M9 + Beoon Camera Scanner

[Monochrom]

Hi, Today i received a beoon device for making 1:1 ratio copies.

the manual told me how to do a quick and effective light table and here are the first serious results i made.

The shots were taken with a bessa r3a and a 35mm summicron 7 elements.

The first tywo "scans" were made with the beoon + m9 and a elmar 50mm f2.8 LTM lens.
And the third one was made with my epson v500 scanner wich many of you might know.

1-complete Frame, the scratches are made int the stand glass.

2-66% beoon crop

3-Epson v500 66% crop

4- the lab...:/

Hope you find these shots interesting.

🙂

 

[Shac]

Quite a difference. Did you try adjusting the height of the film "holder" with the Espon. Some have found it makde a signifiant difference.
Beoon shot looks good - apart from crud😉

 

[Vickko]

Hmm. Cheap and dirty film scanner? Well, maybe the M9 isn't cheap.

But I don't have a film scanner and am intrigued that this works.

I've been trying to do the same with a Visoflex and bellows, with the bellows shade.

Your results look pretty good.

 

[gshybrid]

I 've been using a the same setup M9/50 cron to scan 35mm negs.
Here's a couple shots...

 

[shadowfox]

I would imagine a Sigma DP2 or DP3 Merrill would do very well in the same setup.

 

[Monochrom]

Hi,

I´ve made several tests, and can say, it´s been a nice discovery to use the m9 for scanning negs.

The scanned results are smooth and have a lot of info to work with.

Since i have not the time to make myself a wet lab this solution gives me the way to use again film in a way i couldn´t do it before.

Also saves me a lot of money since the results are quite good thus i won´t have to upgrade my flatbed scanner.

Now i´ll upgrade my LR version taht is too old and doesn´t have the way to invert the negative image thats rendered in the m9.
For the time being i have to go directly to photoshop to invert and only then go to lightroom.
I think doing this invertion irectly in LR will give much more posibilities since working on a negative image is kind of a lottery.

 

[luuca]

interesting, how do you control focus?

 

[Vickko]

What version of LR is needed to do inversion?

I'm running 2.5 still.

Now i´ll upgrade my LR version taht is too old and doesn´t have the way to invert the negative image thats rendered in the m9....
I think doing this invertion irectly in LR will give much more posibilities since working on a negative image is kind of a lottery.

 

[lukitas]

I scan on the same principle, just a different camera.
A durst 670 for lightbox, and a nikon D3100 for scanner.

As for negative treatment, no version of Lightroom that I know has an 'invert' or 'make negative' command.
There is a work-around : in curves, pull the black and the white to their opposite corners.
But now, all your tone sliders will work the wrong way round : for blacks, read whites, etc.

What works best for me is to open the negatives, invert and save, and then import in Lightroom. If you use lightroom to do the inversion (make a preset out of the curves switch), don't save them as DNG : the curves will stay inverted, so your black slider will be an inverted white slider…

I use photoshop to open the raw files : while in the 'camera raw' module, I apply lens correction, convert to grayscale, and then set the white and black points. After all that, I open the images in photoshop, flip and invert, and save as tiff, or PSD. And then they go to Lightroom.

Setting the white and black points first gives you a lot more leeway later in Lightroom. A straight negative inversion will give you some files where the tone sliders aren't long enough, and you'll have to yank the contrast way up to get the whites and blacks at their maximum.

Using a digital camera is a good way to get high quality scans. Maybe not quite as good as a Coolscan, but a lot better than a flatbed. On the other hand, using a camera demands a bit more work than a dedicated scanner.

I set up my system to take full frame negs, with a bit of clear film border : I can set my white point there, so I have a fair approximation of what will become the black point in the positive. With the nikon, I get files of about 4300x2900 pixels in size.

Here's one I made earlier:

 

[Monochrom]

Hi,

i´m using LR 2.5 and quite happy with it, but as likitas say the option of "ctrl i" doesn´t exist like that you´ll have to invert curves (i´ve never done it) so that´s why i posted i´d upgrade the lr ver.

Guess i´l test setting white and black points will help a nice deal!

Luuca: In this device you can set focus with a viewer tahts attached to the cmaera mount. As you focus then you switch this viewer with the cmera itself.

 

[luuca]

Hi,

i´m using LR 2.5 and quite happy with it, but as likitas say the option of "ctrl i" doesn´t exist like that you´ll have to invert curves (i´ve never done it) so that´s why i posted i´d upgrade the lr ver.

Guess i´l test setting white and black points will help a nice deal!

