of white card or similar across the top of the scan area, to simulate the calibration stripe?

I will be using Vuescan to do the scanning, since I have not found the 64 bit canon scangear software yet. I've only got the trial version of vuescan until I am convinced the scanner is working properly. I've been scanning a regular overhead transparency to test the scanner, I did not have any of my film with me to scan at work. I'll take some in tomorrow and get some images of the stripes.

Anyone else have this issue before?

craigclu · Feb 21, 2025

Is there 64 bit software now? I've had this scanner for years, since it first came out. I liked the bundled Canon software as it allowed full scans of a page of negatives or slides and kept them separated. The software wasn't compatible with the newer Windows versions and I switched to Vuescan. It works well but isn't efficient for larger projects. Would you post back here on your experiences and if you find Canon software that works in the newer environments?

BradS · Feb 21, 2025

I had a canon 9950F. It died long time ago now but I still have a full set of film holders. I always used the canon software. It was easy and produced good results. I tried bursa with it but went back to the canon sw.

koraks · Feb 22, 2025

Wolfram Malukker said:
I am getting some wide color/shadow bands in the scanned images I've tried so far.

Could you post a picture?
The description of the image defect doesn't sound like anything that would be related to calibration.

Wolfram Malukker said:
Scanning reflective things like a printed page work fine, no artifacts at all. Scanning in transparency mode, the lamp comes on, and the scan works, but I get some weird striping that runs the whole vertical length of the frame.

Is there any dust on the glass plate (this can also be at the bottom of the glass)? What about the transparency adapter; is it clean, inside & out?

brbo · Feb 22, 2025

Wolfram Malukker said:
Since I do not have a film holder yet, I am wondering if anyone else has used a sheet of white card or similar across the top of the scan area, to simulate the calibration stripe?

No need. Just don't place film in the area where the calibration strip is on the holder.

Different scanners do calibration differently. Some don't do auto-calibration before every scan, so you might have to do it manually in Vuescan (Scanner - Calibrate). So, clean the entire scanning glass bed, leave the calibration area clear and do the calibration.

Wolfram Malukker · Feb 22, 2025

That's the plan for today or tomorrow.

I still have a lot of homework to finish for college, and homework to grade for work, so I may not get to it today.

Wolfram Malukker · Feb 26, 2025

OK, I was able to fake a calibration with a trimmed down sheet of white paper, and get a clean black-and-white transparency scan. I went to try it out in color, and Vuescan promptly told me that I needed to install drivers, that were already installed, and already working...since I JUST SCANNED AN IMAGE!

This was what my biggest concern with buying a scanner always was-I used Vuescan in the past to support a large format document scanner from Epson 15 years ago, and it was a constant problem. There was no other option back then, either, so I just fought with it daily to make C-size and D-size print scans.

craigclu · Feb 26, 2025

Vuescan installed and functioned perfectly for my 9950F. I initially found the interface a bit awkward but that was mainly due to orientation/learning curve for me. I never accessed their support for anything but you might be missing something basic that could get you functioning.

MattKing · Feb 26, 2025

Contact the support. The Hamrick's are responsive.

Wolfram Malukker · Feb 27, 2025

Yep. I've been chatting with them at lunchtime today, and I'll pick it up again when classes are over. I think it's a "windows selects the driver it wants whenever it wants" problem.

Patrick Robert James · Feb 27, 2025

There aren't any calibration stripes on 9950 holders, just a window on the holders. In Vuescan you can run a calibration manually for the 9950. It is in the menu under scanner/calibrate.

If you are getting stripes then you need to clean the glass and mirrors. It is easy to take the glass off and clean the back of it. The mirrors are a little more challenging. Use Q-tips and lens cleaner and a light touch. There are a few mirrors. Getting at them can be a bit difficult but you should be able to handle it. If it has never been cleaned then the quality will go up quite a bit if you clean it.

Wolfram Malukker · Feb 27, 2025

Yes, there are. It's the white area, demarked by a "no" symbol next to it. When scanning in film mode, the scan head will advance to this position, stop, and wait for you to start the transparency scan. I have not gotten this far in decoding the driver yet but I would bet this is where it's doing it's calibration at before doing a transparency scan, because if you scan a transparency that has part of the image in the area where it stops in, it will drag stripes that coincide with the part of the image that was in that area through your scan.

It will keep dragging stripes through your scans, until you put a white target back in that area-then it the stripes stop and it scans nicely again. It's about 17-19 mm from the top edge of the scanner glass.

