Medium Format Slide Projectors UK: The Cost of Viewing 120 Film Today
Maria C 
A medium format slide projector is built for 6x6 cm (sometimes 6x4.5 or 6x7 cm) transparencies in 7x7 cm mounts, cut from 120 roll film. None are made new any more. The models people hunt for are the Rollei P66, Rolleivision 66, Hasselblad PCP 80, Kindermann Super 66 and Götschmann. In the UK a working Rollei P66A kit with lens sells second-hand for around £349, and a Hasselblad PCP 80 runs to four figures. A 35mm Kodak Carousel cannot take them: the mount is 7x7 cm, not 5x5 cm.
For most families the cheaper way to actually see the pictures is a lab scan of each frame. At EachMoment a medium format slide is scanned from £0.79, falling to as little as £0.40 on large collections, giving roughly a 74-megapixel file from each 6x6 frame. You can book our slide scanning service without buying any hardware at all.
Key takeaways
- Medium format slides sit in 7x7 cm mounts rather than 5x5 cm, so a 35mm projector cannot take them.
- A Rollei P66A costs around £349, a Kindermann costs about a quarter of a PCP 80, and a Hasselblad PCP 80 costs four figures, with none made new.
- A 6x6 frame is 3,136 mm², which is 3.63 times the size of a 35mm frame.
- A lab scan costs £0.79 per slide, falling to £0.40 on large collections, and gives roughly 74 MP per 6x6 frame at 3,900 dpi measured.
- The projector body alone only costs less than scanning once a collection passes roughly 550–635 slides — and still leaves you with no file; scan first, project afterwards.
How to recognise medium format slides
- 120 roll film is 61 mm wide. A 6x6 camera gets 12 frames per roll; 6x4.5 gets 16; 6x9 gets 8.
- A 6x6 slide's picture is about 56 x 56 mm — 3,136 mm², exactly 3.63 times the 864 mm² of a 24x36 mm 35mm frame. 6x4.5 is about 2.7 times the size; 6x9 is about 5.4 times the size.
- Mounts: they have a 7x7 cm outer size in card, plastic, or glass "anti-Newton" mounts such as GEPE, versus 5x5 cm for 35mm. A square picture almost always means 6x6.
- Cameras behind them in British families include the Rolleiflex and Rolleicord twin-lens reflexes, Yashica-Mat, Hasselblad 500C (introduced 1957) and 500 C/M (introduced 1970), Mamiya and Bronica.
- Quick four-point triage: measure the mount; hold to the light and check square vs rectangle; note glass vs card; sniff for vinegar and look for mould (we restore mould and vinegar-smelling slides before scanning).
Note that 4x4 cm Superslides sit in 5x5 cm mounts and are a completely different format — read our guide on 127 Superslides for more details.
The medium format slide projectors worth hunting for
All medium format slide projectors are out of production. Everything available is second-hand and factory service has ended entirely.
Rollei P66 / P66A / Rolleivision 66
The most common 6x6 projector on the UK second-hand market
Out of production
- Straight magazine, 7x7 cm mounts
- Usually a 150 mm lens (Heidosmat / Vario-Heidosmat)
- UK dealer kit with lens, magazine and case: £349 (Sept 2026)
- Owners report card-mounted slides 'popping' out of focus in the heat
Hasselblad PCP 80
The premium 6x6 projector — four figures second-hand
Out of production
- Round magazine
- 150 mm f/3.5 Zeiss Planar lens
- Weighs 14 kg
- Owners report far less popping than on the Rollei
Kindermann Super 66
German 6x6 projector at about a quarter of the PCP 80 price
Out of production
- Long straight magazine for 30 slides
- Takes 7x7 cm mounts
- Parts and lamps increasingly scarce
Götschmann G67 / Mamiya Procabin
The rare projectors that take 6x7 slides
Götschmann projectors built 1978–2009
- 6x7 capable — most 6x6 projectors are not
- Rare on the second-hand market
- Factory service no longer offered
Nikon Super Coolscan 9000 ED (our lab)
How we read every medium format slide instead of projecting it
Discontinued 2009 — lab use
- FH-869 medium format holder, 120 frames up to 6x9
- 4,000 dpi nominal, 3,900 dpi measured (USAF-1951)
- ≈74 MP from a 56 x 56 mm frame
- Rated Dmax 4.8 — above the 3.6 slide film needs
Rollei P66, P66A and Rolleivision 66
This is the most common 6x6 projector on the UK second-hand market. It uses a straight magazine and usually comes with a 150 mm lens, shown as Heidosmat or Vario-Heidosmat on listings. A UK used-camera dealer lists a Rollei P66A with a 150 mm f/2.8 lens, magazine and carry case at £349 (September 2026). Owners on photography forums report the Rolleivision 66 "pops" slides — the film bows in the heat and jumps out of focus.
