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Emergency „DIY“ Scanning


schattenundlicht

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Hi!

 

Although many others will have used similiar setups, I want to share a rather ‚quick and dirty‘ solution that I had to come up with after my negative scanner broke down and had to be sent in for repair, leaving me with quite a few strips of unscanned b&w film (my second scanner is a slide magazine batch scanner that does not work with unmounted film).

 

Not owning a BEOON, I had to come up with an interim solution. It does not use Leica equipment, but I use it exclusively to scan films shot with my Leicas, so that hopefully qualifies this post as partially legitimate ;)

 

Setup: iPad (poor man‘s lighttable), distancing box (aka thick wooden frame), two glass covers from photo frames, reversible tripod, DSLR, macro lens, tethering freeware (Sofortbild). Tethering with self-timer and mirror pre-release is helpful to reduce vibrations, since the Cullmann tripod is not designed for this application and is not as steady as a BEOON or other dedicated copy stands. Adjust camera with mechanical spirit level. Manual focus on film grain with 100% magnification in tethering software. With more time, the setup definitely could be improved upon, but I hope to get my scanner back soon.

 

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Some examples (not for technical testing):

 

https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/257654-black-and-white-image-thread/?p=3463651

 

https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/257654-black-and-white-image-thread/page-88?do=findComment&comment=3463541

Edited by schattenundlicht
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  • 10 months later...

Good idea with the tablet lightsource.
It is always good to avoid flarelight.
What the "Scan" quality will improve is a black passepartout / mask around the negative. Like the negative masks in Enlargers.
If you want, you can buy a cheap negative mask from old enlarger at ebay or cut it your self.
I cut mine from a thin opaque black plastic sheet with a scalpel.
Black paper works too, but you could have tiny fibres that you may retouch out of your "scan"

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I have improved the setup by acquiring two pieces of high quality museum glass from a framing shop which are much better than the generic glass.

I actually prefer the DSLR captures of b&w film to my scans (even from two dedicated negative scanners) because the latter are often troubled by „pseudograin“ (interference of Scanner resolution with film grain).

Moreover I find it easier to retain subtle greyscale transitions with digital capture  compared to scanning, although I have diligently tried three different scanning software suites.

Thus my „emergency „ solution has gained some permanence :)

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  • 11 months later...

wet mounting will kill newton rings, tiny scratches but will not cure that grainy result when scanning negs.
Using filmclean instead of oil is better because it will evaporate without any residue after.
These mounting oils are a mess to clean.
I would keep on capturing negs by dslr. Nowadays way better and faster result than scanning...

Edited by verwackelt
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I won't use my scanner again now that I am using a DSLR to photograph negatives. Scanning takes so long. I am too old now to waste my remaining years with that damned scanner. I raided my store of Tufnol and brass to make a stand for the camera. It is deliberately heavy to make it firm and steady and, for the same reason, it has three legs like a tripod to avoid wobbles. Unlike a tripod, it has a relatively small footprint. It comes apart easily without tools and it can be reassembled with a change of some parts so that it copes with medium format negatives. The light comes from a very cheap light box from eBay. So far, I think the results are fairly good. I qualified 'good' with 'fairly' in recognition of the fact that the setup does not improve my photography. It does, however, allow me to find my mistakes a lot quicker making learning from them more efficient.

Stuart

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7 minutes ago, jonnyboy said:

Nice setup, I'm going trhough something similar these days as I just started shooting medium format and need to scan the negatives.

Quick question: why put glass between the negative and the camera?

 

i was wondering about that too..in case any reflections bounce around

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a glassless negativ carrier from old enlarger will do a good job here. 
A glassless carrier provides good masking against flare too…
Glas helps when negativs are very bend and uneven. But then a ring of black cardbord aroung the glasscarier helps to avoid reflections from windows or other lightsources.
Like a lenshood on camera…

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