Home "scanning" with camera - how practical is it?

[ishwanu]

... how do i proceed with macro focusing? I never used one before and still waiting for an adapter.

Do i set the scale on the lens to 1:1 and physically move the camera to get the film fill the frame and be in focus?

That's basically what I do, then I reframe and adjust distance as needed. I personally like to include a bit of the surrounding border, so my setting is just short of 1:1.

Or the barrel not necessary have to be extracted to 1:1 scale while trying to fill a digital frame with a film?

Assuming you have a full frame camera, you'll have to be somewhere near the 1:1 setting to fill the frame. With a crop sensor camera, you'll of course need lower magnification.

 

[mollyc]

I've scanned over 70 rolls of film. A handful of the rolls I developed myself but most were lab developed. My local lab charges $9 a roll to scan (up from $8), which means I've saved over $550 just in scanning costs.

I already had a good digital camera (Nikon Z6) and a macro lens (F mount 105mm), so I needed to buy a light pad (raleno), film holder (bottom tier negative supply lab), and software (negative lab pro). I use a tripod with the column mounted upside down as a copy stand and use cheap bubble levels to ensure everything is straight. I really need to rescan some of my earlier rolls because I'm much better at it now, but I would definitely say it's worth it to scan with a camera vs lab scans once you break even. My daughter and I both shoot film so it didn't take much to hit the break even point. My lab does a great job with the developing but I like higher res scans than what the lab provides for their base scan.

 

[Stoltzman1972]

I've scanned over 70 rolls of film. A handful of the rolls I developed myself but most were lab developed. My local lab charges $9 a roll to scan (up from $8), which means I've saved over $550 just in scanning costs.

I already had a good digital camera (Nikon Z6) and a macro lens (F mount 105mm), so I needed to buy a light pad (raleno), film holder (bottom tier negative supply lab), and software (negative lab pro). I use a tripod with the column mounted upside down as a copy stand and use cheap bubble levels to ensure everything is straight. I really need to rescan some of my earlier rolls because I'm much better at it now, but I would definitely say it's worth it to scan with a camera vs lab scans once you break even. My daughter and I both shoot film so it didn't take much to hit the break even point. My lab does a great job with the developing but I like higher res scans than what the lab provides for their base scan.

I am currently going trough my second roll of film and i am planning to send it to a lab with Noritsu scanner.

My other roll i got scanned with Frontier.

I plan to re-scan both rolls at home and compare the results I will try to use free software or trial version of some negative conversion tools. I already have everything delivered and have an idea of how to set it up.