VALOI easy35 Film Scanning Kit 35mm ?
- Thread starter James Evidon
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Godfrey
somewhat colored
I've seen this device a couple of times now. As long as it holds the film flat and the illuminator works evenly, it should be good ... the imaging quality will be determined by the lens you attach it to. It kinda reminds me of the ancient Spiratone Dupliscope slide/negative copying device, except that one has its own dedicated macro lens built into it, and you have to supply the light source.
I do my scanning with a copy stand, a film carrier, a small flourescent or LED light box, and a macro lens fitted to my Leica M10-M or -R. Same thing, really, just more pieces to set up. Much more expensive than the Valoi's $245 or so, but I have all this stuff anyway. 😉
G
I do my scanning with a copy stand, a film carrier, a small flourescent or LED light box, and a macro lens fitted to my Leica M10-M or -R. Same thing, really, just more pieces to set up. Much more expensive than the Valoi's $245 or so, but I have all this stuff anyway. 😉
G
Tim Murphy
Well-known
Dear James Evidon,
The JJC version for about 150.00 less works fine for me. I paid about $ 90.00 for this kit a couple of years ago on Amazon.
www.jjc.cc
Regards,
Tim Murphy
Harrisburg PA 🙂
The JJC version for about 150.00 less works fine for me. I paid about $ 90.00 for this kit a couple of years ago on Amazon.
Product Description – JJC
www.jjc.cc
Regards,
Tim Murphy
Harrisburg PA 🙂
SWB
Established
Assuming you have a macro lens and body anyway the Valoi kit is pretty expensive and more than halfway in cost to getting a light source, copy stand and a neg holder. I've seen the JCC version advertised and it looks like it's good enough and better value. However film is addictive and if you ever want to copy medium format you may as well have have got a copy stand based outfit together in the first place.
James Evidon
Established
I will be using my Lumix S1-R FF with a Leica R to L adapter and my 60mm Leica f/2.8 macro R.
JakobN
JakobN
Some years ago I bought a "Slide Duplicator" for pennies. I have tested it with a film I made long ago, the squares are 1/3 mm. There is a little loss of sharpness in the corners, but it is ok for me. To compare it with something I put the film in my old enlarger and projected it with an 1970 Schneider Componon on the image sensor of my Sony A7. My device is branded Soligor but I think it was sold under many names.
maddoc
... likes film again.
I bought the VALOI Easy35 last year and it is the best thing for scanning 35mm film I ever used. I use it with a Nikon Z7II and the Z 105/2.8 VR Macro lens, tethered to a MacBook Pro and using Lightroom Classic. The setup is easy, the camera perfectly focuses the grain and conversion can be very easily done with Negative Lab Pro. The light source of the Easy35 is from Ulanzi and can be adjusted for brightness and color temperature. I only scan BW film, set the camera to manual exposure, check focus and scan an entire roll (cut into stripes of 6 frames) in about 10 to 15 minutes. My previously used Nikon Coolscan 4000ED with automated film transport would need about 40 minutes for the same job with lower resolution and not always be able to focus onto the grain, depending on the negative.
Out to Lunch
Veteran
I'm on the fence. This provided a good overview of the Valoi (sponsored by Valoi):
My main concern is that I don't use Adobe and wonder how to convert negatives into positives. I'd appreciate it if anyone could share how to do that in Photo ACDSee Studio Professional. Cheers, OtL
My main concern is that I don't use Adobe and wonder how to convert negatives into positives. I'd appreciate it if anyone could share how to do that in Photo ACDSee Studio Professional. Cheers, OtL
Bolo Kukus
en vacances...
There was also the Elicar slide duplicator. This infamous piece of photo copying gear sold in the 1980s for about AUD $75 as I recall. Someone made a lot of money on these sales...
Anyway, I bought one, and played around with it for a while, copying black-and-white negatives into film positives. Contrast was difficult to control (or it could have been me with my high-energy developers) and I quickly lost interest in it. The thing sat around in one of my storage boxes for a couple of decades until I eventually dug it out again and sold it on Ebay, after weeks of no response to my listing. IRRC I got $40 for it. The gal at our local post office stuffed up the post code numbers on the parcel and it ended up sitting in a PO in the Northern Territory. Eventually the buyer lost interest and cancelled the sale and I had to refund his money. Annoyed by the entire situation, I resisted it for $90 and lo! behold! eh! heh! it sold in a few days. So ended my saga with the Elicar.
