Film scanning with a digital camera.

D Cox wrote:

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.

cool setup and a good starting point for the OP !  I think that this Logan viewer may be OK in illumination uniformity for the more demanding transparency and film duplication. If not, illumination can be evened out by adding a second matte screen at a small distance in front of the viewer.

An old enlarger stand and two LED flat light panels serve well here to duplicate old  (positive) photographs of the family.

For 35mm film and slides, I prefer a bellows with slide/film holder, or just the bellows rail. For the 35mm  format it takes a normal FL (40-60mm) "macro" lens one that is designed to work well up to 1:1 repro ratio for good quality.  for the bellows mate screen an IKEA LED light works well. For 4x5 inch film you might want to consider a high rez body with more than 24Mpix.

35mm file/slide setup. This old macro lens could also be used with bellows. A modern lens with internal focus is not used optimally with a bellows as the built in close focus correction gets mislead.

a backlit setup with LED panel and double matte screen for uniform illumination. A stand from an small enlarger is used here.