Constructing the definitive DSLR scanning setup. Communal effort!

[lam]

nice setup and write up, lam!

Thanks Dean.

About the BEOON, this image always fascinated me the compactness of it all.

With a Monochrom that should be an amazing B&W copy rig.

 

[pagpow]

Thanks for starting this, Mani, and to the rest of you for contributing. What I find attractive about this thread is the opportunity for value engineering the set up. I've researched this in the past and seen several nice set-ups -- often with rather expensive components.

I'd be particularly interested in relatively inexpensive set-ups that could be set up and left -- rather than ones that shared a camera also used fot taking/making pictures.

Giorgio

 

[mdarnton]

Copy stands like the Kaiser, really work well as copy stands. Buy a used one. You have to decide if you want to copy film, or develop a new skill of converting enlargers to copy stands. The original thread was really clear on how to set up a copy system, and included videos.

I'm guessing you have never seen a small Durst enlarger then. It's a very straight-ahead copy stand with an enlarger head hung on it. Some people feel the necessity to pay that extra $150 for a box that actually says "copy stand" on it or they won't feel right, I guess. Me, I'm happy to save the money and have something just as good.

I've worked making slide shows, dupes, and film strips commercially with fancy animation stands, Bowens Ilumitrans, and Honeywell Repronars, but this system gives up not much to any of those.

 

[toyfel]

That will work well, but you could just use a light bulb, just give it some distance, the trick is a good diffuser.

Thanks, I think I have an old neg-holder with integrated diffuser plate somewhere 🙂

 

[mani]

Absolutely fantastic thread so far! Thanks for all the great information.

Just want to underline again that I don't mean this to be a solution tailor-made for me - so I'm absolutely not looking for equipment that's available specifically in Sweden or even Europe: I'd rather we pool the available expertise to come up with a range of accurate, solid, durable, and universally accessible solutions that anyone, anywhere can put together without too many special skills or expense.

After all, when the last of the Coolscans have expired, and maybe even some time in the future Hasselblad have stopped producing the X1 and X5 scanners, this DSLR technique will be the one most film photographers are going to be using. And it may even help new film enthusiasts to get onboard by lowering the amount of new equipment they need to get to start shooting and scanning their images.

Great thread! Thanks again for all the awesome contributions!

 

[lukitas]

I use a durst enlarger, but not as a copy stand.

The enlarger is the light source, with a convenient negative carrier.

I clamped the column to a table, and contrapted a gizmo composed of a flash bracket and a few sticks to centre the camera on the negative, and another clamp to slide it to the right distance.

It is a little more work than a copy-stand, but it is an obvious solution for the problem of even lighting.

Even lighting is the biggest challenge : computer and tablet screen pixels will show up. And good light tables don't go cheap.

Dust is the next one. Using a glassless negative carrier (in the enlarger head) works best : you can clean the negatives with an air blower. Of course if you do medium format film, you may want to keep the film flat with at least one pane of anti-newton treated glass, which should come with the negative carrier.

I found that using a dedicated macro lens gives the best results : these lenses are better corrected for close focusing distances. And you do want the cleanest possible transfer of information.

However you build your set-up, if you get even lighting and a decent lens, you'll get excellent results with lots of cameras, even a cheap aps-c DSLR will do fine.

Good Luck!

 

[efinglada]

[FONT=&quot]I use as light source the head of an Omega enlarger placed upside down and with the negative carrier over the light window. As camera support I use a tripod fixed to the ceiling[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]This setup leaves free space below the camera to center the light source and the camera support is very rigid, allowing to level and fix the camera height with the 3-axis adjustment of the tripod[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The only hardware needed is a piece if light chain and a threaded tensioner, to secure the tripod to a small hook in the ceiling
[/FONT]

 

[mdarnton]

For just an instant there I thought you'd posted an upside-down photo! 🙂

 

[Spanik]

Couldn't you just leave the enlarger head on its stand and use the camera pointing upward? Or am I missing something?

 

[sevo]

Couldn't you just leave the enlarger head on its stand and use the camera pointing upward? Or am I missing something?

It is feasible with a tilt display or remote live view. And with enough time for setting up, it can be done for any camera, provided you have a rigid support (tripod head bolted to the base board or the like) that allows for memory card access between shots without disturbing the camera position.

Top down still is much more comfortable if you use a DSLR (likely, as most of us are likely to have a outdated DSLR to dedicate for that purpose - mirrorless is just at the point of creeping over that horizon) and want to crop.

 

[efinglada]

The top half of the Omega enlarger-light source- is easily detachable from the bottom half-enlarging lens and focuser- with two adjustmet screws; it takes one minute
The lower half is the one that moves along the inclined post and also support the light source
In the background of the general setup hoto you can see the enlarger without the light source half

 

[SayCheese]

Constructing the definitive DSLR scanning setup. Communal effort!

