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Scanning 35mm and 120 slides and negs.

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    Scanning 35mm and 120 slides and negs.

    I have been busy during lockdown and gone through all of my 35mm and 120 negs and slides. All of the commercial stuff has been binned and that leaves the personal and family stuff that needs to be scanned, before they are binned.

    I don't have a scanner and after this exercise, don't foresee a need for one, so I won't be committing three figures to buy the very best. What do members recommend that will do 35mm and 120, reasonable price, good quality results and fairly easy to set up. Speed would be nice, but on a trade off, I would sooner have higher quality.
    Colin

    #2
    You could always make 1 doesn't seem too difficult

    https://www.scantips.com/es-1.html

    about halfway down the page
    Alex

    EOS R5 EOS 7D Mk ii Lenses EFS 18-55mm EFS 55-250mm EF 50mm 24-105mm Sigma EX 70-200 Sigma 150-600c

    Comment


      #3
      Can’t help you much there Colin, I bought an Epson 850 Pro to do exactly that job but that’s probably way above what you want to spend.

      Ian
      Ian

      Flickr page https://www.flickr.com/photos/154026104@N07

      Comment


        #4
        Hi Colin. You can always use your DSLR for best results. I think you would be very disappointed with any of the socalled cheap scanners because most are not scanners at all.
        Even if you have hundreds or even thousands of pics, with a good carefull set up you can whizz through the copying has quick and probably quicker than most of these cheapo's.
        It also great fun to look back down memory lane when doing it. Good luck.

        Comment


          #5
          Colin. I copied a large number of my 35mm transparencies last your before they were shown the bonfire. I did it with a old transparency copier that I had from my film days that the holder and diffuser were broken.. Obviously it would not fit to my D5 so I superglued it to a 12mm extension tube I never use. I then inverted my old light box and made a mask and holder for the transparency, to fit to the front of the light box. I then made a wooden frame to mount the camera on, and lined it up with the transparency holder on the light box and hey pesto I was in business. I was pleased with the results.
          Trev

          Equipment - According to the wife more than a Camera Shop got

          Flickr:
          https://www.flickr.com/photos/trevb2639/

          Comment


            #6
            I have railway slides and negatives from the middle 1980's, I send mine too Mr Scan Ltd.

            I am always happy with the results.
            Railway Photography - Steam Train Photos

            Comment


              #7
              I've been working on using a modified slide projector - replacing the old lamp with a LED light source, using a couple of ground glass screens to diffuse the light to an even flat field, then using 5D MK III with 100mm macro lens to take the image, I had several reasonable results from initial tests, but put the project on hold while I did some other stuff.

              It's controlled by an Arduino micro controller, to advance to the slide slide, wait until the projector signals its in place, then to trigger the camera, which is connected to a laptop running EOS Utility to act as a big viewfinder, there is the option to then pause for setting adjustment to get the best image, or if there are multiple images with similar lighting the process automatically repeats until the pre-selected number of slides have been captured.

              I had a few problems initially getting a flat light field across the whole slide area - there was a large hotspot in the middle but a bit of fiddling with some frosted paper and different grinding on the glass got it pretty much even across the whole area.

              It gives reasonable results from the initial tests and is much quicker than using my Epson 750 flatbed photo scanner, which is useful when there are several thousand slides to do.

              Comment


                #8
                For the 35mm I'm using a Kodak slide scanner I was given this year. It is working very well. Done about 3000 so far, just got to 1985.

                Chris

                Comment


                  #9
                  Colin, here is a quick way to scan negatives using your iPhone. The app is called FilmBox

                  here is a sample of a scanned negative . Cost is $19.99 For 5 years

                  Tom
                  Attached Files

                  Comment


                    #10
                    I was lucky Colin, in that a friend of mine had an Otptek slide scanner, and was kind enough to loan it to me. I scanned all of my slides, some 500+ of them, and it was very time consuming. I would scan a batch each day. As you say, it really isn't worth buying one, as you are very unlikely to ever need it again. Hope you find an easy solution to getting yours digitised.
                    Dave

                    Website:- https://davesimaging.wixsite.com/mysite

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Finished!

