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BEOON advice please - functional checks prior to purchase


Steve Ricoh

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Boy, I can't wait to start this. I ordered this:  Kaiser Slimlite Plano 8 x 11" LED Light Pad from B&H tonight.

 

What are any of you guys using to hold the negatives? I also have a ton of slides I need done..Might be hard to photograph color slides with my M246...: )

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Boy, I can't wait to start this. I ordered this:  Kaiser Slimlite Plano 8 x 11" LED Light Pad from B&H tonight.

 

What are any of you guys using to hold the negatives? I also have a ton of slides I need done..Might be hard to photograph color slides with my M246...: )

I'm sure off-grid operation, curtesy of the lithium battery, will come in handy for things other than scanning.

It would be 'cool' to have the sprocket holes visible in the scan and I'd be interested to learn how others do this using the BEOON setup. Sounds like a bespoke mask, but there's a need to hold the film flat.

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Hey Guys,

 

Got my Beoon just a little while ago and just am doing a preliminary set up. I attached the M246 but am getting a message when I try to go to Live View that 'No lense connectred"..Why am I not surprised? : )

 

I have wiggled it around and I do get a positive 'click'.

 

Anyone else experience this? 

 

***** Well I figured it out. I changed the setting to Manual in lens recognition. whew!

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Well, doing some rough preliminary tests using a 50mm Summarit and an old iPad Mini, definitely need a brighter light and have one on the way. At quick glance they are looking decent. 

 

I took a shelf out of my girlfriends side of the medicine cabinet to experiment with to hold the negatives flat, I hope she doesn't notice her stuff all in the sink. haha

 

There seems to be a fine cross hatch pattern that I have not yet looked into, def not the glass which was my first suspect. Maybe something about the light from the ipad?

 

Most importantly next is finding the best way to hold the negatives and advance them as I shoot.  Also, I do want to get an enlarging lense as it seems from what some are saying, it will give a better result than the Summarit.

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The iPad screen is what's giving you the crosshatch pattern. It's not designed to be an illuminant source. A flat-panel light box with LED or fluorescent light source is ideal for use with the BEOON. 

 

If you look at the base of the BEOON, it is designed to guide 35mm film with notches on both sides. But that means moving the unit each time you move a frame. What I do is create a channel using two pieces of thick paper (280 gsm printing paper works well), taping those down onto the light box at the width of the film, and then taping down a piece of thin, hardened glass on top of that. Be sure that all surfaces are scrupulously clean. Next, position a negative into the center of the mask and tape the BEOON down onto the glass. If you do this carefully, you can just feed your film strip in one end, emulsion side up, and gently pull it through for each frame. The framing and focus will not change and you can 'scan' an entire 36 exposure roll in a couple of minutes once the setup is done. 

 

BTW, I use the BEOON mostly for medium format scanning, using the same technique as above. I use a Macro-Elmarit-R 60mm lens fitted to the M-mount A ring with a Leica R Adapter M. This nets a great deal of range to fine-focus the target negative or slide. When capturing 6x6cm negatives, the BEOON has to be extended nearly to its limit with the 60mm lens, a little less so with a Micro-Nikkor 55mm. 

 

I can use either the BEOON loupe to focus and the M-D body to do the capture, or I can fit the SL body with an M Adapter L. 

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The iPad screen is what's giving you the crosshatch pattern. It's not designed to be an illuminant source. A flat-panel light box with LED or fluorescent light source is ideal for use with the BEOON. 

 

If you look at the base of the BEOON, it is designed to guide 35mm film with notches on both sides. But that means moving the unit each time you move a frame. What I do is create a channel using two pieces of thick paper (280 gsm printing paper works well), taping those down onto the light box at the width of the film, and then taping down a piece of thin, hardened glass on top of that. Be sure that all surfaces are scrupulously clean. Next, position a negative into the center of the mask and tape the BEOON down onto the glass. If you do this carefully, you can just feed your film strip in one end, emulsion side up, and gently pull it through for each frame. The framing and focus will not change and you can 'scan' an entire 36 exposure roll in a couple of minutes once the setup is done. 

