IO540, interested to hear how the bulk loader works. Is it a case of stacking a pile of slides, press start, and come back later?
Yes, in essence. The bulk feeder holds the slides horizontally and it is spring loaded, and they get extracted from one section and end up stacked in another section of the feeder. Works well - I recall having problems only with some obscure (very thin) cardboard mounts.
Gosh - the price has gone up since I got mine a couple of years ago! I brought the ED5000 new for about £800 and the feeder on Ebay for £200. The feeder needs watching as it tends to feed two slides at once, despite the adaption with an old credit card.
I bought the ED5000 from Park Cameras (Burgess Hill) about 2-3 years ago. I've still got it, and would sell it.