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.

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 pissed 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. >><BR><BR>

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

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