 

BTW, I use the BEOON mostly for medium format scanning, using the same technique as above. I use a Macro-Elmarit-R 60mm lens fitted to the M-mount A ring with a Leica R Adapter M. This nets a great deal of range to fine-focus the target negative or slide. When capturing 6x6cm negatives, the BEOON has to be extended nearly to its limit with the 60mm lens, a little less so with a Micro-Nikkor 55mm. 

 

I can use either the BEOON loupe to focus and the M-D body to do the capture, or I can fit the SL body with an M Adapter L. 

 

 

I figured it was the iPad and changed to another solution with a viewing light I forgot I had. No more cross hatch. So far, the results are not so great compared to the Epson 850. It's too early of course to be anything definitive. Focus might be part of it, the light source and then of course the Summarit lens.  I have the negative sandwiched in between two medicine chest glass shelves. I will experiment with another way to do this as I have another idea to try!

 

So it seems you focus first to set up with the Beoon lens? Maybe I am missing something but I don't see how the Beoon magnifier adjusts other than by moving the 'arm' up or down?

 

Thanks for the comments!

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Here's an example of what I have so far. 

 

Admittedly this is a rushed test and I'm not ideally set up.

 

The processing for the images is not identical either. In fact one is processed in LR and the other is only adjusted in Bridge and then inverted and exported from PS/

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Guest Nowhereman
...At this stage I hadn't thought in depth about feeding the negs, so thanks to ramarren for describing his technique.

 

Using the 1:1 mask for 35mm film, I've found no problem feeding a film strip. Once I've shifted to the next frame, I merely press down with two fingers in the mask to make sure that the film is flat, after I've pressed the shutter for the 2-sec self-timer. For transparencies, I do the same thing after having cut away the mount of the hunted ones.

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...So it seems you focus first to set up with the Beoon lens? Maybe I am missing something but I don't see how the Beoon magnifier adjusts other than by moving the 'arm' up or down?...

 

All this is shown in the BEOON manual. BTW, why are you not using the 1:1 mask if you are digitalizing 35mm film? That mask will also keep away stray light.

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A problem I'm experiencing at present is feeding the film through. It's surely something to do with my newly acquired lightbox surface "gripping" the film. This is fine for keeping it flat but a pain with not enabling slip through. My former 10 year old lightbox (dead now) gave no such problem.

 

I figure @ramarren's set up and adaptations will overcome this hopefully.

 

Thanks for that.

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All this is shown in the BEOON manual. BTW, why are you not using the 1:1 mask if you are digitalizing 35mm film? That mask will also keep away stray light.

 

I'm trying different things and the results are not bad but so far not as good as the Epson 850 but it's promising. I need to either get a different lens or an enlarging lens. I received the LCD light panel and am using that now. May I ask what kind of settings you use for this? ISO, etc?

 

Just to experiment, I tried a different combination of the tubes, knowing it wouldn't be anywhere near 1:1.

 

I  think I've worked enough on this for one day!

 

But my last try is promising, using the mask and opening up the lens definitely seems to help. I ordered an enlarging lens that's coming next week.

 

Very promising and even if this setup doesn't replace my Epson 850, i have a huge project that needs hundreds if not more to be scanned and clearly this will be a great option.

 

Thanks for the post!

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I figured it was the iPad and changed to another solution with a viewing light I forgot I had. No more cross hatch. So far, the results are not so great compared to the Epson 850. It's too early of course to be anything definitive. Focus might be part of it, the light source and then of course the Summarit lens.  I have the negative sandwiched in between two medicine chest glass shelves. I will experiment with another way to do this as I have another idea to try!

 

So it seems you focus first to set up with the Beoon lens? Maybe I am missing something but I don't see how the Beoon magnifier adjusts other than by moving the 'arm' up or down?

 

Thanks for the comments!