                      For 35mm slides I bought a Jessops zoom slide copier from an auction site, which was already fitted with an EF T Mount for £28. It had carriers for 35mm film and mounted slides. After a bit of trial and error, I had a remote flash on a shelf in front of me, set off by an STE2 on the camera. I stood in the middle of the rug in my office for properly exposed slides, one step forward if they were a touch dark and one step back if they were a bit light. Pretty much perfect results.

                      For 120 film and slides, I had to bite the bullet and buy a scanner. I went for the Canoscan 9000f MK11, which came with carriers for 120 film & slides (x4), 35mm film (2 strips of 6) and 35mm mounted slides (x4). Using it with 120 mounted slides was a bit fiddly, so I ordered another 120 film and slide carrier and modified it for mounted slides. I can't praise this machine too highly. Scans up to 9600dpi are possible, but after some experimentation, 4800dpi was more than satisfactory and the scan was twice as quick as the higher res. It also has full colour, exposure, contrast, saturation, shadow and highlight controls, so I could get a great result directly from the preview, before going for the full scan.

                      It was a bit of a marathon going through 18 Patterson neg and slide files, but now that it's done, very worthwhile and quite a few pleasant memories were found.
                      Colin

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by colin C View Post
                        Finished!

                        For 35mm slides I bought a Jessops zoom slide copier from an auction site, which was already fitted with an EF T Mount for £28. It had carriers for 35mm film and mounted slides. After a bit of trial and error, I had a remote flash on a shelf in front of me, set off by an STE2 on the camera. I stood in the middle of the rug in my office for properly exposed slides, one step forward if they were a touch dark and one step back if they were a bit light. Pretty much perfect results.

                        For 120 film and slides, I had to bite the bullet and buy a scanner. I went for the Canoscan 9000f MK11, which came with carriers for 120 film & slides (x4), 35mm film (2 strips of 6) and 35mm mounted slides (x4). Using it with 120 mounted slides was a bit fiddly, so I ordered another 120 film and slide carrier and modified it for mounted slides. I can't praise this machine too highly. Scans up to 9600dpi are possible, but after some experimentation, 4800dpi was more than satisfactory and the scan was twice as quick as the higher res. It also has full colour, exposure, contrast, saturation, shadow and highlight controls, so I could get a great result directly from the preview, before going for the full scan.

                        It was a bit of a marathon going through 18 Patterson neg and slide files, but now that it's done, very worthwhile and quite a few pleasant memories were found.
                        Congratulations, well done
                        Trev

                        Equipment - According to the wife more than a Camera Shop got

                        Flickr:
                        https://www.flickr.com/photos/trevb2639/

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Wish I'd spotted this before you started! Still, there may well be others who have the same idea and have yet to go for it. Here's some good news for them!

                          There's a really cheap, fast and easy way to do this - using your camera to shoot ANY format of film - and ending up with a set of digital contacts and / or a superb quality single image, from either mono or colour, positive or negative. I have a 36"x48" print on my wall made from an original 6x6 negative and you can even see the grain of the Tri-X film I used for the original shot, which was done in 1985.

                          All you need is a white box, some perspex, a simple speedlight, a tripod or copy stand, and LR or Photoshop, and a DSLR with either a 1:1 macro lens, some extension tubes, or a bellows unit.

                          To find out how - just watch my short video here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqDEGfjGqbI

                          You can also buy a Bowens Illumitran slide duplicator on ebay for peanuts these days, and they do an incredible job with 35mm up to 6x7, but you do need the film holders with it. A 5x4 holder was also made but they are very rare now. There's an Illumitran shown in the movie, but I'd say save your money and go with the box!

                          It really is ridiculously easy, and the quality will be s good as your camera will permit.

                          Good luck
                          Stella

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Brilliant Stella

                            An interesting and comprehensive video that I enjoyed watching, even though my task is now complete. I was also surprise how inexpensive the Bowens illumitran had become. I would probably had gone that route for the medium format negs and slides, rather than the Canoscan, but on the plus side, the scanner is more versatile and has already been used for other things.
                            Colin

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Unless you have a scanner that does IR dust removal, and the patience to use it, then I suggest just using a light table and a high-MP camera with a macro lens... (5Dsr and 100 L, in my case...)

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