Elmarit-R 60mm for digitizing Negatives?

[Linus84]

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Hello gang! 
I have a CL (digital) that I love. I also acquired a R8 that is an absolute beauty and I am very happy with the quality of the negatives combined with the R 28 and the Summicron 90. Thinking about acquiring a Summilux 50 as well to feel whole… 😅

however, digitizing negatives is a pain. I’m currently using a plustek 135 but it is a bit of a hassle and I’m having issues with some curly films etc.

have anyone tried using the R 60 Macro for digitizing negs and if so, is it good? I know the lens performes well, however, is the plane of focus flat enough for this application? 

cheers and happy shooting!

Linus
 

 

Edited November 3, 2024 by Linus84

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[Helge]

I do this frequently with the 60mm Macro lens attached to my M10. It works and it provides very good results for both negatives and slides. I use a light panel which is pretty good regards color rendering and a cardboard mask.

[Linus84]

Thanks a lot! 
 

I am considering this thing which will hopefully speed up the process a bit (sorry for all the Swedish but you get the idea): https://www.cyberphoto.se/foto-video/skrivare/skanner/filmskanner/valoi-easy35-kompakt-filmskanning

👍

 

Edited November 3, 2024 by Linus84

[Helge]

Hmm, speeding-up is maybe not the right word to describe the workflow…😉

You‘ll need to position each picture and take manually a single photo, maybe two…

And you‘ll need a post production workflow for the negatives (white balance, inversion, grading?).

But yes, taking the actual picture will be faster.

[Linus84]

haha, everything is relative my friend 😄 I'm thinking I can probably enter an entire uncut roll and then just move frame by frame. The Plustek 135 need 6-frame strips and a lot of babysittning (more so than my kids nowadays) 😅

I actually had a similar setup made of sewage piping (!), a light table and some cardboard plus my TL 18-56 with an elpro, however the field of focus was too curved (that I might have figured out beforehand, but you learn every day right), so I moved to the plustek a couple of years ago. 

Maybe there is some good software nowadays that can help with the inversion, I need to look into that. I shoot and develop mostly BW so the inversion there is at least a bit easier and might be able to be "batched" at least to a 75% level in Lightroom (I hope).

Thanks again for your good advice! 🫡 

 

[250swb]

The 60mm Elmarit is only 1:2 magnification so you may need the adapter to make it 1:1 for digitising negatives. Also make sure the Series 7/55mm filter thread is compatible with whatever digitising device you get.

Edited November 4, 2024 by 250swb

[Helge]

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The adapter is a good point!

Injust use it on a reproduction tripod, so nothing needs to be connected to the filter thread.

[buj]

I use 

https://www.negativelabpro.com

since a few years! works fine with B&W and color negatives.

I think its worth the money!

jb

[David Weber]

Am 3.11.2024 um 16:34 schrieb Linus84:

Hello gang! 
I have a CL (digital) that I love. I also acquired a R8 that is an absolute beauty and I am very happy with the quality of the negatives combined with the R 28 and the Summicron 90. Thinking about acquiring a Summilux 50 as well to feel whole… 😅

however, digitizing negatives is a pain. I’m currently using a plustek 135 but it is a bit of a hassle and I’m having issues with some curly films etc.

have anyone tried using the R 60 Macro for digitizing negs and if so, is it good? I know the lens performes well, however, is the plane of focus flat enough for this application? 

cheers and happy shooting!

Linus
 

 

Matt Osborne has made a video about digitizing negatives with a Leica CL  + R 60 Macro + Valoi Easy 35. Due to the APSc censor of the CL the R-60 dosen't need an adaptor for 1:1:

 

[pgk]

There are cheaper and easier ways to copy negs than using the 60mm Macro-Elmarit. Enlarging lenses and other macro lenses are far cheaper and just as effective and may adapt more easily. I use an Olympus (film) based macro bellows, marco lens and slide/neg holder which gives very acceptable results at way tless than the price of most Macro-Elmarits. Building custom rigs to copy is very simple, cheap and they are easily adaptable. 

[davidmknoble]

I have used the Nikon Coolscan with the back adapter to scan an entire roll of uncut 35mm for 2 1/2 decades.  Over the last year I have begun using the Negative Supply Company system which has a heavy stand to mount the camera, a 95 or 99 CRI LED light source and various negative holders (35mm and 120mm).  The difference in speed is incredible. To click, move, click, move, it takes more time to set it up than scan.

Yes, the negative inversion in Capture One is not as simple, although there are tools to help.  You have to begin to think in reverse.  I have not taken the time to try and run a negative DNG through a scanning software to perform the inversion for me.

My belief is that the system is more important than the camera lens combination to start with.  Very flat negatives and a very accurate light source (especially for color) is critical.  I have used the M10M with the M macro adapter and lenses like the 50 APO summicron.  I have also used the SL2 / SL3 with the R APO 100 f/2.8 with ELPRO attachment. The 60mm is ok, but a) the dynamic range of the camera sensor and b) the lens quality, determine the quality of your duplication, after you have a good setup.

It does not make sense to have a great negative, with all the dynamic range and detail from a great Leica lens and then take a photograph of it with a camera / lens combination you would not have used to start with.  I use low f/stops (like one f/stop in from wide open) because the depth of field is the thickness of a negative, but the lenses I use have good contrast to the corners.

If the 60mm R is all you have, by all means use it, but I would stop down at least 2 stops and use a full frame sensor.  If only using black and white, then I believe the negative holders is the most important.  Ensuring the negative is parallel to the sensor is very important to avoid distortion and out of focus areas.

Just my opinons of course…

[BernardC]

Your setup should work well. Just make sure that you have the right filter adapter for your version of the Macro-Elmarit. It's either Series 7 or E55 according to the Wiki. You won't need a 1:1 adapter on a CL. 1:2 will fill the APS-C frame. As others have mentioned, be sure to stop-down a few stops to get the best image quality. You can run a test to find the sharpest aperture for your setup.

You don't need to worry about dynamic range for negatives. They have inherently low contrast (in the range of 0.4 to 0.6). Some slide films have a contrast over 1.0, which can be harder to reproduce. Be sure to check your histogram to make sure that your exposure is in the middle of the available dynamic range.