BEOON and scanning color negatives

[jmahto]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

In last one and half years I went through several phases of scanning my 35mm negative and slides. First I was getting lab scans but was not happy with colors. And it was quite costly. Simple development cost was cheap therefore I wanted to do my own scanning. I bought Plustek 8100 and was happy for some time. The downside was i) slow scanning and ii) learning curve for Silvefast for best outcome. Then thanks to this forum I learned about BEOON. For BW it was godsend. Very fast and inverting in LR was so easy. I made my own profile and it was quick. The color neg was still an issue till I discovered Neg Lab Pro (Not: I am just a customer). 

I thought that I will write it up for others. There may be even better way but so far this setup is fast and provides good results.

This is my current scanning setup using BEOON+M240.

Setup: C + D rings + Schneider Componon-S 50/2.8 lens. M240 goes on top. In this picture the slide holder is there for mounted slide. Remove it for shooting a strip.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Edited January 20, 2020 by jmahto

[jmahto]

Lightpad Kaiser slimlite plano (it is color balanced) and negative holder.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[Advertisement]

The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[jmahto]

Camera setting: Focus by raising BEOON column. Use f2 for docusing and then stop it down to f8. Shutter 0.7sec, ISO 200. If you want you can WB based on lightpad light (needed for color sides so that I don't need to adjust later. For color negative WB is adjusted in LR using unexposed part of negative.
 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[jmahto]

in LR do WB based on unexposed part of negative (This is important. One can shoot a sample pic with unexposed negative part and use it for rest of the photos from same nagetive strip rather than doing for each one. This is same for all photos in the set. Different film will have different WB).

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[jmahto]

Crop the picture to remove unexposed part and any borders. This is important for the auto settin to work.
Convert using Neg Lab Pro menu. I use Noritsu color model. You can experiment with other models.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

You are done. The conversion keeps in DNG (it is non destructive). I don't like it since LR controls are not intuitive/reverse. This is why I convert to tiff and do any final adjustment. For most I don't need to do anything at all.

 

Edited January 20, 2020 by jmahto

[jmahto]

This is the final output

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[jmahto]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

This is 1:1 crop. The grain is from film and not from camera sensor.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Edited January 20, 2020 by jmahto

[jmahto]

Moderators: Can you make one sticky thread for film scanning posts. It seems that there is a large interest in this film forum.

[Steve Ricoh]

3 hours ago, jmahto said:

Lightpad Kaiser slimlite plano (it is color balanced) and negative holder.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

It looks like you're using the Plustek negative holder on top of the BEOON base. I remember using the same enlarger lens, i.e. the Componon-S 50 2.8, but using the BEOON 1:1 mask, however the column adjustment bottomed before focus could be acquired. 

I tried the Plustek neg holder as you appear to be using, as shown above, and 1:1 focus could be achieved without any problem. The only snag was centralising the neg holder each time I advanced the frame. If this could be overcome it would be perfect.

[jmahto]

1 hour ago, Steve Ricoh said:

It looks like you're using the Plustek negative holder on top of the BEOON base. I remember using the same enlarger lens, i.e. the Componon-S 50 2.8, but using the BEOON 1:1 mask, however the column adjustment bottomed before focus could be acquired. 

I tried the Plustek neg holder as you appear to be using, as shown above, and 1:1 focus could be achieved without any problem. The only snag was centralising the neg holder each time I advanced the frame. If this could be overcome it would be perfect.

..correct. The column bottoms out with focal point at the bottom of the BEOON base and not below. With mounted slide or negative holder above the base it is just a matter of raising the column. Advancing to next frame and centralizing is not a problem if you look through the LV. For me the only issue is shooting the photo at the end of the holder (in my picture I have left one gap) since the folder won't sit on top of the base (one side will fall off). My current solution is to leave one gap and the move the strip after shooting the first one (so that there is a gap for the fifth one. The holder has space for six).

I will also add a caution to cover the light gap (I didn't do in the picture above) for best results for photo at either end of the strip. Otherwise there is a slight light flare (causing corrected picture edge to darken).

[Steve Ricoh]

9 hours ago, jmahto said:

..correct. The column bottoms out with focal point at the bottom of the BEOON base and not below. With mounted slide or negative holder above the base it is just a matter of raising the column. Advancing to next frame and centralizing is not a problem if you look through the LV. For me the only issue is shooting the photo at the end of the holder (in my picture I have left one gap) since the folder won't sit on top of the base (one side will fall off). My current solution is to leave one gap and the move the strip after shooting the first one (so that there is a gap for the fifth one. The holder has space for six).

I will also add a caution to cover the light gap (I didn't do in the picture above) for best results for photo at either end of the strip. Otherwise there is a slight light flare (causing corrected picture edge to darken).

I was going from memory from about 2 years ago, but I remember the issue you mention. I tried all sorts of things to balance the Plustek neg holder. One of which was a sheet of glass sitting astride the BEOON base, with the neg carrier on top. I also masked using a sheet of black card with an appropriate cut out. The need to re-orientate the neg holder for each frame annoyed me so I went back to the Plustek.

