How much is a 5400 II worth?

[oldguy]

I am contemplating buying one, just for the heck of it. Since they are discontinued, and no longer supported, what is reasonable to pay for a new one in the box, or a good used one? I think they were only a little over $500 new, weren't they? I have read many reviews about the 5400 having many mechanical difficulties. Has the 5400II overcome this?

How would you compare it to the Nikon 9000? Since the 9000 kisses two grand, I wonder if the diference is worth it, if there is a difference. I know the Nikon will do formats other than 35 mm. It is scan quality I am interested in.

[Kevgermany]

Sony are, I believe, supporting these scanners. Someone posted here saying he'd been able to get flim carriers through Sony.

As for quality.... Without a side by side of the scanners on the same slides it's difficult to say. Some would argue the mark I was better due to it's light source and diffuser.

Price - look on ebay for an idea. My guess is that as they're so good, prices will have held up well.

[Costas L]

I have had a look on Ebay now and then for a 5400 to get spares for mine. They do not come very often and no bargains so far - but they will come as people finish scanning their film archives

[bez]

If you’re interested in 35mm only look at the 5000ED. Someone has just done a comparison scan for me (to Epson V700) and I was very impressed.

With heavy sharpening I can just about reach the same effective quality for a decent size print at normal viewing distance. But looking closely at a straight scan from the 5000, it’s remarkably good and needs very little sharpening.

In fact it’s almost too good – there are some fine scratches on the neg which are totally invisible from the 700 but show up horribly on the 5000. This may be something to do with the illumination method, and arguably could be a bad thing...

[oldguy]

I am mostly only interested in another toy to play with, and I do have some 35mm slides from which I would like to get the best possible print. It seems that the 5400 has a particularly loyal following. So I wanted to see for myself. I will look into the 5000ED, but my recollection is that it was an earlier version of what developed into the 9000. Maybe not. Most of what I have can be handled quite nicely by my V750. But if I can do better for a couple of hundred bucks, then why not?

I can probably do better than all of this if I could figure out how to use Photoshop. I'm a whiz at cropping.

[philtattershall]

Ffordes in the UK have two on offer at £499 each

[The Crofter]

I have read many reviews about the 5400 having many mechanical difficulties

Mine has never played up (probably should not have said that). The only thing I found out (the hard way) was the autofocus is hit and miss. I now manually select the focus point and adjust the front control. The difference can be huge so it is well worth the effort.

[bromleyb]

Please do NOT buy one - my 5400 mk1 had a problem whilst under a 2year shop guarantee and the fault
reappeared a while ago, making it un usable. The carriage motoring out instead of accepting inwards.
It needs a reset key or similar function which it does not have. A great scanner when it worked.
Bob

[trainjunkie]

I have two 5400 Mk II models. I bought the first one new many years ago and it has become so indispensable to my work, and they are getting so hard to find, that I bought another this past August just to have a back-up. I placed bids on many over the past couple of years but I was in no hurry so I always placed a conservative max bid until I finally got one for $550.00 US on eBay. But I've seen these routinely sell for $700 to $1,100 the past couple of years.

I have never been able to get better scans from any other scanner than the 5400 II yields, except from a drum scanner. Most of my work is scanning historic transparencies and the scans are used in high-end historical reference books and journals printed on traditional offset presses. Quality is essential and the 5400 II has not disappointed me even though I've used several Nikon Coolscan models in the past, and several flatbeds as well.

I have scanned tens of thousands of frames with my original 5400 II with no problems. It's still running strong. Sometimes it has a hard time focusing, as mentioned above. This is usually if the original is very dark or lacks contrast or details. But often a simple 180° flip of the original, or flipping the emulsion side around does the trick. If not, the manual focus point option solves the problem. I use VueScan Pro to drive it on a Mac running OS X, works like a charm.