So, how do you print your reversal film in your darkroom?
To me, scanning is one of the best parts of film photography. Nothing beats watching how the scanned image start building up on your screen!
What quality to expect, compared to good film scanners or Frontier scans?
Would a simple APS-C sensor camera, a vintage macro lens or 50mm standard lens with some macro tubes be adequate?. What rig to use to keep this contraption steady? Just a tripod, a light pad and some negative holder?
Lots of questions...... sorry 🙂
I am still baffled at everyone who insists on scanning 100% of what they shoot and only then editing. I have always edited negs first on a lightbox and then only scanning that small percentage of individual framesthat have future potential to be significant.
The technical part of editing on a lightbox is so easy and scanning is nothing when you can devote your best to scanning only those images that really count.
Don't get me started on those who spend big bucks on a bag full of lenses and then cannot afford a scanner of equivalent quality. Apparently they have never heard of a chain being no stronger than the weakest link.
I am still baffled at everyone who insists on scanning 100% of what they shoot and only then editing. I have always edited negs first on a lightbox and then only scanning that small percentage of individual framesthat have future potential to be significant.
The technical part of editing on a lightbox is so easy and scanning is nothing when you can devote your best to scanning only those images that really count.
Don't get me started on those who spend big bucks on a bag full of lenses and then cannot afford a scanner of equivalent quality. Apparently they have never heard of a chain being no stronger than the weakest link.
Questions are ok Frank 🙂 I should say I am no expert on digitizing - I tried it with my (now sold) EOS 5D2 and the 100L macro and had very good results. I have however looked into it for future purposes when my film scanners break down. Here are some links I've accumulated.
As you can see there are various setups. The simplest would be a LED light table (Huion makes good ones but you could use an iPad even), a stand, a camera and a good lens shot at a mid-range aperture. Another option is to use a slide duplicator of some sort and shoot against a bright background (like a light table or soft box).
Small sensor cameras can be used but one would probably need to shoot a few frames per neg and merge. Not very complicated and the time spent would still be faster than scanning methinks.
https://web.archive.org/web/2011010...nal-of-photography/report/1934699/hybrid-copy
http://www.pekkapotka.com/journal/2012/11/11/copying-slides-with-om-d-and-60mm-macro.html
http://sculptingwithlight.blogspot.gr/2013/02/the-other-day-i-bought-leica-beoon.html
http://www.dpbestflow.org/camera/camera-scanning
http://www.dpbestflow.org/camera-scan-workflow
http://www.trippingthroughthedark.c...5mm-black-and-white-negatives-with-the-d800e/
http://theagnosticprint.org/future-of-scanning/
http://www.throughthefmount.com/articles_tips_digitise.html
http://forum.mflenses.com/slide-copying-scanner-vs-duplicator-t22881.html
http://photo.net/canon-eos-digital-camera-forum/00H7Yc
http://thedambook.com/smf/index.php?board=7.0
http://www.alanwood.net/photography/olympus/slide-copier.html
http://www.kaiser-fototechnik.de/en/produkte/2_1_produktanzeige.asp?nr=6506
http://members.bitstream.net/~tlmartin/copiers.html
not everybody has the ability to evaluate negatives on a light table, myself included.
robert
Thank you very much for the good and bad opinion of my lab in germany 🙂
I´m the owner of MeinFilmLab. We work with three C41 machines that give you an overall best quality of developing (2x Agfa FP and 1x Noritsu Processor). After developing, we scan your films on 4 frontier and 2 noritsu scanner. A drumscanner is in testing now.
Something about the quality: The XL scans from the frontiers (up to 20MPixels) and the Noritsus (up to 31MPixels) is better than any consumer scanner can produce. We scan each negative with manual filtering. If we know your style we can adjust the color, density and saturation of your films. And we can adjust the grain, sharpness and many more options. We need just to know this.
After scanning, we print your work on a dlab, epson printer or a fuji dry lab. On request, we can enlarge your work manual in the darkroom onto kodak or fuji RA4 Paper. The best quality today is to print your work with a epson printer onto hahnemuehle fiberbase paper. No dlab or frontier RA4 printer can produce such rich tones with deep, yes, deeeep blacks on a fiberbase paper. We work only with our own paper profiles.
Is our dev/scan price to high? No. Because this price includes the german tax, the developing, manual scanning and all the other cost in the lab. No other lab in germany offer this price for 20/31MPixel scans from a complete roll with a download option in germany. Other Labs, like the one in southern germany, get 12 for one (!) Frontier Scan from your negative in our L size... And we offer consistent scans from roll to roll.
Ok, you can scan at home and offer much free time for that. But you cannot reach the colors from a frontier or noritsu scanner. We have also the dlab scanner, but the quality is not as good as a frontier or noritsu scan so we don´t offer scans from that scanner.
At the moment we move to a bigger office. Next year we plan a lot of workshops, festivals and some open doors for all filmshooters.
We are very limited? throw an eye on us in the near future 🙂
Have a great weekend,
Jörg
Thanks Jörg,
I will surely rely on your services in the future.
You are doing a great job for those of us who really want to shoot film but are put off by the scanning chore.
I was pondering another scanner, of the cheaper variation, but that would be counterproductive for me (yes, others may think different). The price of à scanner and above all the price of my time pays for a lot of professional scans.
🙂
1 by Frank Lehnen, on Flickr
2 by Frank Lehnen, on Flickr