Epson are said to have discontinued its V850 Pro and 13000XL film scanners, apparently because they can no longer source the CCD scanning units.
Keith Cooper, an architectural and industrial photographer based in the UK, broke the news on his YouTube channel on Monday (3 February).
He said both scanners were being marked as EOL (end of Line) by the Japanese electronics firm. Kosmo Foto checked the Epson UK website and found that the 13000XL was listed as in stock, but the V850 Pro was not (but the listing did have an option to notify when restocked).
The V850 was Epson’s highest-level home film scanner when it was launched alongside the V800 in 2014. The two scanners replaced the V700 and V750 as the leading models in Epson’s home-scanning line-up. The scanner can be used to scan formats including 35mm, 120 and 5×4.
The 13000XL is a high-capacity document scanner which can also be used to scan film. It’s large size means it can handle up to 48 frames of 35mm at a time.
Cooper said in the video that stocks of the scanners were expected to last until the summer in the Uk and possibly until the end of the year in other parts of the world.
Neither Epson UK or the firm’s Japanese head office appear to have yet confirmed the discontinuation on their site. Cooper is regarded as one of the leading YouTubers regarding scanning and printing.
“If you need a scanner… for scanning film, look now, because by the end of the year I imagine secondhand prices are absolutely going to rocket,” Cooper said in the video.
He added that the discontinuation was because the CCD scanning unit used in these scanners was no longer being produced. He also said scanner sales had been “declining for years”, partly due to the growing number of photographers using DSLR or mirrorless set-ups to scan their film.
Cooper added the other flatbed scanners left in Epson’s range were not of a high enough quality to scan film.
Kosmo Foto contacted Epson UK for confirmation, but received no reply before publishing.
You can see the entire video from Keith Cooper below.
I'm a New Zealander who has been living in London since the mid-1990s, shooting film seriously since the year 2000. Kosmo Foto was launched in 2012 and has since become a film brand, with the release of my first films Kosmo Foto Mono 35mm (2017) and Kosmo Foto Mono 120 (2019).
I’m doing everything I can to promote film photography in the 21st Century, and help it survive and thrive. If you want to write something for Kosmo Foto, please drop me a line at foto.dowling@gmail.com.
