Scanning with a digital camera

[Godfrey]

...
Is there an advantage to tether your SL and use Liveview?

I imagine zooming in to check the corners and focusing on grain on a large calibrated monitor to make things deadly accurate.

The advantage as I use it is that I set up the camera and capture stage (focus, aperture, exposure time, etc) once, using the big screen and the viewfinder as needed for aids and such.

Then I just run film through the setup. Nothing moves, nothing changes other than what frame is captured. I check the framing and alignment of the film on the iPad each time so they are consistent in the capture and I don't spend hours adjusting crop and rotation on each frame.

While that would work well, it is more time consuming than using a set up with AF. When I was focusing manually I kept on adjusting and adjusting as I wanted it perfect. Was driving me nuts as I'm kinda OCD.. Then when I switched to Live View AF, boom, perfect in a fraction of a second.
You use what you have, but if you happen to have access to an AF setup, use that. Another upside is there is less stuff to deal with.

But.. you use what you have, and if it works, it works. G's example pic he posted looks sweet.

It's not a matter of "using what I have" ... I have plenty of gear that can do this job, both manual and auto focus capable.

Autofocus when doing macro copy work performs better when you're well off the lens' limits of magnification. For instance, when I captured 35mm film with FourThirds, it's approximately a 1:2 magnification capture, the middle of my Macro-Elmarit-DG 45mm lens focusing range, and the AF works brilliantly. Capturing 1:1 gets tricky with AF because at some point you're at the limits of the lens' abilities and you have to lock it to 1:1 and adjust the distance to get the best resolution.

I prefer using a manually focused and otherwise locked-down exposure setup. That way I get extremely consistent results, presuming my film is fairly consistent in density. Otherwise, I switch to Aperture priority AE with full averaging and let the camera compensate for variability in negative density.

G

 

[Calzone]

Huss and Godfrey,

Thanks for the responses.

Cal

 

[Godfrey]

Huss and Godfrey,

Thanks for the responses.

Cal

Forgot to mention: Using the tethered control of the iPad with the SL also eliminates all potential input vibration. The SL has no mirror to cause vibration so you don't need to do a mirror lockup thing, and its shutter is superbly well damped and smooth.

This will only get better if Leica implements the SL's electronic shutter mode across a broad range of exposure times ... They already have it for 1/8000 to 1/16000 second; I hope it's just a matter of time before they extend the range down into my usual capture range for transparency and other copy work. A totally vibrationless camera for macro work: it will be ideal.

G

 

[KarmaToBurn]

I use the Leica SL. I usually set it up so that I am controlling the camera with an iPad Pro ... that way I can make the exposures with no risk of jiggling the setup at high resolution. I an also use the camera's grids and focus assist modes to help nail the focus and aperture for best focus zone.


G

I totally forgot about the ability for tethered shooting! I'll be playing with that next time I 'scan' a roll.

Here's a sample shot from my setup

And this is what happens if a fly decides to land on the negative as the photo is being taken 😱

 

[Calzone]

Forgot to mention: Using the tethered control of the iPad with the SL also eliminates all potential input vibration. The SL has no mirror to cause vibration so you don't need to do a mirror lockup thing, and its shutter is superbly well damped and smooth.

This will only get better if Leica implements the SL's electronic shutter mode across a broad range of exposure times ... They already have it for 1/8000 to 1/16000 second; I hope it's just a matter of time before they extend the range down into my usual capture range for transparency and other copy work. A totally vibrationless camera for macro work: it will be ideal.

G

Godfrey,

Thanks again,

I will mention your suggestion about the electronic shutter mode to John K. the Leica "S" and SL Technical Specialist the next time I see him.

The SL is really amazing with the in lens image stabilization on the zoom lenses.

Cal

 

[Huss]

I just got a roll back from my Mamiya 645 Pro TL. Pretty much to test an 80mm 1.9 lens that I have. I used the Hasselblad Imacon knock off holder for this (ebay purchase), and it holds the film completely flat. I notice a flaw under Pepe's left ear (our right) in the image. It shows a distortion from the light pad. The light pad I use is one of the older types that has a softish surface that when you touch, distorts. Like old laptops. The distortion did not happen with my other holders as they held the film above the lightpad surface and so any distortion is out of focus and can't be seen, while the Imacon holder touches the surface.
I can reshoot this by using the same holder, but placing it on top of a piece of anti-Newton ring glass. That height difference would render any surface distortion out of focus.
Or I could just get a new/modern light pad!

Anyway, Mamiya 645 Pro, 80mm 1.9 shot at 1.9, Fuji NPS 160 expired 2000
D750 scan w/ AF Nikkor 60 2.8 lens

1:1 on Pepe's eye:

 

[:: Mark]

Basically, any good, even light source works fine. You can finish tune the color temperature on the raw files.

