My Camera Scanning Experiments

[charjohncarter]

Chris, RFF members are probably going to vomit when they see this again, but this is what I made 10-12 maybe more years ago (I just checked 2008):

Untitled by John Carter, on Flickr

Besides the light leaking, piping, or channeling from outside the subject; the most important thing I realized was I needed a proper macro lens (50mm). It was cheap for me at the time but what a difference it made. I even use it for regular photography when I'm using a tripod. Also post processing is important, but that is another subject.

 

[pvdhaar]

...
and this is the scanner blow up:

Olympus 35RC Trix HC-110h by John Carter, on Flickr

This is the digital camera 'scanned' negative blowup.

Olympus 35RC Trix HC-110h by John Carter, on Flickr

...

These show the advantage of the digital camera set-up; it has no striping, although in the scanner image here it's quite minimal.

My own problem with going the digital camera route is that I find it very hard to perfectly have the optical axis of the lens perpendicular to the plane of the negative..

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

My own problem with going the digital camera route is that I find it very hard to perfectly have the optical axis of the lens perpendicular to the plane of the negative..

That's the issue I'm having, too.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

A couple more camera scans:

Tmax 400, developed in D-76 1+1. Leica M3 and 50mm f2.4 Summarit-M

Tmax 400, developed in D-76 1+1. Leica M3 and 50mm f2.4 Summarit-M

 

[peterm1]

That's the issue I'm having, too.

I ended up buying a second hand bellows outfit/ slide copier. It neatly avoids this problem because everything is aligned in the correct plane. It also overcame a problem I had with artificial lighting sources. Other methods either produced irregular or inconsistent lighting or pixilated lighting (the later caused by LED light boxes). The bellows outfit / slide copier has an inbuilt diffuser so sorted that problem pretty well. And because the bellows creates a "tunnel" from camera to lens then from lens to slide holder there are no issues with external light influencing the scan.
The bellows is for M42 so I used a 55mm f1.8 Takumar (late M42 version) partly because the instructions that came with it gave the settings for that lens. For my next batch of scans I may try using a Takumar SMC 50mm f4 macro though strictly speaking this is not needed with this outfit as the 55mm stopped down to f8 was quite adequately sharp and at that setting had some depth of field which helped with any minor focus inaccuracy. (Focusing was mainly by the cameras rear LCD with the image blown up to the maximum. But once set up few changes were required.)

 

[mcfingon]

Also at the risk of repeating what I've posted previously Chris, this is the setup I made for myself some years ago. It still works well, now with a D3500 Nikon as the camera.
http://avcmc.iinet.net.au/mck/making_digitizer_mark_three/index.html
John Mc

 

[mcfingon]

Your scans are looking extremely good to me Chris. Here's a "scan" from my rig (above) taken today.

John Mc

 

[ColSebastianMoran]

Chris, bravo your continued experiments. I've been doing a lot of experiments myself. Here are a couple of conclusions:
- Diffraction: for cam-scan to APS (and M4/3 similar), you are right about aperture, especially with your glass holder. For mounted slides, there's enough non-flatness that I go to f/8. I lust for the film flatness of your glass holder.
- Alignment: mirror, rig a mirror somehow in or parallel to film plane
- Movement: Your Lego castle looks great, but I'll bet locked down will eliminate some vibration. Here's an interesting rig created by Peter Krogh (author of DAM Book). Metal rail holds camera/lens and film holder.
- Stray light: from anywhere causes problems. Bellows lens shade can help. I also see flare from sprocket holes if the negative holder exposes them.

 

[Dan]

I applaud everyone's gumption in their scanning contraptions, but I have to say I'm really happy my Coolscan 5000ED is still running at 100%.

 

[ColSebastianMoran]

More...
- Frank Phillips can probably fix your 8000. Or, he might be interested in buying it for resale.
- The lens in your 8000 is the highest resolution 1x lens I've encountered. It's hard to use because the DOF is so thin, but with your glass carrier, might be the best 1x camera scan setup ever.

 

[Ricoh]

When using a digital camera to make an image of a negative (or positive) I use a BEOON.
Camera sensor and negative are almost perfectly parallel.

Use whatever camera you choose, but a MFT is adequate and M adapters are available. I recommend using a flat field enlarger lens for optimum corner sharpness.