MattKing · Feb 27, 2025

Wolfram Malukker said:
It will keep dragging stripes through your scans, until you put a white target back in that area

I don't have a Canoscan 9950F.
I have and use a Canoscan 9000F.
The holders for it have a clear window opening the width of the light source at the far end. The opening is
The calibration function relies on there being nothing in that area, not something white in that area - it is a precisely shaped and sized opening that allows the light from the light source to go straight through the platen and to reach the scanner sensor.
My understanding is that the size and placement of the opening is important to the accuracy of the calibration process.
This is the calibration end of the medium format holder - for the 9000. I have a sheet of white paper behind it for the photo, but when on the scanner a look through that empty calibration window reveals the glass platen and the inner workings of the scanner below.

Wolfram Malukker · Feb 27, 2025

Mine may have an issue then-it did not stop dragging stripes through until I put a clean white piece of teflon in that area, then did a scan. Haven't had any issues with it since then, but this is using the Canon software that won't let me scan any higher than 300dpi.

I have had nothing but problems with any other software so far, which has been very disappointing, as Vuescan was quick and easy to use-for the 20 minutes that I was able to get it to work before I started having what I am told are driver problems.

Starting to wonder if I should have just sold a car to get the money for a used Epson, at this point.

MattKing · Feb 27, 2025

FWIW, both the Canoscan software and Vuescan work great - using Windows 10.
I think the calibration process is interpreting your setup as if you were scanning reflection media. In other words, light from below, not light from the lid.
You have removed the protective sheet, haave you not?
From the manual:

Wolfram Malukker · Feb 27, 2025

Unfortunately they do not work great for me. Canon has *zero* functioning drivers left on their website for the 9950F. I've had to hunt all over the internet to try and find the single 64-bit driver that was produced, version 10.3.2.4a, as the link on the Canon websites seems to be a broken driver or installer-the installer won't even run all the way to the end before disappearing, never to finish the installation.

Even after finding the driver, the "canon IJ toolbox" software that comes with it will not even recognize the scanner, although after running the installer, windows will recognize the scanner, and after installing a different "canon toolbox 4.9" software will recognize and run the scanner (but only at 300dpi, and will only recognize 35mm film correctly). ScanGear CS will not run at all, and won't even install-that's the correct software for the scanner, though.

After doing all this, and downloading the trial version of Vuescan, I was able to scan a few images with the watermark-I was stoked at how much better it worked. Then I start getting the glitches where vuescan will all the sudden drop the scanner and revert to the webcam, and now it recognizes the scanner but complains that there is no plugin installed, and to install the canon drivers. The scanner will not work in vuescan at all when this happens, but still works with the canon software.

The canon toolbox software always sees the scanner, but still only allows the low resolution scans and will not do any film scans but 35mm.

Yes, I have removed the protective pad from the transparency unit and the lamp does come on and work. Soon I should have a real set of 9950F film trays (the trays from the 8000/8800/9000 scanners are not the same) and maybe by then Hamrick software will have had time to help me find a solution.

Marco B · Mar 17, 2025

32 bit software should run fine in Windows 10, you do not need to have a 64 bit version.

To properly install the driver and Canon Canoscan toolbox software, I strongly recommend running the *installer* software in the appropriate Windows compatibility mode (I think the last version officially supported by Canon was Windows 7?).

You can do that by right clicking the installer and choosing the compatibility mode menu option when running the installer.

I strongly recommend getting the film holders, it will make your life easier.

As you can see from the attached image, the calibration area - at least if that is what it is - on the holder is light grey, not white, nor greycard grey.

Note that despite Canon's claims of "4800 dpi", in my experience, this scanner is not capable of more than about 1200 dpi scanning, fine for 4x5 and perhaps MF, but insufficient for 35mm. It just adds blurred pixels at higher dpi. For true 4800 dpi scans, you will need a high end film scanner or professional Imacon, e.g. see my website:

Technique - Optimal scanning resolution of photographic film

www.boeringa.demon.nl

Marco B · Mar 17, 2025

As to stripes, inside the bottom scan unit, there are two tiny long mirrors that may need cleaning, although if dust there could cause stripes, I am not sure.

Anyway, how to get to that, you can find here:

Canon 9950F Scanner Teardown

This scanner can be found affordable, perfect for scanning paper copy photos, documents, and film negatives. Installation can seen tricky, but its...

nl.ifixit.com

Wolfram Malukker · Mar 17, 2025

Thanks, Marco.

The 32 bit scanner drivers are not available for transparency scans, but I did finally get a driver/software combo to actually work yesterday.

I have an HP Photosmart S20 scanner for 35mm film. It works, and does a good enough job for me so far. I have a long way to go before I need to upgrade either.

Canon Canoscan 9950F film holders and Calibration

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Technique - Optimal scanning resolution of photographic film

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