Scanning with a digital camera

A little experiment with Adox CMS II. This is extremely fine grain film, ASA ~20, film base is ususual, it's completely clear. I understand the recommended development will give a fuller range of tones, but this was developed for high contrast.

201000-AdoxCMS-F100-A7R0027-1kSig.jpg


This is 1000 pixels for the RFF page, but I can tell you that pixel peeping at the full res 42MPx file, it's hard to see any film grain. Anyone else using this film?

Cam-scan Sony A7Rii, 70 f/2.8 Sigma Macro ART, NLP.
 
Vince Lupo said:
Only thing I did discover is that the end of the strip frames don't always sit flat - it seems to be better for frames that are either in the middle of a strip or a couple of frames in.
Click to expand...

I have experienced this and have a theory: Turnn the film holder upside down, look at both sides. Figure out how to position the moveable pieces so that the very end of the film is supported above and below.

My theory is that if the end of the film is unsupported, it sags 1mm or so, enough to cause focus and possibly distortion problems.
 
I haven't tried this film yet but used to love its older sibling (Efke KB25)
Enlargements of 35mm had grain that looked almost like MedFormat and development in Rodinal 1+100 gave incredibly long tonality

Then they came with the Rollei TP which was also very good.

ColSebastianMoran said:
A little experiment with Adox CMS II. This is extremely fine grain film, ASA ~20, film base is ususual, it's completely clear. I understand the recommended development will give a fuller range of tones, but this was developed for high contrast.
Click to expand...
 
After thinking about it for a while, I bought a Pentax (M42) bellows adapter and, using a Pentax Takumar 55mm f1.8 (late version) scanned a couple of hundred slides from 30 or so years ago when my then partner and I went sailing and diving in the South Pacific. The camera I used was a Sony NEX 5 and the images were processed in Lightroom. Though there was some cropping needed due to its crop sensor but not too much and I am pretty happy with the results achieved. Some examples.


Deep Dive by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

Eye of the Wind, Wreck Diving - South Pacific by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

Eye of the Wind - Marshall Bennett Islands - New Guinea_2 by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

Eye of the Wind - Marshall Bennett - Laughlan Islands - New Guinea_4 by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

Eye of the Wind - Marshall Bennett - Laughlan Islands - New Guinea_5 by Life in Shadows, on Flickr
 
SaveKodak said:
You trash my scans because of some fixable banding and then post these as counter examples? I can't tell if this is hilarious or some kind of absurd farce.

DSLR copy work can't properly compensate for the orange mask, and you'd need to do HDR work to bring back the available dynamic range. A pixel shift camera would be better for this but you still have the color issues. DSLR work is only decent for B&W and Chrome. Even then you would benefit from a wet scan because slides even in their mounts are not flat. Who cares if you can AF on the center if the edges are out of focus. Even if you can get them in the DoF you'd have a warped image.

I think you're seeing your camera resolve detail and deciding that it's then ok if the sand is green and the skin tones are some kind of sickly orange. And for the 35mm image, if you think that's what Portra 400 is supposed to look like, then I don't know what to tell you.
Click to expand...

Not true. White balance off black (clear) or inter frame mask.
Invert with curves, straight line UL to LR.
Fine tune color balance with levels using individual R, G & B color channels on the histogram highlights and shadow points for that channel.
BTW and image can be color balanced this way.
CS6 does all this well.
 
SaveKodak said:
You trash my scans because of some fixable banding and then post these as counter examples? I can't tell if this is hilarious or some kind of absurd farce.

DSLR copy work can't properly compensate for the orange mask, and you'd need to do HDR work to bring back the available dynamic range. A pixel shift camera would be better for this but you still have the color issues. DSLR work is only decent for B&W and Chrome. Even then you would benefit from a wet scan because slides even in their mounts are not flat. Who cares if you can AF on the center if the edges are out of focus. Even if you can get them in the DoF you'd have a warped image.

I think you're seeing your camera resolve detail and deciding that it's then ok if the sand is green and the skin tones are some kind of sickly orange. And for the 35mm image, if you think that's what Portra 400 is supposed to look like, then I don't know what to tell you.
Click to expand...

Not true. White balance off black (clear) or inter frame mask.
Invert with curves, straight line UL to LR.
Fine tune color balance with levels using individual R, G & B color channels on the histogram highlights and shadow points for that channel.
BTW and image can be color balanced this way.
CS6 does all this well.
 
Cool series!!!
The Pentax Bellows is a great value for the money!

peterm1 said:
After thinking about it for a while, I bought a Pentax (M42) bellows adapter and, using a Pentax Takumar 55mm f1.8 (late version) scanned a couple of hundred slides from 30 or so years ago when my then partner and I went sailing and diving in the South Pacific. The camera I used was a Sony NEX 5 and the images were processed in Lightroom. Though there was some cropping needed due to its crop sensor but not too much and I am pretty happy with the results achieved. Some examples.
Click to expand...
 
Well, very late to the party, I finally got around to testing a bunch of different setups and mostly worked out a good flow for myself.

- The Negative Supply film carrier for 35mm is VERY nice. Other setups worked fine for me (Nikon ES-2, etc.) but if you this thing is really nice (as it should be). The Skier system doesn't look too bad either - I might try it out just for the light source.
- I'm using a Sony A7rII with a 90mm macro lens.
- Color negative results easily rival what I was getting with a Nikon Coolscan V. Way faster too.
- Negative Lab Pro seems very nice and is probably worth it if it works for you. It doesn't for me as I don't really use Lightroom. I feel like I've fiddled around and got something that works quite well for me with just ACR and Photoshop. I do think it can be done with white balance in your raw developer, and then prudent use of curves/levels in PS. I wish there was a more direct way to set gain/offset like in motion picture color tools...
- I can do film borders, so of course I'm going overboard with it.

