Camera Buy - Nikon SF-210 Auto Slide Feeder

Nikon SF-210 Auto Slide Feeder
Retail Price: $499.99
Deal Price: $429.92
Savings: $ 70.07 ( 14% )
Stock: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Nikon
Average Evaluation: Average rating of 3.0/5Average rating of 3.0/5Average rating of 3.0/5Average rating of 3.0/5Average rating of 3.0/5

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Batteries Included: 0
Binding: Electronics
Brand: Nikon
EAN: 0018208092406
Feature: Automatic slide mount adapter
Is Autographed: 0
Is Fragile: 0
Is Memorabilia: 0
Label: Nikon
Manufacturer: Nikon
Model: SF-210
Publisher: Nikon
Release Date: 2004-04-26
Studio: Nikon

Features
Automatic slide mount adapter
For use with Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 series scanners
Accepts slide-mounted 35mm film
Up to 50 slides for batch scanning
1-year limited warranty

Accessories
Wacom Graphire3 6X8 USB Tablet - Pearl (CTE630PE)
Wacom Intuos3 4x5 Pen Tablet, PTZ430

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Editorial Reviews:

Nikon is a precision optical company with worldwide manufacturing, research and marketing capabilities. The Nikon name is equated with extraordinary photographic performance, innovation, precision and optical quality.


Reviews :



Evaluation: Average rating of 3/5Average rating of 3/5Average rating of 3/5Average rating of 3/5Average rating of 3/5

Conclusion: Good but not great


Review: Through no fault of the SF-210, some slides (mostly thinner cardboard type)will catch on each other's film window as they slide past each other. It worked better on the plastic sleeve slides. I seldom had a group of 50 slides that went entirely through without a jam and I did about 2000 scans. I believe the SF-210 could have been designed to prevent the slides from catching on each other but it would be a more expensive piece of equipment if that were the case. The software requires you to restart it if a jam occurs, (that was frustrating). There are definitely improvements needed on the software. Having said all this, I don't think there is a better product on the market for the average home user, and overall I'm pleased with the scan quality of the slides. The experience I had with this product was good, but not great.

Evaluation: Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5Average rating of 2/5

Conclusion: Not Up to Expected Nikon Quality


Review: The Nikon SF-210 Auto Slide Feeder could be a great product if the engineers would address a few possible design flaws. First is the spring pressure of the pressure plate which appears to generate excessive surface tension with the adjacent slide and possibly compresses the slides below the minimum thickness tolerance of the feeder ram. This can cause dual slide feeds and resultant jams. Second is a ridge on the slide track that tends to grab a feeding slide, also causing jams. The spring tension can be changed by adding a paper clip (ideally one should use a strain gauge to measure the actual pressures and replace the spring with one of less tension). The ridge can be camfered or radiused to eliminate the grab. After doing the above, it has worked fine without a jam in over a 1000 slides. That said, one should not have to pay $400+ for a Nikon product that provides sub optimum performance without user modifications. I am trying to contact Nikon to see if they too believe the above to be a problem and if they will provide a retrofit kit with better components. When it works, it works great and the ICE software does a remarkable job.

Evaluation: Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5

Conclusion: don't be scared by horror stories


Review: Having read about all sorts of alterations (from switching springs to shaving off bits of plastic) that are required to get the SF-210 to function properly, I was expecting only headaches from it. Happily though, I've been through more than 1200 slides of the family archive so far (about 3600 to go) while it is true that the slide feeder does occasionally jam, I have found that it is very much a function of the age of the slides. Slides less than 20-25 years old scan without a problem. I'm often able do 50 or so (about the max which fits in the feeder tray) without a single jam. On older slides (dating to the 50s and 60s), I do have some jamming problems but they are still the exception rather than the rule. Bottom line---if you are tackling the job of archiving all the old family photos, this is a must have and it works much better than many of the reviews would lead you to believe.

Evaluation: Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5

Conclusion: Works great until the metal spring loses it's shape!


Review: The SF-210 auto slide feeder works great until you do 3 or 4 hundred slides then the little metal spring device loses it's shape and the feeder jams. You then need to reconfigure the little metal spring that handles the slide and get the four prongs back into the right shape where it can push the slides the right way again. Very frustrating because unless you manage to get the little piece of metal back into it's original shape it keeps jaming slides and shutting down.

Evaluation: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5

Conclusion: CoolScan SF-210


Review: I have had very good luck scanning about 500 slides, with no jamming problems. it sure makes scanning slides easy. I am using a PowerPC with Mac OS X 10.4.11.


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