FWIW, I acquired a Nikon Coolscan LS8000 last year. This is the same hardware as the LS9000 - almost. Very little difference. It took 3 trips to get it up and running, but the cost of $800 or so for the machine - a good $500 or more less than an LS9000, plus $300 or so of repairs, and the scans are easier than the more contemporary machines (I'd used a Plustek 8200 i for 35mm so can't compare to others) in terms of batch Preview and batch Scans. Epson flatbeds often seem to have this feature, but the Plustek I had did not and you had to baby step every frame. Glad to rid of the whole-day process. Scanning still takes time... plenty of time... but at least the output is worth it. I imagine some with darkrooms would look at this exercise as painful and a comparatively greater time sink - even with batch scanning, but it's what I have available. There are some known issues with Nikon Coolscans and you will find it very important to make sure that whomever you buy from double boxes the scanner for shipping. Otherwise.... UPS and/or Fedex will inevitably bang it within their tolerances, but not without damage to the machine. I ran through two to get one (sent the first one back to the seller). Repairs from shipment even so involved the front face plate which was poorly designed (not my assessment, but the repair fellow's). The door to the scanner is also a weak point as it ties to a servo that must be tripped to enable scanning. Unfortunately, the door is made of plastic and plastic hinges... the latter which will break simply when you look at them. Broken hinges will disable the scanning process, and kill the whole. Thanks to my repair guy, I now have a brass door and brass hinge and that thing is indestructible. What I found is that there is a small cottage industry of repair folks who have found more ways to extend and improve these machines than is commonly recognized. And yet.... the thing is a million years old and scanning pixel by pixel, row by row is incredibly inefficient compared to what could be done today. Yet for the money, these remain among the best on the market. Can't touch a Hasselblad Flex, but that's another multiple in cost.Among the low-end non-flatbed, I'd rank Nikon Coolscan top, Braun next, and then Plustek...and yet all three will definitely produce good scans. The key as nbagno notes is the image you're scanning NOT the scanner. And the best time saver is to review your negatives and cut out the fat before you scan - if you can. BTW, I use Vuescan and find it fills the need just fine.
All that said, I've seen amazing scans from the Epson 700 and 800 series machines. I don't know about batch scanning, but I'd seriously look at these before committing to our favorite 20-year-old tech. Especially if there's a possibility you might end up with a 4 X 5's in your future. And.... I think one positive for an Epson 800 machine is that you could easily make contact sheets of your negatives, and use those to review and determine which to scan. Bottom line, as much as I like my scanner, the Epson 800 for about the same money or less is one heckuva machine.
