DPReview.com is closing April 10th - Find out more

Film scanning with a digital camera.

Started Apr 20, 2019 | Discussions thread
D Cox Forum Pro • Posts: 32,980
Re: Film scanning with a digital camera.

American20 wrote:

Well, I tried to build a DIY film scanner with a digital camera like Pentax Film Duplicator. But it's not that successful. But today, I was able to get a clean image from one film.

However, without a proper system, it's quite tricky to scan tons of film negatives. Pentax Film Duplicator is very expansive and I can't afford it.

I would like to digitize 35mm, 120, and 4X5 film negatives and positives with Sony A7R2. not interesting in crappy DIY setup or an old film duplicator. What should I buy to make a complete setup for film scanning?

Any thoughts about just using Logan Electric A7A 4 x 5" Slim Edge Light Pad?

I used an "old film duplicator", a Durst/Sickles ChromaPro, for duplicating 35mm slides and negatives, about 30,000 altogether.

I replaced the lamp with one of half the power and disconnected the fan, to avoid vibration. For colour originals, I used an 80A filter.

The one I bought came with only a carrier for slides, so I used carriers from my Beseler 5x4 enlarger to hold film. It would be better to get one with a range of carriers.

The advantage of a device like this is that it holds the camera rigidly in place, parallel to the film. I find that cameras on copy stands tend to tilt , even when you use a remote control. A tripod is useless.

 D Cox's gear list:D Cox's gear list
Sigma fp
Keyboard shortcuts:
FForum PPrevious NNext WNext unread UUpvote SSubscribe RReply QQuote BBookmark MMy threads
Color scheme? Blue / Yellow