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Thread ID: 129145	2013-02-05 05:28:00	"Scanning" film with camera	The Error Guy (14052)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1326695	2013-02-05 05:28:00	Finally got my macro/lens extension tubes a few days back and started playing around with them. The main use was to "scan" all my negs from my film photography. I haven't really built a proper light source or film holder so whilst I'm playing around I'm just using a strip that ended up being developed badly so if it suffers a few scratches there will be no shed tears. Anyway, my first results with colour were depressing :p the orange mask was hard to remove and the image quality wasn't that great, so I moved on to my B&W's. It was here that I discovered my 50mm prime lens, with the lens extensions attached has a very curved focal plane, meaning that no matter what I focused on, the rest of the image was out. I switched to the 18/55mm and got better results. So far the lighting isn't very smooth, nor is the focus perfect but it's a (very) rough idea of how it all looks Skydrive sdrv.ms or Google Drive docs.google.com Right now my "light box" is a cardboard box with some tissue paper as a diffuser and I use my S2's LED as a light. I have ordered some white LED's which should arrive in the next year (eBay :p) to make a permanent and more uniform light source. The tubes I got are cheapies with no electrical contacts so I'm shooting completely manual aside from the white balance. The annoying thing about the AF-S lenses is the aperture is locked closed instead of open when not attached so I have wadded some paper against the pin that actuates the aperture to keep it open. Thank gawd for that pin!!! If it was all electronic I'd be stuffed. If anyone has any experiance doing this, I'd like to know your tips and tricks but film is a bit of a dying breed so I'm probably on my own for the most part. Good bit of thinking/building work and trial and error will go into this I imagine.	The Error Guy (14052)
1326696	2013-02-05 07:50:00	I have ordered some white LED's which should arrive in the next year (eBay :p) You are a very patient man there Error Guy.	mikebartnz (21)
1326697	2013-02-05 07:59:00	This is a B&W picture scanned from a B&W negative using a $100 slide and negative scanner. :)	Trev (427)
1326698	2013-02-05 09:05:00	I've read about this technique might just prefer a flatbed scanner at lower real reso ... I think you can get better reso with your way but need a good procedure and setup. I would also just send out the very occasional scan job to the pro's. Life's too short.	Nomad (952)
1326699	2013-02-05 09:55:00	Life's too sort to be mainstream too, granted if it was for a paid/professional application I would probably pay to get a scan done but at $1 a frame it's just far too expensive for me. Buying (C41/E6) is hard enough, let alone developing the damn stuff price wise (for me). B&W is good because I can DIY. I have learned so much about optics and photographic process I would never have learnt had I rolled over and said meh, too hard! And stuck with digital. I'll never regret a moment wasted learning the in depth process about what makes something tick. It's good knowledge to have, sad thing is, the ones who know it all are dying off to put it bluntly. Sooner or later all the good low down knowledge will disappear, it's a thought that haunts me. Not just with Photography, but history, mechanics and day to day life. I still have a few good years left to waste time like this! My plan is to use some empty 135 canisters to hold the film, the felts will keep it scratch free and pull the dust off. The LED's will be arranged in a series-parallel with two or 3x diffusers between them and the film. Since it's macro the focus is quite tight so there's no issue with the diffuser texture, only with even lighting. My only real technical challenge will be easy exposure since there's no auto exposure of any kind. I don't think my camera can do sequence stepped shots (where it will take 5x frames, each with one stop more exposure) but I'll see. I'll probably end up getting proficient at judging by looking at the neg. Most experienced photographers can just "know" a shutter speed for the lighting and current aperture due to the amount of times they have done it. I saw a setup similar to my planned one, which used stepper motors to advance the film automatically. It could process a whole roll in about 20 secs for a 36 frame roll! The LED's wont actually take a year to arrive :p probably a few weeks. I'm patient because it means I won't spend the next 6 weeks mucking about with LEDs. I got 100 for $5 so plenty of extra things to put LED's on... so far there's my car's dash lights (which like to blow and cost a lot) an LED torch, shelf lights.... the list goes on :D I did consider one of the cheapie film scanners but thought at approx $25, the quality is worth much more (if I do it right)... although knowing me I'll get it dead perfect, rock up to the university photo lab where they will present us with a drum scanner, free to use :rolleyes:	The Error Guy (14052)
1326700	2013-02-07 03:21:00	Should be a rewarding journey. :D Maybe it is ok for the odd frame, I was looking at cataloguing every shot for Lightroom as a reference, maybe too much for that :)	Nomad (952)
1326701	2013-02-07 05:18:00	I certainly hope it is. Just picked up some empty 35mm canisters. I'll get building some more tonight :) The next thing to make is a slide holder to do slides efficiently. Mostly for archival purposes.	The Error Guy (14052)
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