Hasselblad PCP 80
This projector uses a round magazine, a 150 mm f/3.5 Zeiss Planar lens, weighs 14 kg, and is built exclusively for 6x6. It is the premium option at around four figures second-hand. Forum owners report far less popping than on the Rollei.
Kindermann Super 66
This is a German 6x6 projector with a long straight magazine holding 30 slides. It costs about a quarter of the PCP 80 price on the second-hand market.
Götschmann G67 and the 6x7 problem
Götschmann, which built projectors from 1978 to 2009, and Mamiya's Procabin are the main projectors that take 6x7; both are rare in the UK. 6x9 slides need an even rarer Jensen projector.
Modern “projector kits” that turn an old medium format camera into a single-slide projector sell for a couple of hundred pounds imported; they show one frame at a time and are a hobbyist's tool, not a way to show a family 300 slides.
What a medium format slide projector really costs in 2026
The price on the listing is the smallest part of the total cost of projecting medium format slides today.
- Projector with lens: from about £349 for a Rollei P66A kit; four figures for a Hasselblad PCP 80.
- Lamps: medium format projectors run 250–400 W halogen lamps rated in tens of hours, not thousands. Buy spares while you can find them.
- Magazines: straight magazines hold a few dozen slides; a 300-slide collection needs several.
- Screen: a matte-white or daylight screen is required; a painted wall adds a warm cast and flattens contrast.
- Glass mounts: card-mounted 6x6 film bows in the lamp's heat; anti-Newton glass mounts fix it but are bought per slide.
- Servicing: no factory service any more; repairs rely on independent technicians.
- The hidden cost: heat and intense light on colour dyes that have already been fading for decades. Every show uses up some of the slide. The jam and heat problems we cover in our guide to Kodak Carousel projector models apply to medium format machines too — with bigger, hotter lamps.
At 100 slides, a £349 projector costs £3.49 per slide before lamps or mounts, against £0.71 to scan. At 300 slides it is about £1.16 per slide for the projector alone, against £0.67 to scan. Only past roughly 550–635 slides (the exact crossover shifts with our quantity bands) does the projector body cost less in total than scanning the collection at our published prices — and even then it leaves you with no file to share, back up or print, and has not paid for a single lamp, magazine or mount.
| Collection | Projector route (Rollei P66A kit only) | Lab scan at EachMoment |
|---|---|---|
| 100 slides (8–9 rolls of 6x6) | £349 up front — ≈£3.49 per slide | £0.71 per slide (95+ band) = £71.00 |
| 300 slides (25 rolls) | £349 up front — ≈£1.16 per slide | £0.67 per slide (190+ band) = £201.00 |
| 1,000 slides (about 83 rolls) | £349 up front — ≈£0.35 per slide, plus lamps, magazines, mounts and a screen | £0.55 per slide (633+ band) = £550.00 |
Slide prices start at £0.79 each and step down automatically with quantity — £0.71 from 95 slides, £0.67 from 190, £0.63 from 317, £0.55 from 633, £0.47 from 1,266 and £0.40 from 1,518 — when the Memory Box is back at our lab within 4 weeks of dispatch.
Why a projector shows you less than a scan
- A projected image is limited by the lens, by focus across a bowed piece of film, and by the screen. Projectors compress the dynamic range; dense shadows go black on the wall.
- Our lab scans 120 film on a Nikon Super Coolscan 9000 ED with the FH-869 medium format holder: 4,000 dpi nominal, 3,900 dpi measured on a USAF-1951 target. A 56 x 56 mm frame becomes roughly 8,600 x 8,600 pixels — about 74 megapixels per frame from a scanner measured at 3,900 dpi, against about 20 MP from a 35mm frame at the same resolution.
- Nikon specifies the Coolscan 9000 ED at Dmax 4.8 (manufacturer rating); slide film needs a scanner density range above 3.6 to hold shadow detail, which is why cheaper scanners block up the darkest parts of a transparency.
- A cheap USB slide gadget cannot take a 7x7 cm mount at all — its gate is sized for 5x5 cm 35mm mounts.
- Nikon discontinued the Coolscan 9000 ED in 2009 — which is why this is a lab job, not a buy-your-own job.
Photographing the projected image: the tempting shortcut
Once the projector is running, the obvious next step is to photograph the screen with a phone. It looks quick. It produces a copy that is worse than the projection you are looking at.
- Hot spot and vignette: the lamp is brightest in the centre, so corners fall off and the middle burns out.
- Keystone: unless the phone sits exactly on the lens axis, square 6x6 frames turn into trapezoids.
