Inspecting negatives

[mmik]

If you need to look at your negatives without scanning them or using a projector, how do you do it? Do you recommend a magnifying glass, some other equipment?

Here is why I am asking this question. Today shot my first roll of film - ever. Never really was into photography - digital or film. But due to a knee injury I started walking a lot and figured it would be fun to shoot some photos while I live in NYC on assignment.

So tomorrow, I am going to drop off my film for developing and I do not know how pictures turned out at all. Is there a decent way to scan developed film visually to see if the shot turned out somewhat decent?

I've been lurking here for about a week. This is my first post.

 

[charjohncarter]

Light box and magnifier.

 

[robklurfield]

I got a great 7X loupe from Freestyle for about $7. Big enough for 6x7 negs. That and a lightbox and you're in business. Even a cheapo lightbox will do the trick.

 

[nikon_sam]

Light box and magnifier.

It's as easy as that...^^^^^
I've had a small light box for years..it's small but big enough that I can look at a whole sheet of 35mm negs...a loupe would be nice but a 50mm lens will work...I've been using an old but good clean glass Vivitar 50mm lens to inspect them...

 

[FrozenInTime]

If you really want a good look : go on e-bay and pick up a used stereo microscope.
The comfort of use, no peering and breathing on your negs, and the detail, contrast and sharpness blow any loupe out of the water.

For SMT electronics work, I bought an Olympus SZ30 with GSWH10x/22 wide field eyepieces.
With a 35mm neg on the lightbox, I can zoom in so that a single sprocket hole is almost full frame and out till 24mm height of the frame is covered.
With the supplemental x0.62 lens I can see the full 35mm frame.

Pixel peeping the old fashioned way 😀

 

[Spyro]

I bought a 20" square flat light with a milky white acrylic surface (the type that is meant to be hardwired on a wall) built a wooden box around it and thats my $100 light table, now a permanent fixture on my desk. I use a magnifying glass from a sensor cleaning set instead of a loupe because I liked the rectangular shape.

 

[FrozenInTime]

It's as easy as that...^^^^^
I've had a small light box for years..it's small but big enough that I can look at a whole sheet of 35mm negs...a loupe would be nice but a 50mm lens will work...I've been using an old but good clean glass Vivitar 50mm lens to inspect them...

Not so long ago it was possible to pick up used Olympus OM 50mm f/1.8 for $20 - they make outstanding loupes.
There are many small battery (or wall wart) powered 5x7 light boxes that would be ideal for on assignment use.

 

[peter_n]

Light box and loupe. I use a Porta-Trace 1012-2 light box and a Peak 8x loupe nr. 2018 and recommend both.

 

[KenR]

As a teen, I could hold the neg 2 inches from my nose and actually see it - who needed a magnifier! Now, in middle age (I guess) I use a light box and magnifier.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Any standard (50mm) lens of f/2 or thereabouts makes a good loupe, and light boxes are a lot cheaper than they used to be.

Cheers,

R.

 

[sevo]

I use one of my large format focusing loupes. Technically these tend to be normallish Tessar types - as Roger said, any decent normal will do very well as a 8x loupe. For technical checks down to grain level and beyond I use a 20mm Nikkor - that will go down to about 25x magnification. Ultrawides in general can be abused as about the strongest loupes (or macro lenses) you can get short of resorting to dedicated special equipment.

 

[oftheherd]

First, welcome to RFF! All good advice above. I use an old Wollensak enlarging lens for that as well as GG focusing. I also have a loupe with a plastic piece that fits on the bottom. It has a slot for sliding the film through. It works well, but I prefer the Wollensak. I no longer have a light table, but may try to make or get one soon.

 

[Ronald M]

Turn your 50 mm lens backwards.

 

[ChrisCummins]

I use this light box. Can't complain, it's cheap, bright enough and I use it for converting negatives to digital (fix digi cam with macro lens on tripod above box, focus and click shutter - away you go)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hama-Lightb...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1293028011&sr=8-1

For a loupe, I use my Industar 61 lens off my FED-2 (50mm f2/8). They can be picked up off ebay for next to nothing.

Regards
Chris

 

[Brian Puccio]

Eh, I just hold slides up to the light. I could never look at a negative and really tell much about it, my brain just couldn't do it.

 

[ChrisCummins]

I could never look at a negative and really tell much about it, my brain just couldn't do it.

I've found it's a good brain training activity. Your mind gets used to it, just as you get used to looking at a mirrored image through a TLR. I'm slowly gaining the ability to visualise a finished print just from a negative, but it's taking a lot of practise.

 

[RayPA]

You don't *really* need a light box, but they are certainly very nice to have. I don't have one right now. I hold my negs up to a light source, usually a lit white wall or my LCD monitor on my computer (great when it's displaying a new text document page). I use an Agfa 8x loupe and a handheld magnifying glass. The loupe allows me to view closer—sometimes a little too close. The magnifying glass is useful for viewing the negative overall—good for checking composition/framing. I have a couple of other higher power loupes, but I rarely use those.

I check focus, exposure, composition.

Looking at a roll of negatives for the first time never gets old. It's got to be one of my favorite things to do (photographically).



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