Camera scanning of 35 mm negatives.

[Roel]

I have a Leica m8.2 and Panasonic GH1 and have been using digital a lot lately but also want to use my m6 again.

So I was thinking of buying a scanner to scan my 35 mm negatives that i shoot now and have shot in the past.

I was considering an Epson v700/750 until I got the advice of trying to use my existing digital camera with a macro lens to 'fotoscan' them in raw.

Thinking of buying a Canon FL adapter for M43 and a Canon FL 50mm f3,5 macro with lifsize adapter.

Just wondering if any of you have experience with Camera scanning. Any comments/advise?

 

[Hatch]

Yep I use my Nex as a scanner.
A macro lens at optimum aperture.
And with the MF help I can really nail the focus.

I take partial pictures of the negative / slide and join them in a panorama tool.
( Sometimes I proces the RAW files first and join them afterwards for printing.)

But it's tedious.
So I only do it if I need the digital version for the web or a quick print.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Slow, and with an inevitable quality loss. Probably better than anything less than a good-quality dedicated film scanner, though.

Cheers,

R,

 

[sevo]

I'm just in the process of rigging up the Nex and a 20mm Nikkor for 110 and Minox scanning - for formats too small for any existing scanner it may be the only option to get a quality scan.

Where 35mm is concerned I have my doubts whether it is a reasonable thing to do, at least unless you already own a quality macro/duplication system from film days - the results I've seen on the net weren't visibly superior to a V500 in spite of putting considerably more effort into the scans, and a Novoflex copy kit or the like is more expensive than a equivalent scanner.

 

[Roger Hicks]

I'm just in the process of rigging up the Nex and a 20mm Nikkor for 110 and Minox scanning - for formats too small for any existing scanner it may be the only option to get a quality scan.

Where 35mm is concerned I have my doubts whether it is a reasonable thing to do, at least unless you already own a quality macro/duplication system from film days - the results I've seen on the net weren't visibly superior to a V500 in spite of putting considerably more effort into the scans, and a Novoflex copy kit or the like is more expensive than a equivalent scanner.

You're right. I was assuming a good light source (including an old enlarger colour head) and a good macro lens.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Roel]

Thanks for your input so far.

I think I can buy the equipment for the camera scanning for appr 150 euro where the Epson 700/750 scanner will cost about 3 to 4 times as much.

From what i heard the quality could be comparable to that kind of scanner.
Would be intersted if there is concensus here that that kind of scan quality is not acchievable.

Furthermore I thougt that the proces itself might be quicker as soon as you have a good setup. If I understand sevo correctly he thinks it will be more time consuming than scanning with a scanner.

If camerascanning quality is less and the effort/time needed is more than perhaps this is not a good idea afterall..

 

[f16sunshine]

I did this to scan some slides with my old 5D. Getting a good light source is the big issue to give close attention to. As for time. Well you may spend more time setting up than you might with a scanner but then it's just "click". The scanner sets up quickly but, takes more time to do its job (image capture) than the camera. The time ends up being comparable. Now I have a v700 and to be honest it's not great but much better than the 5D and slide dupe setup.

 

[Bobbo]

I've been using a '60s-era bellows and slide copier kit on my D90. A 43-86mm (the later, good ones) works well set at 55-60mm. 50 isn't long enough, and anything more than 75 means you're cropping some of the image. On a full-frame, a 50mm would be all I need, but alas, no $8,000 for a D3x at this time😀. My light source is a studio strobe about 6 feet away. The whole setup (minus the camera, of course) was under $50 at KEH.com

Overall, it works pretty well, but not the same amount of dynamic range as the film itself (I was spoiled by using a darkroom for printing in the past). Bracket and you'll be fine. I haven't tried it for color, however, just black and white. Pop it open in Photoshop, invert, crop, resize, mess with levels, unsharp mask then print. Not too horrible, and a lot cheaper than a dedicated film scanner. It won't do 6x6 from my Rolleicord (which I'm still waiting on film for), but my Epson flatbed I bought refurbished for $80 in 2006 with its transparency adapter should do the trick just fine for that.

BTW, it's far, far faster than any scanner I ever used, as I don't know many scanners which can record a 12 mp image at 1/200 of a second 🙂. Manually advance negatives/pop in a new slide, shoot, repeat. Just be sure to dust off your negs first.