Now with the advent of mirrorless Nikons I reckon I could do much better with that Elicar, I have a billion slides I would like to copy to B&W but then I can so easily do all that in post processing. Yet in a way I'm sorry (well, a little) that I sold it.
Anyway, I bought one, and played around with it for a while, copying black-and-white negatives into film positives. Contrast was difficult to control (or it could have been me with my high-energy developers) and I quickly lost interest in it. The thing sat around in one of my storage boxes for a couple of decades until I eventually dug it out again and sold it on Ebay, after weeks of no response to my listing. IRRC I got $40 for it. The gal at our local post office stuffed up the post code numbers on the parcel and it ended up sitting in a PO in the Northern Territory. Eventually the buyer lost interest and cancelled the sale and I had to refund his money. Annoyed by the entire situation, I resisted it for $90 and lo! behold! eh! heh! it sold in a few days. So ended my saga with the Elicar.
Now with the advent of mirrorless Nikons I reckon I could do much better with that Elicar, I have a billion slides I would like to copy to B&W but then I can so easily do all that in post processing. Yet in a way I'm sorry (well, a little) that I sold it.
Doug A
Well-known
I've been using an easy35 since the very first ones were delivered to the early supporters. I started scanning 35mm negatives with an Epson V700, switched to a Plustek 8100, then started camera scanning with an APSC camera and an enlarging lens on a Leitz BEOON copy stand, and am now using the easy35 with the same camera and enlarging lens. I am getting the easiest, fastest, most dust free and sharpest scans of all the approaches I have used.
Converting negatives to positives is a single mouse click with a pixel editor like Affinity Photo or Photoshop. (Iridient Developer works too.) It can be done with Lightroom and I suspect with other parametric editors by moving the black point of the curves histogram all the way to the right and the white point all the way to the left. I found this tricky to do and confusing because many of the other controls are now revered right to left.
NOTE: I CAN NOT RECOMMEND USING AN ENLARGING LENS WITH THE EASY35. My setup works very well but with no focusing helicoid on the lens or the easy35 itself getting the camera-to-lens and lens-to-easy35 spacers worked out required extensive experimentation that would have been expensive if I did not already have a fairly large assortment of M39 extension tubes and step-up rings.
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ACullen
Well-known
I've been using the Valoi easy35 for some time and copy stand set up for 120. The easy35 works exceptionally well and fast when using uncut lengths of 35mm film. It's a very useful bit of kit. I think my 35mm scans have never been sharped because of the rigidity of the device. I use a Fujiflim XE-2 with a Nikkor AI 55/2.8 with 10mm extension tube.
Gordon Moat
Established
If your software has a curves adjustment, or invert menu option, you could do that. The Invert menu item simply swaps dark and light areas, so your negative looks like a positive. If you don’t have that, you can go negative to positive with a curves adjustment.
Most software Curves adjustment is a square, with a diagonal line running bottom left to top right. You can set points to move in the mid area of the line, or move the points at the ends. Take the bottom left point, and move it all the way up to top left, then take the top right point, and move it to bottom right. Now your diagonal line runs top left to bottom right, and your negative should now look like a positive.
Hope I explained that well. I use to do that with some film scans, to get a more linear image result.
photo_henrik
Newbie
I think they all are sponsored by Valoi. They all have the vibe of paid ads. I have not seen one "review" on Youtube that said anything negative about the easy35.
I did like this article better: Valoi’s Film-Scanning Kit Lets You Digitize Your 35-mm Film the Easy Way
Probably the thing that made me finally pull the trigger and buy one. I almost didn't because of all the glossy youtubers with nothing bad to say about it.
I think I have seen alternatives to adobe products and that is was in connection with a text about easy35. Can't find it now though, it wasn't so interesting for me so don't think I save the link.
photo_henrik
Newbie
Do you have any tips regarding exposure?
I don't even understand how to measure for a good exposure with light leakage through for example the sprockets. Maybe an example of how the histogram should look when it is good, or at least acceptable.
My negatives are rarely evenly exposed, often dark with part of a face or a person peaking out of the darkness. That is life of a person pretending to be a concert photographer. I doubt that I ever will be able to use the same exposure on an entire roll of film, as Negative Lab Pro suggest I should have. But I never used the same settings on an entire roll of film back in the days when spent my Sundays in a darkroom.
Godfrey
somewhat colored
Best thing to do is to have one negative with a gray card exposure. You use that to set a baseline.
I mask the negative area and eliminate the sprocket holes, leaving just a little bit of the rebate all the way around. Why include the sprocket holes in the capture and waste all those pixels? If you want sprocket holes in your final rendering, you can shoot a frame specifically for that and add it as a frame effect after the fact. Unless you're shooting with a setup that puts image area OVER the sprocket holes, there's no need for them
For the way I do negative captures, I use a grayscale frame to set exposure baseline by adjusting the EV compensation, and then I can usually use aperture priority to vary shutter time, locking ISO to either minimum or 400. I usually find all my exposures, after inversion, to be within about .3 to .5 EV at that point, easily adjustable with LR Classic.
G
Godfrey
somewhat colored
I have the Spiratone version of that slide duplicator. It can do a remarkably good job, although I usually use a copystand, macro lens, and negative holder approach nowadays.
The Valoi Easy35 is an interesting modern option, I'd like to try one. But I digitize a lot of 120 format film (645 and 6x6) as well, so I will always have the copystand and film holder setup handy. 🙂
G
maddoc
... likes film again.
Scanning:
Sprocket holes are masked, I have set it up in a way that just the exposed frame will be scanned. I have set exposure to automatic shutter, use constantly f/8.0 at the base ISO of 64 (Nikon Z7 II). The shutter speeds are usually in a very narrow range over the whole film roll and with varying film exposure.
Conversion:
From memory, the inventor of Negative Lab Pro suggested somewhere to not use the same exposure for the whole roll of film setting in case of BW film. I control the scan brightness by using the exposure compensation wheel of the camera and check on the rear screen or live view for every single frame.
photo_henrik
Newbie
The guide for NLP says the opposite:
"Keep the SAME exposure for the entire roll." Film Scanning Best Practices | Negative Lab Pro
I think that may be important is for the roll analysis or batch processing of files. I don't own NLP (yet).
maddoc
... likes film again.
My fault, I mistook "same exposure for the entire roll" (which doesn't work in my case) and "roll analysis", which is not recommended for BW fit scanning. From the forum:
“Does Roll Analysis work with B+W Images?”
Not really, although feel free to experiment. If anything, you could experiment with the “Darkroom Paper” setting, and that will basically give you a better feel of the un-optimized dynamic range of each shot.
Godfrey
somewhat colored
I've not used Negative Lab Pro. I do my negative->positive conversions in Lightroom Classic. Here's an example ...
Test scan of a slightly thin negative shot on Ilford HP5 Pro with Leica M6TTL and Heliar Classic 50mm f/1.5 VC lens.
The scan was made using the Leica M10 Monochrom fitted with Macro-Elmarit-R 60mm f/2.8, ISO 160 @ f/8 @ 1/6 second, the Essential Film Holder, and an ancient small Hakuba flat panel light box.
Complete raw, untouched scan in LR Classic with histogram and Tone Curve palettes visible
Inverted and adjusted scan in LR Classic with histogram and Tone Curve palettes visible
All adjustments made in the Tone Curve palette.
I hope that helps a little.
G
Test scan of a slightly thin negative shot on Ilford HP5 Pro with Leica M6TTL and Heliar Classic 50mm f/1.5 VC lens.
The scan was made using the Leica M10 Monochrom fitted with Macro-Elmarit-R 60mm f/2.8, ISO 160 @ f/8 @ 1/6 second, the Essential Film Holder, and an ancient small Hakuba flat panel light box.
Complete raw, untouched scan in LR Classic with histogram and Tone Curve palettes visible
Inverted and adjusted scan in LR Classic with histogram and Tone Curve palettes visible
All adjustments made in the Tone Curve palette.
I hope that helps a little.
G
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