How to start using the Canon CanoScan 9000F Mark II film scanner

Many people rave about the image quality and features of the Canon CanoScan 9000F Mark II film scanner, but just because it’s popular doesn’t mean it’s easy to start using — especially if your goal is to make the highest resolution scans possible. I had trouble figuring it out myself, so wrote this post to clearly explain everything to you — and save you the trouble.

I’m going to assume you’re capable of getting the 9000F Mark II out of its box, plugging it into a power socket, and plugging it into your computer with the included cables. Good job! The easy part is done.

Now you need to load software onto your computer in order to use this scanner. If you have a Microsoft Windows computer or an Apple Macintosh, the software is provided in the CD-ROM that comes in the box, but it’s actually a better idea not to use the software on the CD. A newer version of this software is likely available to download. The most recent software will have more bug fixes (hopefully, anyhow), and will be compatible with the latest operating systems (which may be on your computer).

Plus, if you use a computer that doesn’t have a CD drive (like I do), then downloading the software may be your only option.

How to download the software

When you researched the 9000F Mark II, you may have heard about a piece of software called My Image Garden. Here’s my advice: forget you ever heard that name. You don’t need My Image Garden. The software you want is called: IJ Scan Utility. Forget that other one exists.

The first thing you need to do is to click this big, ugly link:

https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/support/details/scanners/film-negative-scanner/canoscan-9000f-mark-ii?tab=drivers#Z7_MQH8HIC0L88RB0AMD0F1Q42K25

After you click it, on that page that you arrive at look in the “Drivers & Downloads” section. It is supposed to automatically detect the operating system your computer has. If it doesn’t, you need to click on that little menu and select the operating system you have, like this:

After you’ve selected your operating system, you need to look in the “Recommended Drivers” section, there should be one named “9000F MarkII Scanner Driver.” Click the “Select” button to the right, like this:

After you click “Select,” a section will appear below that has a button called “Download.” You need to click that button:

The software should have started downloading after you clicked that button. On a Mac, you will be downloading a .dmg file, and on a Windows PC you will be downloading an .exe file.

Now you need to install that software on your computer. If you’re on a Mac, you can locate the .dmg file in your Downloads folder and double-click on it. It will walk you through the process from there (you need to agree to contract, and do that song and dance). If you have a Windows PC, I honestly don’t remember how to install software. I stopped using Windows 14 years ago. But, it’s probably not very difficult to do.

Once IJ Scan Utility is installed, you need to launch it. On a Mac, when you look in your Applications folder, you may not find it if you just look alphabetically. It may be hiding in a folder named “Canon Utilities” which is now in your Applications folder. If you’re on a Windows PC, once again, sorry. I don’t use that platform. Just find the IJ Scan Utility application and launch it.

When IJ Scan Utility opens, this is what it looks like (on a Mac, anyhow). Go ahead and click the “Settings” button:

When the Settings screen opens, there are a few things you should do. First of all, on the left side of that screen there are tabs. You should click the “ScanGear” tab at the bottom, which is circled below:

After you’ve clicked the ScanGear tab, there are three settings that are worth adjusting. The first one is the “Save in:” option (which has a green arrow pointing at it above). Personally, I save my scans to an external hard drive. I created a folder in my external hard drive that I named “canoscan-9000f-mkii” and I select that folder as my option as to where to save my scans. Why? So I know where every scan goes, and so I don’t fill up my internal hard drive.

The green arrow under that one is pointing at the “Enable large image scans” option. You should select this. This will enable you to make film scans at the maximum resolution of 9600dpi. It’s totally stupid that Canon forces you to go into the settings and make changes in order to use this product to its full potential, but, that’s how it’s done.

The third green arrow in the screenshot above is pointing at the “Open with an application” option. If you are a Photoshop user, you likely should change this option to Photoshop. I use a similar image editing application called Affinity Photo (which is very nice and just as good as Photoshop, in my opinion). If you use GIMP, I suppose you could change this option to GIMP.

When you’re finished making these adjustments, click the “OK” button.

Now it’s time to scan. Yay! I’m assuming your scanner is plugged in and turned on. (Good job with that, by the way.) If you’re scanning film, the first thing you need to do is to remove the white plate from the underside of the lid. To do so, just gently push down on the little bobbin like so:

Put your negatives inside of the included frames. If you’re scanning slides, you need to put the frame in the scanner first, then gently place the slides into the frame. Oh, before you scan any of this stuff, be sure to blow them with a Giottos blower first, or clean them with this special anti-static cloth — or do both.

When you place the frame onto the scanner, the tabs on each end of the frame fit into a little cut-out grooves at the bottom and top of the scanning area. Lay the frame down so that the printing on them is facing up, like so:

The official manual of the CanoScan 9000F Mark II is software application named “Canon IJ On-Screen Manual” (go ahead and look it up and try to figure out how to download and install it — it was kind of a pain). In this manual they recommend using the “Custom” button in the IJ Scan Utility software. I tried doing it the way the manual said to do it, and I didn’t like it.

The best way to scan film with this machine is to use the ScanGear button in the software. Go ahead and launch IJ Scan Utility, but this time press the ScanGear button like so:

After you click that button, the ScanGear page opens up. Remember when I mentioned making “the highest resolution scans possible” in my opening paragraph? Well, that’s what we’re going to set up right now. I’ll show you what adjustments to make. First, there are two tabs in the upper right corner of this screen. Click “Advanced Mode” like so:

Under the Advanced Mode tab you will find the “Input Settings.” Adjust these to suit the kind of film you’re scanning. In the screenshot above, I was scanning 35mm mounted slides, so I selected “Color Positive Film.”

Under that section you will find “Output Settings.” This is where you set the resolution. Set this to 9600 dpi for maximum resolution. Doing high-quality scans like this takes longer (5 minutes or much longer if you’re using FARE), and the files are much larger. You may want to consider using 4600 dpi or lower, depending on your workflow needs.

🧠 Want to learn more about film scanners? Check out my Film Scanner Buying Guide!

In the “Image Settings” section below that, I put a green arrow pointing at “Remove Dust and Scratches (FARE).” This is one of the advanced features that the 9000F Mark II has. When I took this screenshot, I was scanning old 35mm slides that had not been taken care of that well, and they were dusty and dirty. Even though I blow them with my Giottos blower, I set this setting to “High.”

Looking at the images in that screenshot, you’ll see that I put a little green circle around the checkbox at the bottom of each preview image. You check the image that you want it to scan. I didn’t realize this at first, and it confused me for a day.

Lastly, in the upper left corner, I put a green circle around the tools that enable you to rotate the image so that they’re in the proper orientation.

Once this is all set up, press that big, green “Scan” button. This is it. You’re doing it!

Closing thoughts…

Learning how to use this scanner is annoying, but, as unintuitive as the IJ Scan Utility software is, it’s super nice how it scans multiple frames of film, and then presents them to you as separate files.

One last tip I have for you is to occasionally check that it’s still saving the files to your external drive. I’ve noticed that with my 9000F Mark II, the software tends to forget after a while.

I sincerely hope this post has helped you out! You can sincerely help me out by simply using the following links before you buy something on Amazon, B&H Photo, or eBay. If you just click one of those links before you buy something, I get a tiny commission. I greatly appreciate it. Thanks!