Scanning/photographic negatives

[techmot]

I know I've mention this before on here with regards to using a film scanner like the Epson V600, but does anyone know if photographing the negatives using a DSLR would be better than using a flatbed scanner that scans negatives?. The Epson V series scanners don't seem to be available to buy anymore new, no idea why that is, so there are only used ones on ebay and many are still listed for quite alot of money despite them being over 10 years old. Would using a macro lens help photographic the negatives?. I have an old Nikon D40, I know it's an old model but it's still a very good camera and the images (despite being only 6 megapixels).

[noemi7]

You would need a dedicated adapter like Nikon ES-2, Valoi or similar. The quality of scans can be better than from an ordinary scanner but it very much depends on lens. 6 MP is too little imo.

[techmot]

You would need a dedicated adapter like Nikon ES-2, Valoi or similar. The quality of scans can be better than from an ordinary scanner but it very much depends on lens. 6 MP is too little imo.

Thanks for that. Yeah 6MB would probably be too little as you say. I have quite a few other negative formats besides 35mm, those are a mix of 120 and those large negative prints that were common with cameras in the 50s and 60s.

[johnmeyer]

I spent years scanning my dad's 10,000 slides using a Nikon Coolscan 4000. I vowed I would never do something like that again and so when a friend wanted me to scan 4,000 slides so his dad could see them one last time before he died I needed a MUCH quicker method. My solution was to modify one of my Kodak Carousel projectors to turn it into a slide duplication machine. This involved reducing the brightness; installing a different type of diffuser, and using a lens that would let me point the camera directly at the projector. Here are two pictures. The first shows one of his slides scanned with the Nikon scanner and the second shows the same slide transferred using my old Nikon D70. It is a 2004 digital camera which is only 6M. You can decide for yourself, but IMHO, that resolution is absolutely fine.

Nikon Coolscan 4000


Kodak Carousel & Nikon D70 Camera


BTW, before I started the project I managed to modify the setup slightly to get rid of the vignetting you see around the edges in the second image, so you should concentrate on sharpness, linearity, color, shadow detail, and other aspects of the images.

So, for slides, using a projector this is a very viable method. I scanned all 4,000 slides in a long afternoon, rather than mutliple years.

For negatives, however, you'll have to figure out how to mount them so you can take a picture without spending ten minutes on each image, lining up the film. You'll also have to have a very uniform light source. Most light tables are actually not that uniform. Finally, you will, of course, have to remove the orange and reverse the colors.

[techmot]

I spent years scanning my dad's 10,000 slides using a Nikon Coolscan 4000. I vowed I would never do something like that again and so when a friend wanted me to scan 4,000 slides so his dad could see them one last time before he died I needed a MUCH quicker method. My solution was to modify one of my Kodak Carousel projectors to turn it into a slide duplication machine. This involved reducing the brightness; installing a different type of diffuser, and using a lens that would let me point the camera directly at the projector. Here are two pictures. The first shows one of his slides scanned with the Nikon scanner and the second shows the same slide transferred using my old Nikon D70. It is a 2004 digital camera which is only 6M. You can decide for yourself, but IMHO, that resolution is absolutely fine.

Nikon Coolscan 4000


Kodak Carousel & Nikon D70 Camera


BTW, before I started the project I managed to modify the setup slightly to get rid of the vignetting you see around the edges in the second image, so you should concentrate on sharpness, linearity, color, shadow detail, and other aspects of the images.

So, for slides, using a projector this is a very viable method. I scanned all 4,000 slides in a long afternoon, rather than mutliple years.

For negatives, however, you'll have to figure out how to mount them so you can take a picture without spending ten minutes on each image, lining up the film. You'll also have to have a very uniform light source. Most light tables are actually not that uniform. Finally, you will, of course, have to remove the orange and reverse the colors.

Thanks for that. Nice results but seems like alot of work just to scan negatives. And the Nikon Coolscan is expensive, and it doesn't look very portable. Even the Epson V600 isn't cheap something like £300, even used ones on ebay are about £200. There was a V500 I saw on ebay last week that had a really low bid of something like £55, wished I'd bidded for it now. They don't seem to sell them new anymore, maybe because hardly anyone bought one. Scanning negatives is obviously something of a niche hobby for film negative enthusiasts not for someone who just wants to scan a few 35mm negatives they have lying around.

[Cornucopia]

That carousel + d70 method does seem to exhibit some vignetting, though the color is much better than I would assume (not because of the d70, but because of the carousel light).


Scott

[lordsmurf]

Even the Epson V600 isn't cheap something like £300, even used ones on ebay are about £200. .

That is cheap for a quality scanner.

By comparison, the low-low-end Chinese Amazon/Temu crap is £70 to £160 range, excluding VAT.

[johnmeyer]

That carousel + d70 method does seem to exhibit some vignetting, though the color is much better than I would assume (not because of the d70, but because of the carousel light).

Like I said, I was able to adjust the setup to get rid of the vignetting. I never went back to re-do the comparison, so I'm stuck using my early prototype photo for this post.

As for the color, I color graded everything in Lightroom. Once you get going you can grade each image in 5-15 seconds.

Here is a photo of the system. It doesn't show the diode I added to dim the light, or the diffuser I added to provide more uniformity at the point-blank focal plane I created. In the background you can see three of the bins the guy gave me. I ran a sharpie across the slides before I removed them from the trays. I then turned some of them so they were all oriented in landscape. I loaded them into the Carousel's manual slide loader. When finished, I handed them to my wife who put them back in the tray. I used the IR remote control to control the Nikon, and the wired remote to control the Carousel. When it was running, I would advance the Carousel with it's remote, listen for the Carousel auto-focus to stop, then press the remote button programmed with the shutter release IR code. Then, rinse, lather, repeat. I got it down to about 5 seconds/slide. By contrast, my Nikon scanner, even with the $400 slide loader attachment I bought, and even with Vuescan to automate the process (the Nikon scanning software is a non-starter), took over two minutes/slide. That's a 24x time improvement, but it was even more than that in practice because of all the handling and retries the Nikon scanner requires.

[Alwyn]

Nice, John.