My new setup features a horizontal orientation of the camera, as I found that the cheaper macro sliders don't handle the weight of a dslr too well and thus the vertical system tended to get out of focus.
I'm also considering to use a speedlite with some diffusion material as a light source. This should eliminate the possibility of vibration induced blur, should'nt it? With an iPad as my backlight, i get exposure times of 0,5s at f/8 and Iso 100. Living in an old building with wooden floors, this is a problem for me.
Which exposure times do you get with a dedicated lightpad?

Klaus

 

[efinglada]

In the Omega dichroic enlarger head the top half is the light source and is joined to the bottom half (enlarging lens and focuser) with two adjusting knobs that are easily removed, so the light source comes off in less than a minute

The bottom part is the one that runs up and down the post and cannot be taken off easily and if done the top half would not stay with the post

In the background of you can see the Omega enlarger without the light source

 

[Noll]

When using a sensor shift camera like the EM5mkii or Pen-f, beware of using flourescents for a light source. Even the most minute vibration from the ballast or flicker from 1/60th second & above shutter speeds will cause the composite image to look like a checkerboard at high magnification. For a one-shot camera this may be less of an issue. However, the quality of the light still matters.

I'm a bit too cash strapped to blow money on an led light pad that may or may not give a full enough spectrum to do justice on color neg and slide, so if anyone has determined the definitive full-spectrum light source I will be very interested. The inverted color head option is intriguing to me..

Edit - In terms of a workflow...at least for color slide film, one almost inevitably needs some kind of in-camera HDR or post process HDR to do justice to what is on the film. I have tried bracketing the pixel-shift images and it is extremely difficult to pull off.

 

[Noll]

I have not paid much attention to pixel shift, other than on the iPhone. Can it be turned off, I am assuming it can?

Yes, but I find using the 40mp pixel shift to be my best option for capturing an entire frame while getting most (but often not all) of the detail present. The EM5mkii, and probably most other cameras out there today are gonna struggle with the DR present on a slide - Hence the need for HDR. But the native HDR at 16mp isn't detailed enough for my liking..

The best no-compromise setup would probably be something like the A7rII using HDR. But really I'm too much of a perfectionist. I'll never print big enough for this stuff to matter. Just need to keep telling myself this...

Re your other question -- the Artograph Lightpad for instance, has a CRI value of about 80+. Spend more it can go as high as 97, but then you are talking $2000 plus for studio grade video test panels.

Interesting... how would I find out if an Artograph is better than my Gagne porta-trace's 5000k flourescents?

 

[Spanik]

I just got 2 enlargers dropped in my lap and as I was thinking of scanning with a camera this thread is just in time. Just some other random questions:
- is it wise to use an older camera for this? I mean most people want to scan just once at the highest quality because scanning is such a chore. I can see the reason to make a fixed setup.
- is it worth it to get a camera without AA?
- enlargers come with condensor heads or diffusor heads. Which one would be most suitable for scanning slides?
- regarding lightsources: all good and well to look for the ideal source but if this is a fixed setup, could a one-time calibration take care of this? If so, how?

 

[Noll]

I just got 2 enlargers dropped in my lap and
- is it wise to use an older camera for this? I mean most people want to scan just once at the highest quality because scanning is such a chore. I can see the reason to make a fixed setup.
- is it worth it to get a camera without AA?

If you would be happy with output lower-res scanner like a v500 or Pakon, then you'll be fine. My view is that at least 16 mp is needed even for grainy film like TriX. AA Filter depends if you like grain... My preference is to see the true texture of the film and not exaggerated grain aliases.

- regarding lightsources: all good and well to look for the ideal source but if this is a fixed setup, could a one-time calibration take care of this? If so, how?

In my limited experience - and I don't know why - I have to change the white balance fairly often when shooting slides shot under a variety of lighting conditions (but I shoot JPEG). Someday I may standardize on a RAW workflow, but that hasn't happened yet. I'm hoping someone else can figure that part out...

 

[mcfingon]

Here's how I make my scans with bits of Opemus and LPL enlargers. I've already posted this link several times on other forums here, so apologies if you've seen it before. I have updated to a Nikon D3300 body as it has no AA filter and use a Nikkor 40 micro f2.8 as the lens. I have also replaced the standard enlarging globe with an LED globe which runs cooler, is brighter and seems sharper as it may be a more collimated light source.
http://members.iinet.net.au/~fingon/howto/making_digitizer_mark_three/

 

[mcfingon]

Sample scan with this rig from yesterday. Shot with Olympus OM-F (OM-30) and 50/1.8 at f4 and 60th, Delta 100 film in ID-11

 

[mani]

Here's how I make my scans with bits of Opemus and LPL enlargers. I've already posted this link several times on other forums here, so apologies if you've seen it before. I have updated to a Nikon D3300 body as it has no AA filter and use a Nikkor 40 micro f2.8 as the lens. I have also replaced the standard enlarging globe with an LED globe which runs cooler, is brighter and seems sharper as it may be a more collimated light source.
http://members.iinet.net.au/~fingon/howto/making_digitizer_mark_three/

I love this setup and I'm very jealous - but it required quite a bit of construction work, and some specialized bits-and-pieces, so it's effectively disqualified from the thread. 🙂

But if you want you could do a kickstarter with a ready-made model which we could all buy :angel: