JimD Posted June 6, 2023 Share #1 Posted June 6, 2023 Advertisement (gone after registration) Have any of you tried this? It works! Old timers like me have a lot of old 35mm slides from the 60's and 70's that would now be fun to see in print form. I made a little copy stand with a small tripod and ball head. The Q2 points downward to a 5"x7" light box where the slide sits to be copied, about 6" away from the lens. The camera settings are as follows: macro mode, DNG format, f/8, 1/30, ISO 100, 2-second timer for shutter release, manual focus with focus peaking, image stabilization off. Then download the DNG images into Lightroom or Photoshop for post processing. The printed results at 5x7 or 8.5x11 are wonderful imo. Here's what the copy stand looks like: 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! 2 4 Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/377969-scanning-old-slides-with-q2-macro/?do=findComment&comment=4788500'>More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted June 6, 2023 Posted June 6, 2023 Hi JimD, Take a look here Scanning Old Slides with Q2 Macro. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Cheesehead Posted June 6, 2023 Share #2 Posted June 6, 2023 2 hours ago, JimD said: Have any of you tried this? It works! Old timers like me have a lot of old 35mm slides from the 60's and 70's that would now be fun to see in print form. I made a little copy stand with a small tripod and ball head. The Q2 points downward to a 5"x7" light box where the slide sits to be copied, about 6" away from the lens. The camera settings are as follows: macro mode, DNG format, f/8, 1/30, ISO 100, 2-second timer for shutter release, manual focus with focus peaking, image stabilization off. Then download the DNG images into Lightroom or Photoshop for post processing. The printed results at 5x7 or 8.5x11 are wonderful imo. Here's what the copy stand looks like: 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! That looks great. Thanks for showing your setup. Can you post a few examples of the “scanned” slides? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leica Guy Posted June 7, 2023 Share #3 Posted June 7, 2023 Very creative! An excellent solution for copying slides. I sometimes take pics of old prints by using lights off each side at a 45 degree angle. Works great. Sometimes I lay a clear glass over the print to flatten it. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bikie John Posted June 7, 2023 Share #4 Posted June 7, 2023 Can I make a small suggestion for a modification to your setup? There is a lot of stray light coming from the vast area of the panel that the slide isn't sitting on. Although it is outside the field of view of the camera it could still be reducing the image quality. To fix it all you need to do is get a piece of card - I use mount board - big enough to cover the light panel. Cut a hole big enough to see the slide but small enough that the mount covers it - say 3x4 cms. Easy and cheap to do, you can try it and if it makes no difference just throw it away! John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimD Posted June 7, 2023 Author Share #5 Posted June 7, 2023 9 hours ago, Bikie John said: Can I make a small suggestion for a modification to your setup? There is a lot of stray light coming from the vast area of the panel that the slide isn't sitting on. Although it is outside the field of view of the camera it could still be reducing the image quality. To fix it all you need to do is get a piece of card - I use mount board - big enough to cover the light panel. Cut a hole big enough to see the slide but small enough that the mount covers it - say 3x4 cms. Easy and cheap to do, you can try it and if it makes no difference just throw it away! John Thanks for the tip on masking the stray light. I tried it and it did not seem to improve the results. I think that's because I watch the exposure meter at the bottom of the view and adjust the shutter speed slightly to compensate for any change in lighting. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimD Posted June 7, 2023 Author Share #6 Posted June 7, 2023 21 hours ago, Cheesehead said: That looks great. Thanks for showing your setup. Can you post a few examples of the “scanned” slides? Here are some "scans" of slides I took in 1961 in Mexico. The first one is the Observatory at Chichen Itza, the next two are at Monte Alban, and the last one is at Uxmal. 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! 7 Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/377969-scanning-old-slides-with-q2-macro/?do=findComment&comment=4789200'>More sharing options...
JimD Posted June 7, 2023 Author Share #7 Posted June 7, 2023 Advertisement (gone after registration) Sorry, I goofed up the photo attachments and duplicated a couple. Here is one at Uxmal. 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! 3 Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/377969-scanning-old-slides-with-q2-macro/?do=findComment&comment=4789203'>More sharing options...