Interesting to see and to learn at the same time. Based on the many things I've read about lens filters, it's generally not beneficial to have a sheet of glass in front of the lens unless it's coated to reduce reflections, even then there will still be degradation (t stops). In which case, I would have thought, having two sheets of uncoated 'medicine glass' is probably going to reduce image quality. I have yet to start camera 'scanning' (for want of a better word) but was hoping to have fresh air between the negative and the lens, and as Mitch said, use 1:1 mask to hold the neg flat.
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Guest Nowhereman
I'm trying different things and the results are not bad but so far not as good as the Epson 850 but it's promising. I need to either get a different lens or an enlarging lens. I received the LCD light panel and am using that now. May I ask what kind of settings you use for this? ISO, etc?

 

Just to experiment, I tried a different combination of the tubes, knowing it wouldn't be anywhere near 1:1.

 

I  think I've worked enough on this for one day!

...Very promising and even if this setup doesn't replace my Epson 850, i have a huge project that needs hundreds if not more to be scanned and clearly this will be a great option.

 

The results should be much better than that of the Epson flatbed scanner. When I was using the DR Summicron 50, that certainly was the case. I don't recall what focal length lens you're using, but for 35mm film my feeling is that using a 50mm lens makes it painless, that is, for a full frame sensor.

 

On the settings, use the best ISO for the camera: with the M9, I used ISO 160; and with the M10, I use ISO 200. Otherwise, I use auto-exposure and the 2-sec self-timer. 

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I can't say definitively but from all I have tried, using a Leica M246 and a Summarit 50mm lens, it's unlikely that the result will be as good as the Epson 850.

 

But it's still promising. I ordered a Rodenstock 50mm 2.8 and while it's an older lens, I figure it can't hurt to try. Later today, I'll start some more tests, increase the light strength setting and using the mask. I'll also test different apertures.

 

I did notice that I'd be able to get the image in focus at F11 but when opened up to F4, it would flare and lose focus. Not sure exactly what caused that.

 

What shutter speeds are you using? To get a base ISO of 320, I'd have to go to anywhere from 1/15th to 1/125th of  second depending on F stop.

 

I'll post results of further tests later.

 

Steve Ricoh, the last few tests I've done are with no glass over the negative, so I don't think that's been a factor, although worth also checking settings with and without, just to see if and how the glass can effect the image.

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Avatar - even with the Summarit, you should be getting better result than with the Epson flatbed. Maybe the results aren't that good because you haven't been using the 1:1 mask and have stray light coming in. I would use f/11 with the Summarit lens. With the Rodenstock you can do a web search and find out what is the best aperture; of course, you can also test that yourself. I would think f/5.6 would be good because that is the aperture often used with enlargers. With the M240 you can use Live View and focus using focus peaking.

 

As for shutter speeds, I'm using autoexposure: at ISO 200, at f/5.6: with B&W negatives, I get speeds like ½, ⅓. ¼.  and ⅛ sec.

 

I don't see the point of using glass with 35mm film and the 1:1 mask — just introducing another source for dust and flare.

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I only used the glass when I started the testing, now I use the mask.

 

I used the glass for height adjustment along with testing varying configurations of the tubes. I've only done this to check to see if I can get sharper focus. Clearly I should be using the recommended tubes for 1:1. 

 

I'll report back later when I reset up and start up again!

 

Don't get me wrong, I do see potential in the results for sure. I am satisfied with how much dynamic range are in the captures.

 

Just at first blush there's something still better about the scanner results that simply may be a limitation of the Summarit.

 

Too soon to say that for sure but after today I'll be better able to say.

 

Thank you for all your posts and information. It's very helpful and appreciated!

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Well, I'm done!

 

Using the Summarit with 1:1 mask, I can't achieve sharp focus. I was able to get decent results with different combinations of tubes and moving the negative up a bit with the glass but that was just to see if I could and clearly not a real solution.

 

I'll wait on the enlarging lense, nothing more to test here.

 

Now I can get back to work..I am backed up on developing and ...scanning..which will be a pleasure compared to trying to get the Beoon to work with the Summarit. Or maybe I'll go out later and take some pictures. Sounds even better!

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