Quote:
Originally Posted by MBAtarga
special application and/or someone is willing to pay that much!
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At my last job we had a $75,000 photogrammetric scanner for 9 inch wide aerial film. It had a small florescent bulb that had to warm up and stabilize for 10 minutes before using the scanner. Bulbs were $100 from the manufacturer. Then Microsoft, yea that Microsoft bought the company, and the former parts suppliers all were shut down, and we had to order from Microsoft. Suddenly the bulbs were $250 and then $400.
With a lot of internet digging we found the actual manufacturer, and found a source to buy the bulbs in packages of 5. The package of 5 was $100. We all talk about the Porsche tax, we were suddenly paying a Microsoft tax.
That fantastic scanner is a door stop now as almost no one uses 9x9 aerial film anymore.