Nikon Coolscan 8000ED reliability

I am considering the Nikon Coolscan 8000 or 9000 ED scanner for medium
format slide strips.

I see many 8000's on ebay as refurbished which raises an interesting
question. How reliable are the 8000's.

I know there is not enough data on the 9000 yet as it is new.

How long have you had it.
How much do you use it.
Have you had problems with it.

TIA,
Ken

On Thu, 18 Mar 2004 22:15:34 -0500, "KenS" nospam@4me wrote:

I am considering the Nikon Coolscan 8000 or 9000 ED scanner for medium
format slide strips.

I see many 8000's on ebay as refurbished which raises an interesting
question. How reliable are the 8000's.

I know there is not enough data on the 9000 yet as it is new.

How long have you had it.
How much do you use it.
Have you had problems with it.

TIA,
Ken



I know I'll regret this post. Whenever I say something
good about a machine it turns around and fails on me.

My LS-8000 has operated faithfully and flawlessly
since I've owned it. That would be about three
years now.

Offhand, I'd guess I've scanned about 150 to 200
rolls of film with it, both 120 and 35 mm.

There are known issues and workarounds.
Depth of focus is limited. For best quality
you will want to use it in "SuperFineScan"
mode which makes it somewhat slower than
its advertised scan speeds (but still quite
reasonable.)



rafe b.
http://www.terrapinphoto.com

I have a two year old 8000 that's needed repair once. Usage is variable;
I'll have some heavy periods (4-6 hours per day for a couple of weeks), and
then it may sit for a week or two unused. I can't estimate how many scans
I've done, but it's many thousands. Aside from the one issue, it's been
great. The problem I had was related to accepting and using film holders.
There was one gear on the train that had broken.

"KenS" nospam@4me wrote in message
...
I am considering the Nikon Coolscan 8000 or 9000 ED scanner for medium
format slide strips.

I see many 8000's on ebay as refurbished which raises an interesting
question. How reliable are the 8000's.

I know there is not enough data on the 9000 yet as it is new.

How long have you had it.
How much do you use it.
Have you had problems with it.

TIA,
Ken

From: "KenS" nospam@4me

I am considering the Nikon Coolscan 8000 or 9000 ED scanner for medium
format slide strips.

I see many 8000's on ebay as refurbished which raises an interesting
question. How reliable are the 8000's.

I've had mine for about 30 months. A month ago I screwed up ... I was
distracted by a phone call or something and put the holder in the scanner
before launching the software, and when I turned on the software it wouldn't
recoginze the tray and wouldn't eject it. The Nikon service guy said I could
send it in or I could try to brute-force the tray out myself with a pair of
needle-nose pliers. I got it out with the pliers and for another few weeks it
ran OK but last week it finally quit focussing and ejecting all together (will
still accept a tray and do a preview, just won't focus or scan or eject). So
it's off to the repair shop for no doubt an expensive repair (Bowser said $600
for a similar faux pas).

So mine lasted 30 months of pretty heavy use before conking out, and probably
I'm to blame for damaging it, so I'm not ****ed at Nikon.

I would say go ahead and buy one, probably the 9000 new would be my choice if
in your shoes. Just don't power it up and put the tray in without launching
the software first.

Bill

How long have you had it.
How much do you use it.
Have you had problems with it. BRBR


I've had mine since 24 October 2001. I don't use it like a professional
shop,--I'm just a private user.

I use it mostly for 35mm slides and some 2-1/4 slides and even some Minox
stuff.

I have not had any problems with it hooked up to my Mac G4. I am using Nikon
Scan Ver 3.1.4. I run it separately from PhotoShop.

dan

"KenS" nospam@4me wrote in message ...
I am considering the Nikon Coolscan 8000 or 9000 ED scanner for medium
format slide strips.

I see many 8000's on ebay as refurbished which raises an interesting
question. How reliable are the 8000's.

I know there is not enough data on the 9000 yet as it is new.

How long have you had it.
How much do you use it.
Have you had problems with it.

TIA,
Ken

I have used one of these at Adorama's rental studio in NYC, and gotten
good results. It's a bit slow, but any 4000 ppi scanners with MF film
will take a while! A friend of my father's also has one, and had a
problem with the dust door sensor. Not long after he got it, the
sensor quit so the machine wouldn't work because it thought the dust
door was closed. So he had it repaired. And then it broke again and he
hasn't been able to use it in a reliable manner. Not so good for a
machine that cost $3,800 just a couple of years ago.

-Karl
http://pages.cthome.net/karlwinkler

On 26 Mar 2004 16:44:54 -0800, (Karl
Winkler) wrote:

"KenS" nospam@4me wrote in message ...
I am considering the Nikon Coolscan 8000 or 9000 ED scanner for medium
format slide strips.

I see many 8000's on ebay as refurbished which raises an interesting
question. How reliable are the 8000's.

I know there is not enough data on the 9000 yet as it is new.

How long have you had it.
How much do you use it.
Have you had problems with it.

TIA,
Ken

I have used one of these at Adorama's rental studio in NYC, and gotten
good results. It's a bit slow, but any 4000 ppi scanners with MF film
will take a while! A friend of my father's also has one, and had a
problem with the dust door sensor. Not long after he got it, the
sensor quit so the machine wouldn't work because it thought the dust
door was closed. So he had it repaired. And then it broke again and he
hasn't been able to use it in a reliable manner. Not so good for a
machine that cost $3,800 just a couple of years ago.


The LS-8000 never cost $3800.

I bought mine within a few days of its release for $2750.
That was in June of 2001, if I recall correctly.

Slow? It scans a 645 frame in about five minutes
at 4000 dpi, with ICE on and in "SuperFineScan"
mode. I can live with that.


rafe b.
http://www.terrapinphoto.com

Karl Winkler writes:

A friend of my father's also has one, and had a
problem with the dust door sensor. Not long after he got it, the
sensor quit so the machine wouldn't work because it thought the dust
door was closed. So he had it repaired. And then it broke again and he
hasn't been able to use it in a reliable manner.

Was this the external door, or the little flapper door that covers the
slot that admits the film holder?

I haven't figured out how the machine knows whether the external door is
closed or open. All I know is that it's really awkward to open or
close; closing it is especially difficult.

--
Transpose hotmail and mxsmanic in my e-mail address to reach me directly.

Mxsmanic wrote in message . ..
Karl Winkler writes:

A friend of my father's also has one, and had a
problem with the dust door sensor. Not long after he got it, the
sensor quit so the machine wouldn't work because it thought the dust
door was closed. So he had it repaired. And then it broke again and he
hasn't been able to use it in a reliable manner.

Was this the external door, or the little flapper door that covers the
slot that admits the film holder?

I'm not entirely certain, but I think it was the external door.

I haven't figured out how the machine knows whether the external door is
closed or open. All I know is that it's really awkward to open or
close; closing it is especially difficult.

I have only used it at Adorama, and the door issue didn't present
itself. But since I heard about it 2nd hand from someone I know, I
figured it might weigh in for someone considering this unit.

-Karl