From the experience I've had the Canon hardware is very good and competitive. However, the Epson Perfection 4990 Pro and Microtek i900 offer much more effective software for photographic scanning. So take a good look at both of those scanners and the software they provide before making a decision.

Putting a couple thoousand scans through the Epson 4870 all I can say it has been good for me. It has produced good scans from 35mm to medium format to a couple 4+5 negs. I was concerned about getting it because I felt the better choice was a dedicated film scanner, but I wanted to be able to scan medium format and those choices were exspensive. It even scans 35mm negative with pretty good success. Read Davids review in Shutterbug on the 4990. I feel if my 4870 is good then the 4990 is even better. Monte Johnson.