35mm Slide Scanner

Odd world, 35mm slide scanner land.

When we first started scanning 35mm slides we used an Epson 4990, with pretty good results. Sadly Epson never really made the grade with professional and serious amateurs, so as business picked up I decided to invest in a Nikon scanner. Brand new I think I paid just under £1,000. One of the best investments I've made.

Over the years our slide scanning business has grown, so I've added two additional Nikon scanners and upgraded the Epson to a V750 (the only one still available as new). We also added an SF 210 batch slide loader which has helped our throughput considerably. That unit was around £500 new, it has proved solid and reliable running almost every day for five years.

Now we need to upgrade our 35mm slide scanning capacity - there are two options, Nikon or Epson. As Nikons aren't available new I've been looking closely at prices on eBay for decent Coolscan 5000 scanners. I've also been watching the market for the slide scanner feeder, the SF 210. An odd pattern emerged. Secondhand Nikon scanners typically sell for more than I originally paid for our new Coolscan - it's not unusual for a decent Nikon 5000 to go for nearly £1500. Indeed I ended up paying over the odds. However the slide feeder is still available as new and unused. Today I've nabbed one, amazingly for less than the price I paid for a new one.

Taken together I think the new system (35mm scanner and 35mm slide feeder) has cost me just about the same as I paid for our other system.