DSLR as a scanner - LED light source?

M

M like Leica M6

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I do not own a scanner, I have a Canon 5d2, an Olympus bellows, an Olympus 4/80mm bellows head and a slide copier. Works fine. I print A2 size from these 'scans'.

It's winter, and it's dark. I think about a good continuous light source and consider one of these el-cheapo LED video lights. Did anyone ever try that?
 
LED's are about as discontinuous as it can be - only few of the current ones meet even basic fluorescent tube specifications for colour rendering. Sure, you can re-balance quite strange light with a DSLR, but you'll lose dynamics over it which you would not have lost with tungsten lighting or photo grade fluorescent.
 
The negatives I will scan are black and white only, so that should not be a problem, I just need a lot of light within a 4x5" area (or even smaller). I like LEDs for one reason: they don't get as hot as traditional lights, so I could put them close behind the negative.
 
I do have a lightbox, but it's not bright enough. The cheapest flatbed scanner with a film holder socket costs more than an LED video light.
 
Somebody on this forum (charjohncarter?) uses a DSLR "scanning" setup with a compact fluorescent bulb for a light source. I recall there was a photo in a thread some time ago, sorry, can't find it now.
 
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I do the same thing and the a lightbox works fine for me. It's not bright enough to take handheld shots, of course, but it gives me enough light for about 1/5 sec at f10 and ISO100.
 
Sam N said:
I do the same thing and the a lightbox works fine for me. It's not bright enough to take handheld shots, of course, but it gives me enough light for about 1/5 sec at f10 and ISO100.
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Ditto. I use a Hakuba lightbox that's color balanced at 5000K. It works GREAT.
 
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