Luuca: In this device you can set focus with a viewer tahts attached to the cmaera mount. As you focus then you switch this viewer with the cmera itself.

thank you very much, understood!

 

[dshfoto]

you can also use a "Focoslide and a Focotar lens.

I have a write-up here on using digital cameras to copy negatives.
www.harrisfoto.com/Digital_Test/Test_Results_Write_up.pdf

 

[tuanvinh2000]

i wonder if this works for an apsc sensor camera like a gxr since this only works with 50mm lens and need a full frame back. will it be a cropped image or i can adjust the stand to accommodate the sensor crop?

 

[dshfoto]

Digital Negative Copy

Digital Negative Copy

Focaslide has an adjustment to focus the lens, so you can move the camera + Focoslide up and down on a copy stand, above the negative and light source to obtain the desired field of view and then focus the field. (One has to make simultaneous adjustments of the field crop and focus.) See my write up and results of several alternative methods at:
http://www.harrisfoto.com/Digital_Test/Test_Results_Write_up.pdf

This is the type of Focaslide that is needed (one with a bellows adjustment) if using an enlarger lens. If using a focusing lens than one needs extension tubes.

 

[dierk]

Stephen, a lot of great work, that you put into your tests! Thanks.

I noticed, that the title of this post is about Leica and my not be found of people, that don't use Leica. Therefore I started an new post on this.


I did a post on this topic a few days ago at Steve Huff:
http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/2014/05/29/digitizing-slides-and-negatives-on-the-cheap-by-dierk-topp/

The topic: A fast, easy and cheap solution for digitizing slides and negatives

The main idea is, to use the light of a tablet as a neutral white light source and solve the (my) main problem with the light.
The rest can be done in many different ways.

The problem with the DSLR was the light and the resolution (at that time 12 MPix) and the problem with the scanner was the boring time per scan, and also the resolution of only 2400 DPI!
Some time ago I noticed, that my tablet can be used as an ideal light source.

The light is very neutral (I checked it with the Colorchecker). And I came up with the following quick and “not so dirty” solution, of course not for professional work.
​

If you are interested, you find the whole post at Steve Huff.


This is the basic setup:

I did 24x36, 24x56 panorama, 6x6 and 4x5" with very satisfying results. Digitizing a row of 6 negatives is done in a view minutes!

For 24x36 and 24x56 I use the NEX-6 with the Leica Makro-Elmarit-R and 1:1 adapter, the 4x5" i made with 6 sepatate shots (2x3) and stitched. With multiple shots and stitching you can get any resolution, you want, depending on the lens and the magnification ratio!

For 6x6 I used the Sony A7R with the same lens, but no 1:1 adapter.

some examples:
click for higher resolution
24x56 (two shots of left and right part and stitched)


6x6



4x5"




dierk

 

[dshfoto]

Thanks for posting the results using the Sony. I wanted to try a Sony Alpha 7 but never got the time.

 

[WJJ3]

I would imagine a Sigma DP2 or DP3 Merrill would do very well in the same setup.

I wonder if anyone has done this yet. Scanning film with a DP3 sounds VERY interesting

 

[FrozenInTime]

The 64 mp pixel shifting output from the new Olympus OM-D E-5II might have potential as a film copier. It seems to be moire free as well.

http://www.43rumors.com/imaging-resource-test-can-the-new-olympus-e-m5ii-beat-the-nikon-36mp-resolution/

 

[Monochrom]

Wow Dierk, very interesting your sony experience.

I use the m9 because i don´t own another camera taht can be used as a 1:1 copier.

I tried to used the Merrill but nether was able to control it, apsc fomrat and the 30mm lens must have some kind of stand and another lens to make the final image be as 24x36.

I haven´t done much scanning with the m9, but i still have the beoon because i want to come back to film with a 6x6 camera.

 

[Godfrey]

Hi,

i´m using LR 2.5 and quite happy with it, but as likitas say the option of "ctrl i" doesn´t exist like that you´ll have to invert curves (i´ve never done it) so that´s why i posted i´d upgrade the lr ver.

Guess i´l test setting white and black points will help a nice deal!

Luuca: In this device you can set focus with a viewer tahts attached to the cmaera mount. As you focus then you switch this viewer with the cmera itself.

You can use the curves trick in Lightroom. If your version of Lightroom doesn't have the "point curve" option, you can manually create a Develop preset using a text editor that inverts the tonal map too.

OR download Adobe DNG Profile Editor (http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=5493) and create a camera calibration profile that inverts the image. When looking at scanned B&W or color negs, choose that camera calibration profile in the Camera Calibration panel, Develop module.

G