Bikie John Posted June 8, 2023 Share #8 Posted June 8, 2023 13 hours ago, JimD said: Thanks for the tip on masking the stray light. I tried it and it did not seem to improve the results. I think that's because I watch the exposure meter at the bottom of the view and adjust the shutter speed slightly to compensate for any change in lighting. That's interesting, thanks for the info. John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
69xchange Posted June 8, 2023 Share #9 Posted June 8, 2023 Haha, I’ve been doing this with the Q(1) for the past week! Not able to do prints with the set up but can still post online! 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! 2 Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/377969-scanning-old-slides-with-q2-macro/?do=findComment&comment=4789787'>More sharing options...
P08C Posted June 8, 2023 Share #10 Posted June 8, 2023 How well do you think this would work for 35mm film negatives? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimD Posted June 8, 2023 Author Share #11 Posted June 8, 2023 2 hours ago, 69xchange said: Haha, I’ve been doing this with the Q(1) for the past week! Not able to do prints with the set up but can still post online! 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! Good work! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimD Posted June 8, 2023 Author Share #12 Posted June 8, 2023 Good work with the Q(1) 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimD Posted June 8, 2023 Author Share #13 Posted June 8, 2023 2 hours ago, P08C said: How well do you think this would work for 35mm film negatives? I think it will work just fine, especially if you use a film holder or a piece of glass to keep the film perfectly flat. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bikie John Posted June 8, 2023 Share #14 Posted June 8, 2023 2 hours ago, P08C said: How well do you think this would work for 35mm film negatives? Very well (as long as you can keep the film flat, as @JimD points out). But colour opens up a whole can of worms - converting the colours and compensating for the widely varying orange/brown colour cast can be quite tricky. Or it can work brilliantly - just the luck of the draw! John 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
69xchange Posted June 8, 2023 Share #15 Posted June 8, 2023 7 hours ago, P08C said: How well do you think this would work for 35mm film negatives? It’ll work. You just need a what has been described above and a software called negative lab pro (or you can manually convert the pictures yourself). Make sure to shoot in DNG! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Qwertynm Posted June 8, 2023 Share #16 Posted June 8, 2023 Check out NegativeLabPro. It’s a Plugin for LR Classic that converts negatives in raw into positives. Disregard my comment if you’re only interested in scanning slides. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LocalHero1953 Posted June 8, 2023 Share #17 Posted June 8, 2023 What macro ratio are you getting? The lens isn’t getting you 1:1 IIRC but you probably get a reasonable resolution even with cropping. Can you see any sign of focus field distortion? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikep996 Posted June 9, 2023 Share #18 Posted June 9, 2023 FWIW, I tried this technique last year and found I needed to elevate the slide/negative a couple of inches above the "light box" to ensure that the lightbox surface is well out of the focus zone. It might be light-source dependent but I found that when the slides/negs were on the lightbox surface, I would frequently see patterns, sort of moire-like, in the digital images. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimD Posted June 9, 2023 Author Share #19 Posted June 9, 2023 19 hours ago, LocalHero1953 said: What macro ratio are you getting? The lens isn’t getting you 1:1 IIRC but you probably get a reasonable resolution even with cropping. Can you see any sign of focus field distortion? Not sure I understand the macro ratio thing...I use the macro setting on the Q2 and the DNG image on initial capture is 46.7 MP, but then in post processing I crop the image into 5"x7" and make adjustments to the sharpness, and the lighting and color if needed. Then I save it in TIFF format which yields a 9.5 MP size image. That ultimate size produces very acceptable results when printed out (much better than the 2 MP JPEG images that I post on-line). I haven't seen any focus field distortion, although the camera I used 60 years ago was a Kodak fixed lens with a manual focus ring based on my estimate of distance to subject...so some of my slides back then turned out fuzzy because I didn't estimate the focus distance properly enough (or forgot to change it). When I get a Q3, the results should be even better with its added resolution. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimD Posted June 9, 2023 Author Share #20 Posted June 9, 2023 12 hours ago, Mikep996 said: FWIW, I tried this technique last year and found I needed to elevate the slide/negative a couple of inches above the "light box" to ensure that the lightbox surface is well out of the focus zone. It might be light-source dependent but I found that when the slides/negs were on the lightbox surface, I would frequently see patterns, sort of moire-like, in the digital images. Interesting. I didn't experience that with the light box I am using. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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