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Order FormsSawyer GAF Rotary Slide Tray
Compatible with: Sawyer, Anscomatic, and Sears (models 9833, 9843, 9863, 9883) tray-loading projectors
The Carousel Wars: Kodak vs. Sawyer
The Sawyer rotary tray system represents a fascinating chapter in slide projection history—a classic format war driven by competitive one-upmanship between two industry giants.
The Timeline of Competition
While historical records are incomplete, the competitive evolution likely unfolded like this:
- Kodak launches: The original 80-slide carousel establishes the horizontal carousel standard
- Sawyer counters: Introduces the 100-slide rotary tray to one-up Kodak's capacity
- Kodak responds: Releases the 140-slide carousel, crushing Sawyer's capacity advantage
Each company trying to outdo the other in the race for consumer loyalty and market dominance.
The Brilliant (and Devious) Sawyer Design
Sawyer's rotary tray wasn't just different—it was strategically designed to lock customers into their ecosystem. Here's how:
The Vertical Mounting Challenge
Unlike Kodak's horizontal carousel system, Sawyer projectors mounted the tray vertically (like a Ferris wheel rather than a merry-go-round). This created a critical engineering requirement: the slots had to be extra tight to prevent slides from falling out under gravity.
The "Bent Slide" Lock-In Strategy
Those ultra-tight slots permanently bent cardboard slide mounts. Once bent, these slides wouldn't feed properly in Kodak's 140-slide carousels—they'd jam instead of dropping smoothly into the projector.
Result: Sawyer customers who bent thousands of slides in rotary trays found themselves effectively locked into the Sawyer system. Switching to Kodak meant replacing or remounting all those bent slides.
Was this intentional customer lock-in or just an unfortunate side effect of the vertical design? Either way, it was a brilliant—if frustrating—piece of competitive strategy that kept Sawyer customers loyal (whether they wanted to be or not).
Technical Specifications
- Manufacturer: GAF Corporation (Sawyer)
- Model: Sawyer Rototray
- Capacity: 100 standard 2" × 2" slides (plastic or cardboard mounts)
- Dimensions: 8⅝" diameter × 2⅛" height
- Made in: USA
- Mounting: Vertical orientation (rotates like a Ferris wheel)
We Scan Slides From Any Carousel System
Whether your slides lived in Kodak carousels, Sawyer rotary trays, or any other storage system, we can digitize them. Bent slides from Sawyer trays? No problem—we'll carefully extract and scan each one, restoring the colors and preserving those memories that survived the format wars.
Have Sawyer carousel slides? Check out our carousel preparation guide for tips on removing slides from tight Sawyer slots without damage. Or visit our Project Preparation Resource Hub for comprehensive preparation assistance.
Why Digitize Now?
Regardless of which carousel system won the format war, all slides face the same enemy: time. Dyes fade, cardboard deteriorates, and memories disappear. Digital preservation stops that clock and frees your images from any proprietary system forever.
Ready to liberate your Sawyer carousel slides?
End the format lock-in. Preserve those memories in a universal digital format that works on any device, any platform, anywhere.