Scanning with a digital camera

Light source?

Light source?

Hello. I'm going to try scanning with DSLR. I've been looking for light source and I have found Huion light pad. Not very expensive, looks good, but... I've been told, that due to the light temperature it is not a good choice. Colour negatives looked with this light pad has blue tint colour ( I hope you know what I mean...). So is it a problem with scanning? Or you can simply remove it on PC. Or maybe I should rather buy light pad designed for work with negatives (like Kaiser, much more expensive). I work mainly with b&w negatives, but if using Huion will affect quality of scan, I'll rather buy something different.
 
It makes no difference for black and white. I use a Huion that I got cheaply on eBay. Works fine and is very thin. For color, you may want something else. But I don't do color negatives. Maybe Huss can tell you what he uses as a light source for his color negative work.
 
Check ebay for "video led light". Small ones are dirt cheap, under $20, but you have to figure out what to use as a diffuser. They put out a lot more light than the light pads, and in theory are color balanced since they're designed for filming video, though getting perfect color from an LED is theoretically impossible. I used a 1/4" thick piece of milk white plexiglass on mine as a diffuser, but I already had that knocking around. A lighting store might have a small piece of something you could use.

You can see mine here:

7183241686_fbfb5807a4_z.jpg
 
The included diffuser, which may be clear plastic with a pattern, like some privacy window glass, may not be adequate. You need enough depth and opacity to blend the bulbs. Raising a uniform but too thin diffuser up off the light an inch or two would probably suffice.
 
I'll be starting scanning 35mm with my trusted Sony A7 soon.

Will be hooking the A7 up by using an adapter to Canon FD, then it's using a Canon FD bellows, a 15mm or 25mm macro ring, a 55mm 3.5 Canon FD macro lens, a 52mm hookup ring, a Canon Slide duplicator and a Canon film stage to be able to scan uncut rolls of film.

Saw this rig online and I knew where to get parts very cheap, including the bellows (version II) for EUR 30 :D

I have the LED video light already for filming, and I bought 4 big *ss batteries with the 2 film lights so that's set too. Just need to look into the milk white plexiglass, there's a piece at the rear of the slide duplicator but I feel I need another bit because of the bright LEDs.

Gotta say I'm expecting a lot from this rig, both in ease and in quality.

The bigger formats will all still go to my Imacon Photo.
 
Johann, A7 will do a great job. I use with a bellows and a good 1:1 macro lens. Resolution is no problem; getting good color from color-neg requires some attention. See my other thread "Camera Scan Challenge."

Light source is a question. I have tried 3000K and flash for color neg; both work well. Let us know how the LED lights work out.
 
Huss, Your negative scans require some work. The color balance is not very good. There is still a long way to the quality of Pakon scans.
 
Huss, you often seem to have a bluish cast to your scans. Do you prefer it that way or does it not appear that way to you? For example I prefer the below version (admittedly on my screen)

28116492768_933de0f28c_b_bal.jpg
 
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