Nikon D800 as a "Scanner"

Michel154

Michel154

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Hi this is my first post here and English in not my native language so be gentle .
firs let me introduce myself .i'm Michel French for Michael
i am a profesional photographer ,mostly product and advertising .
for work i use digital cameras of all sorts ,film is mostly for myself and personal projects ,i always had a "problem" scanning ,what i mean is that it is slow and Expensive ,i unfortunately don't use my dark room as much as i would like,
so looking trough my old stuff i found my bellows PB-6 for Nikon
and used the slide copy gizmo+the old macro 55 and guess what, i am very happy with the results
i used it on a Nikon D800 , i found the dynamic range to be superb i get great subtlety in my tonal-range much better that my epson or coolscan
it is also much faster 2 sec exposures
fell free to look at mu flickr page for some samples
photostream


hope this might help someone
 
Hello Michael. First of all let me say that you have some nice work on Flickr (in particular that motorbike shot). You seem to get the handle of the digitizing with D800. May I ask which 'slide copy gizmo' it is that you used?
 
WOW! (oh, et bienvenue, Michel) I have one of those, but mine is the old one, the Model II, new in the boxes with the slide copier! I never thought of doing that. I wonder what the least nikon mount digicam is that I could use like that? Maybe get a used D40? I'm all film, so...
 
Matus said:
Was there ever such a slide copying stuff for 6x6? That would make me seriously think ...
Click to expand...
On page 291 of The Hasselblad Manual Wildi there is a bellows with a slide copying attachment shown. You may have to bash something together if you're thinking of using it with a regular DSLR.
 
I've done this before via a couple methods. One was with a film copying machine made by Beseler, great results but a pain to set it up and attach a camera, focus was iffy, etc. The other method is just using a light table and a piece of ANR glass to hold the negative or slide down, fast and easy but the results weren't equal to a scanner due to the camera limited in megapixels. I can imagine the D800 gives great results due to the larger imager and pixel number. As far as finding slide copying devices there are generic ones on the 'bay for 35mm and I think I've even seen larger ones for 6x6 occasionally. They're cheap compared to the higher quality of the older dedicated bellows for name brand systems but they look like they'd work well enough for fast and dirty digitizing.
 
Michel, I just looked over your pics done with this routine, VERY nice. It makes me upset that I recently sold my M7 in lieu of an M9 so now all my 35mm will be digital. My M9 will never be able to replicate that film look. There's a presence there that only film provides. Maybe I should sell the M9, by back into an M7, and have thousands left for film. Hmm.
 
i sold my M9 to get the D800 but kept my M7 ,
i loved the M9 one of the greatest cameras i have ever owned , i think you will be very happy with it
 
I've done this with my Hasselblad and digital back copying 8x10 and 5x7 B&W negs. I just tape the neg to a light box. put the camera on a tripod or studio stand above it and level both the camera and light box. I use a macro for a flat field and stop down two or three stops for best resolution. I mask around the neg with black tape and black paper to keep stay light out and then shoot my best exposure. Any good DSLR should work. It would pork fine for color transparencies too. I'll probably give the D800 a try too with my old micro 55 f3.5.
 
I have been holding the film strip in the neg holder from my enlarger, with a bit of black paper forming an anti-glare chimney on top, and putting a K5 (and old 50mm f4 macro lens) on a tripod above the neg. Using a bellows and copy-holder should mean much better alignment and control of unwanted light. Excellent alternative to flatbeds :)
 
micro 55 f3.5. is what i have used ,it is a bit soft in the corners but around f11 it is ok
what i like about this process it the detail ,it is just amazing ,
 
Very impressive results, I must say. The tonality is great. Much better than what I've seen in my own B&W scans. Grain looks good.
 
nanthor said:
...The other method is just using a light table and a piece of ANR glass to hold the negative or slide down, fast and easy but the results weren't equal to a scanner due to the camera limited in megapixels. ...
Click to expand...

Megapixels haven't been a limitation for this method in a long long time. A 12mp camera is the pixel equivalent of a roughly 3000ppi scan. The big limitation has been dynamic range. Also, you should NEVER EVER shoot/scan through ANR glass, period. Such glass should only every be used on the illumination side of the carrier. Shooting through it willl always lower resolution.

Back in the day, I used a 2mp Nikon CoolPix 950 along with its slide/neg copier attachment. Resolution was great for web use. A full screen "scan" was easily as sharp has a downsampled scan from a Imagcon (something I use at work regularily, btw). The difference was solely in the amount of deep shadow and delicate highlight detail. I've since moved to an Epson v700.

The recent improvements in sensors' dynamic range, particularily in the sensor used in the D800, move this type of "scanning" much much closer to the high end rather than the "only quickies for the web" class it is limited to with lower performing sensors. The limitation now is largely the lens used.
 
the sensor in the D800 is amazing the "scans" are so much better than the ones from my V700 or the coolscan which has a old CCD from a few years back ,
the shadow detail is there which is not always there with the V700 or coolscan
here is the 100% again
photostream

and here is the whole frame
photostream


that is not bad one can make a 13x19 print with no problem and this is ISO400
 
Please forgive my very basic question: if you shoot a "negative" how much effort/ time is involved to change that to a "positive " It this done afterwards in Photo shop?

A reply will be much appreciated.


Eugene
 
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