Not really. If you are using a camera with a colour sensor it is still very important to try to equalise signal in the colour channels to avoid either blown data or excessive noise. This is particularly true for colour film with an orange mask.

I use a broad spectrum white lamp (not an iPad) in a large diffuser box, and add a blue filter as needed to get good raw data. I use a mirror for colimation and an E-M1.2 in hires mode for capture, which also has the advantage of using a fully electronic shutter. The film is held on plustek holders.

There are two things to be careful of in this setup. Firstly, any slight flicker from the light source can show up as banding with an e-shutter. The solution is to avoid very short exposure times or use an incandescent lamp.

The second is film and lens field flatness. With an 80mp capture you are stuck between this and diffraction. In my scans it shows up as a slight softening of the grain at the edges where the film is clamped in the holder (I do not use glass backed holders as these increase dust...). I usually ignore this, but focus stacking is always an option if it really mattered.

 

[Godfrey]

I've not found this to be a problem with my setup. I use a 5600°K balanced flat panel light box as my light source. I'm not blowing out any channel data or producing excessive noise.

With 24Mpixel FF format capture and my lenses, I have not found flatness of field, film flatness, or diffraction to be a problem. I stop down to f/8 or f/11 ... f/11 with the 50mm begins to nick the edge off with diffraction, but not with the 60mm. Perhaps it's the combination of the higher pixel resolution and the smaller format that causing your setup to be sensitive in this domain.

All I can say is that I'm getting excellent results and have few problems with the setup I'm using. Since there's no electronic shutter under 1/8000 second at present, I've not seen any issues with the light source (I'm typically around 1/100-1/250 second). I'm convinced that if I need more pixel resolution, I should go up-format to medium format digital with a good macro setup.

G

Not really. If you are using a camera with a colour sensor it is still very important to try to equalise signal in the colour channels to avoid either blown data or excessive noise. This is particularly true for colour film with an orange mask.

I use a broad spectrum white lamp (not an iPad) in a large diffuser box, and add a blue filter as needed to get good raw data. I use a mirror for colimation and an E-M1.2 in hires mode for capture, which also has the advantage of using a fully electronic shutter. The film is held on plustek holders.

There are two things to be careful of in this setup. Firstly, any slight flicker from the light source can show up as banding with an e-shutter. The solution is to avoid very short exposure times or use an incandescent lamp.

The second is film and lens field flatness. With an 80mp capture you are stuck between this and diffraction. In my scans it shows up as a slight softening of the grain at the edges where the film is clamped in the holder (I do not use glass backed holders as these increase dust...). I usually ignore this, but focus stacking is always an option if it really mattered.

 

[kuuan]

we had a similar thread a short while ago: http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=154469

 

[Huss]

Testing Portra 160 - who says digicams can't scan C41?

 

[charjohncarter]

I showed you my device to copy negatives and slides with a digital camera. This is from a 8 megapixel DSLR; 10 years ago:

Water Temple by John Carter, on Flickr

I was learning at this stage but on this one I got lucky, and luckily I remembered what I did.

 

[Eric T]

Have you see this new Kickstarter campaign to scan negatives with your phone?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNriOTIjb7g
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/175814937/filmlab-an-app-for-viewing-and-digitizing-analog-f
Check out the video - it's amazing.

 

[Huss]

Have you see this new Kickstarter campaign to scan negatives with your phone?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNriOTIjb7g
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/175814937/filmlab-an-app-for-viewing-and-digitizing-analog-f
Check out the video - it's amazing.

Yes and I started a thread on it here:

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=161070

🙂

 

[Huss]

Late afternoon sun outside the gallery with our monthly featured artist (painter) Luis Sanchez

D750 scan, Leica M3, Summaron 35 3.5, Portra 400

 

[SaveKodak]

Testing Portra 160 - who says digicams can't scan C41?

Yeah, sidewalks are naturally blue, skin tones are meant to be cyan. That flared out shot is totally supposed to be bright orange. These are simply natural colors from a film geared toward skin tones. /sarcasm

 

[Huss]

Hey dood, glad to see you're still here! We all make choices as to how we want our images to look. Editing programs let us do what we want.
Glad you took some time off from your workflow to drop on by!

 

[Huss]

Zenit 12SD, Helios 58 f2, scan w/ D750

 

[Huss]

Leica M3, Summaron 35 3.5 w/ goggles, Portra 400.
Scan by D750 in seconds. Edge to edge sharpness. No banding. No focus issues.

 

[maddoc]

Huss, I would like to see your photos but all I can see is a broken link symbol. What am I doing wrong?

Leica M3, Summaron 35 3.5 w/ goggles, Portra 400.
Scan by D750 in seconds. Edge to edge sharpness. No banding. No focus issues.

 

[Huss]

Does this help Gabor? Weird as I can see them on my end.