- Colour cast: a halogen lamp on a magnolia wall pushes everything warm and yellow, and the phone’s auto white balance guesses differently on every frame.
- Lost detail: the phone records the screen texture, the projector’s focus error and its own noise — not the grain structure of the film.
Drag the handle below to compare a phone photo of a projected slide with a direct scan of the same frame. Our guide on photographing the wall instead of scanning covers the method in more depth.
Projector, scan or both? A decision guide
Buy a projector if…
You shot the slides, love the ritual, have a few hundred to show in a darkened room, and are happy maintaining a 40-year-old machine. Scan the best ones first so a lamp failure or jam costs nothing irreplaceable.
Scan if…
You inherited them, want to share with family, want prints, or simply want to see what is on them. Most inherited medium format collections belong here.
Do both if…
Scan everything, then keep a projector for occasional shows of the originals; the scan is your safety copy.
Always sort before you pay — read our advice on sorting and culling a loft box of slides.
How to send medium format slides to our lab
Sending 120 slides to a lab takes less effort than setting up a projector. Here is the full process, from ordering a box to downloading the files.
1. Raw capture — the film as it is, with its colour cast and flat contrast.
2. Density set — black and white points taken from the film’s own shadows and highlights.
3. Cleaned and corrected — dust treatment and colour balance applied, ready to download.
- Order a Memory Box online and choose Slides. A £10 deposit starts the order.
- Leave the slides in their mounts — card, plastic or glass. Do not unmount them; our technicians handle glass mounts.
- Keep each box or magazine together and label it (year, place, whose camera). Note on the order that they are 6x6 medium format.
- Pack the Memory Box and send it back; it travels prepaid and tracked both ways.
- We clean, inspect and scan every frame on the Nikon Super Coolscan 9000 ED with the medium format holder, with dust treatment included.
- Download your files (or choose a USB); your original slides come back in the same box.
AI enhancement is an optional add-on at £4.99 per file. If the box also holds medium format negatives, they are £0.89 a frame through our negative scanning service.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use a normal 35mm slide projector for 6x6 slides?
No. Medium format slides sit in 7x7 cm mounts, and a 35mm projector such as a Kodak Carousel has a gate sized for 5x5 cm mounts. Its lamp and condenser are also designed to light a 24x36 mm frame, and its lens is too short to cover a 56x56 mm picture, so even a hand-held frame would be cropped and dim at the corners.
How much does a medium format slide projector cost in the UK?
A Rollei P66A kit with a 150 mm lens, magazine and case was listed by a UK dealer at £349 in September 2026. A Hasselblad PCP 80 costs four figures second-hand, and a Kindermann Super 66 costs roughly a quarter of the PCP 80 price. Budget on top for spare lamps, extra magazines, a proper screen and glass mounts.
What is the best medium format slide projector?
The Hasselblad PCP 80 is the strongest choice for build quality and holds focus better, with fewer slides popping in the heat. The Rollei P66 family is the easiest to find in the UK. A Götschmann is only needed for 6x7 slides, which the 6x6 machines cannot take.
Are medium format slide projectors still made?
No. Every medium format slide projector is out of production; Götschmann, one of the last makers, ended projector production in 2009. Spare parts and repairs now come from independent technicians and donor machines, which is why a lamp or motor failure can end a projector’s life.
How much does it cost to scan medium format slides?
At EachMoment a slide scan starts at £0.79 and steps down automatically with quantity: £0.71 from 95 slides, £0.67 from 190 and as low as £0.40 from 1,518, when the Memory Box comes back within 4 weeks. 100 slides cost £71.00 and 300 cost £201.00. Each 6x6 frame becomes a file of about 74 megapixels.
Will projecting damage old slides?
It can. Heat and intense light speed up dye fading on every showing, card-mounted film bows and pops out of focus, and a jammed magazine can crack a glass mount or scratch the emulsion. If the slides matter, scan them first so the image is safe before any show.
Can you scan 6x4.5 and 6x7 slides as well as 6x6?
Yes. The Coolscan 9000 ED medium format holder takes 120 film frames up to 6x9, so 6x4.5, 6x6, 6x7 and 6x9 slides are all scanned the same way. Note the format on your order and keep different sizes in separate labelled bundles.
A medium format slide projector is a lovely hobby machine, but for most families it is an expensive way to look at pictures once. A scan is how those big square transparencies survive and reach the whole family. EachMoment has helped tens of thousands of customers bring their analogue memories back to life.
Skip the projector hunt — see your 120 slides in full detail
Order a Memory Box, post your medium format slides to our lab, and we scan every frame on a Nikon Coolscan 9000 ED.
Start your slide scanning order →