BTW, the BEOON was designed to be used with a 50mm Leica lens, and I found it worked as the designers intended. The only downside is a degree of softness towards the edges of the negative compared to a flat field enlarger lens. And that was with the 50mm 'taking lens' set at f11!

 

[dau]

The base of the BEOON has cutouts so that you could pass the film strip under the BEOON's base.

Kaiser makes a film strip holder. However, as it is meant to be used with "real" copy stands, I'm not sure whether it can be used with the BEOON:

http://www.kaiser-fototechnik.de/en/produkte/2_1_produktanzeige.asp?nr=2457

[tommonego@gmail.com]

I am using a negative holder from a Minolta Multiscan. Great scanner for 35 but resolution limited for 2 1/4. When Sony bought Minolta they stopped selling the scanner and software for the scanner, but has a good wide 35mm negative holder that cuts down on light from outside the negative, it also covers the entire light source on my slide duplicator. 

[tommonego@gmail.com]

3 hours ago, dau said:

The base of the BEOON has cutouts so that you could pass the film strip under the BEOON's base.

Kaiser makes a film strip holder. However, as it is meant to be used with "real" copy stands, I'm not sure whether it can be used with the BEOON:

http://www.kaiser-fototechnik.de/en/produkte/2_1_produktanzeige.asp?nr=2457

This looks great if you don't have a scanner negative holder.

[Steve Ricoh]

3 hours ago, dau said:

The base of the BEOON has cutouts so that you could pass the film strip under the BEOON's base.

Kaiser makes a film strip holder. However, as it is meant to be used with "real" copy stands, I'm not sure whether it can be used with the BEOON:

http://www.kaiser-fototechnik.de/en/produkte/2_1_produktanzeige.asp?nr=2457

Yes I know how the film strip guide under the beoon's base, and it works well with a 50mm camera lens. But not with every enlarger lens (it's case of buying one that works, but it's a bit like hit or miss. I purchased a Componon-S 50mm and a Nikkor 50mm enlarger lens, neither of which would work with the BEOON due to the need to collapse the focusing column beyond the end stop, obviously the design doesn't allow this). Hence the work around described above.

 

[jmahto]

5 hours ago, dau said:

The base of the BEOON has cutouts so that you could pass the film strip under the BEOON's base.

I have tried the negative (without holder) directly under cutout and it does work even with my enlarger lens, however there is a chance to get Newton’s ring due to direct contact between negative and glass. If you use negative holder under the BEOON base then you may not be able to focus for some lenses like mine due to increased distance and BEOON column bottoming our. Steve also mentioned it above. 

Edited January 21, 2020 by jmahto

[tommonego@gmail.com]

This is what I am using, a Beseler Slide Duplicator. It has a Schneider Componon 80mm f4, a lens made for 1:1 slide duplicating. 3200K light source as well as flash, I haven't found the cable for the flash, but the 3200K has been adequate. Using my CL set to tungsten light. Would like to know what the CMY settings to negate Portra 160 base are so I could dial them in on the base. 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[Rokkor]

Am 20.1.2020 um 19:46 schrieb jmahto:

In last one and half years I went through several phases of scanning my 35mm negative and slides. First I was getting lab scans but was not happy with colors. And it was quite costly. Simple development cost was cheap therefore I wanted to do my own scanning. I bought Plustek 8100 and was happy for some time. The downside was i) slow scanning and ii) learning curve for Silvefast for best outcome. Then thanks to this forum I learned about BEOON. For BW it was godsend. Very fast and inverting in LR was so easy. I made my own profile and it was quick. The color neg was still an issue till I discovered Neg Lab Pro (Not: I am just a customer). 

I thought that I will write it up for others. There may be even better way but so far this setup is fast and provides good results.

This is my current scanning setup using BEOON+M240.

Setup: C + D rings + Schneider Componon-S 50/2.8 lens. M240 goes on top. In this picture the slide holder is there for mounted slide. Remove it for shooting a strip.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Thanks for sharing. Would that also work with an adapted APS-C camera like Fuji X-T1? Is the Schneider lens the only lens needed? Images look great.

[willeica]

On 1/20/2020 at 6:59 PM, jmahto said:

This is 1:1 crop. The grain is from film and not from camera sensor.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

Grain is good. There is no need to apologise for it. 

 

William

[Advertisement]

Hallo,

Look here: Interesting Leica gear

[jmahto]

On 11/18/2020 at 12:36 AM, Rokkor said:

Thanks for sharing. Would that also work with an adapted APS-C camera like Fuji X-T1? Is the Schneider lens the only lens needed? Images look great.

I just now tried with my Sony Nex6. By using only D tube and 50 Componon-S, I can focus and image "almost fills" the sensor. You will get parts of sprocket holes in scan and I will consider it acceptable.

This is compared to FF where using D+C tube and same lens fills entire sensor with 1:1 image.