Here are two cat samples 🙂


sleepy in the sun by Tim Gray, on Flickr


cat by Tim Gray, on Flickr
 
I went from using a flatbed scanner to "digitizing" with my Sony a7 with past summer.

The setup I use consists of the following:

- 55mm f/3.5 Micro-Nikkor Ai (Gobe F to NEX Adapter)
- PrimeCables Desk Mounted Monitor Stand
- 1/4" to 3/8" Tripod adapter (used to mount the camera onto the Monitor Plate of the Monitor Stand)
- Cheap generic micro-USB LED Panel
- Lomography Digitaliza Scanning Masks (35mm and 120)

I also used gaffers tape on the LED panel leaving just enough space for a 6x9 cm negative.

I personally use Lightroom Classic with the Negative Lab Pro Plugin to process my negatives. It's not a perfect setup, but I'm quite satisfied with my results for the time being! I would like to eventually upgrade the Monitor Stand to a Copy Stand, but it does the trick for now and is remarkably steady for such a low price (around $40 CAD with shipping/tax).

A few examples:

2iTu8Tk


Leica M3| 50mm f/2.8 Elmar| Ektar 100


2k8bsQP


Leica M6 TTL| 35mm f/2 Summicron V3| Kodak Double-X


2kxw4n5


Nikon FM2N| 50mm f/1.4K| Ilford HP5+
 
Tim Gray said:
Well, very late to the party, I finally got around to testing a bunch of different setups and mostly worked out a good flow for myself.

- The Negative Supply film carrier for 35mm is VERY nice. Other setups worked fine for me (Nikon ES-2, etc.) but if you this thing is really nice (as it should be). The Skier system doesn't look too bad either - I might try it out just for the light source.
- I'm using a Sony A7rII with a 90mm macro lens.
- Color negative results easily rival what I was getting with a Nikon Coolscan V. Way faster too.
- Negative Lab Pro seems very nice and is probably worth it if it works for you. It doesn't for me as I don't really use Lightroom. I feel like I've fiddled around and got something that works quite well for me with just ACR and Photoshop. I do think it can be done with white balance in your raw developer, and then prudent use of curves/levels in PS. I wish there was a more direct way to set gain/offset like in motion picture color tools...
- I can do film borders, so of course I'm going overboard with it.

Here are two cat samples 🙂
Click to expand...

awesome "scan"s! I've got my eyes on the 120 film carrier from negative labs! Gotta get the 120 before i save for 35mm as buying both at the same time is just so wallet burning!

67ii + 105 f2.4 + pro400h, "scanned" with d800e + 105 micro + negative labs pro

INZ_7167 by Ricky Cheong Photography, on Flickr

INZ_7181 by Ricky Cheong Photography, on Flickr

INZ_7163 by Ricky Cheong Photography, on Flickr

INZ_7166 by Ricky Cheong Photography, on Flickr
 
Scanning with a digital camera has been a total gamechanger for me. Couple years ago I nearly abandoned film because of the amount of work and time it took to get my negatives digitized (and then often to subpar results).


ScanRig.jpg



My rig consists of my XPro2, mounted to an old enlarger that I repurposed to be a copy stand. A 3D-printed Kamerakraft negative holder (with a small crank to advance the frame), a Raleno video light (CRI95+) which is very bright, diffused and gives a very even illumination.
Using a Rodagon 50/2.8 enlarger lens mounted to a helicoid for focusing + to a good quality Canon Eos to FujiX adapter I had laying around anyway. A cardboard tube lined with black felt cuts down stray light.
At base iso (200), 1/60 and f8 I expose slightly to the right, so the light is plenty bright. Tried a dedicated 1:1 7artisans macro lens, but the Rodagon is _much_ better with a flatter field.


This setup allows me to digitize a whole roll of 35mm film in probably less then 5 minutes. And we're talking here about 20megapixel resolution (because of the borders I keep in) that is sharp down to the grain right into the corners!


ScanTest.jpg
ScanCrop.jpg
 
jrose125 said:
I would like to eventually upgrade the Monitor Stand to a Copy Stand, but it does the trick for now and is remarkably steady for such a low price (around $40 CAD with shipping/tax).
Click to expand...

I purchased a small LPL copy stand for this purpose, thinking I would be annoyed by workarounds intended to save money. While the stand does provide easy vertical adjustment, its not particularly stable, nor does it prevent you from not having your camera parallel to the copy surface. I've had to shim the mount to keep the camera level and use a remote to trigger the shutter to prevent vibration.

So... It sounds like your solution isn't that bad for the cost. I'm sure if I went big time with an expensive large copy stand, I'd be better off, but I'm not going to do that. The Negative Supply stand made out of 8020 looks pretty rigid. There's also this little guy (no easy vertical adjustment) that I bet is pretty rigid and not too expensive:

https://www.dold-mechatronik.de/Reprostativ-V5-kit
 
Filzkoeter said:
Scanning with a digital camera has been a total gamechanger for me. Couple years ago I nearly abandoned film because of the amount of work and time it took to get my negatives digitized (and then often to subpar results).
Click to expand...

Agreed about the gamechanger--I am enjoying my film work so much more since I've abandoned my flatbed.

Thanks for the link to Kamerakraft. Did you do the 3D print yourself? I'd have to outsource it but that looks like a great holder.
 
twvancamp said:
Thanks for the link to Kamerakraft. Did you do the 3D print yourself? I'd have to outsource it but that looks like a great holder.
Click to expand...


I 3D printed it myself, epoxied everything together and spray-painted it flat black 😀

There are 3 parts: two halves for the main body and the crank.
It holds the film pretty flat and the advance mechanism works great.
 
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