Inexpensive 60mm macro non-DIY slide/negative scanner

[mchnz]

For many years I've been meaning to do a bit of DIY and hack together a rig to scan some old slides. I could not resist this reasonably priced, more immediate, solution which supports the Olympus 60mm f/2.8 out of the box (it was about US$88 local retail in New Zealand):

JJC Film Digitizing Adapter and LED Light Set

60mm details on bottom right

All the bits were nicely protected and packaged.

Assembled on a E-M5 II, but I will likely try to use the OM-1, perhaps with Hires for some scans.

Without any thought about appropriate settings, or even properly adjusting the alignment, I grabbed a slide and took a photo:

Quick scan, a little jpeg post processing, adjusted exposure, gamma, and a smidgen of sharpening.

This is not a detailed review, just my impressions in the first few hours out of the box...

The main viewing-angle-adjuster/head is plastic. It's not the most precise adjustment mechanism, the holder slides along the barrel and has a locking knob. When fully extended in the specified 60mm macro configuration, the head holds the slide at the right distance so the it fills the width of the m43 frame, perhaps with a tiny amount of clipping. Stacking a filter or a step-up ring can be used to increased the distance to avoid any clipping.

The slide/negative holder retention springs in the are quite strong. This means the slide holder requires some force applied to switch slides, which might knock the alignment. In practice it seems OK, I tend to get the force wrong and miss when I slide in the next slide, but making the slight left/right adjustment is pretty easy.

The LED-light is optional. It includes an on/off up/down brightness control. A diffuser is included if you want to use you own light source. The light can be used separately as a light, for macro, or whatever, and it includes tripod mounting threads.

The light has its own separate slide/negative retention clips. It could be used as a mini-stand alone slide/negative viewer or as part of some DIY rig.

Two extension tubes are included. The extension tubes are metal. The interior of the tubes are have a rough mat black texture that seems adequately anti-reflective.

The slide holder only holds two slides at a time, it would be nice if help more. But it was surprisingly quick to work through a box of slides.

It's not a high end solution, but I think the results will be good enough for transfering my old holiday slides to digital format. With so many parts included it could form the basis for some other DIY projects. It might be possible to use it to build something a little more sophisticated, perhaps by starting with the LED light with it's tripod threads, slide/negative rails, and incorporating a macro focusing rail.

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[Woody Meristem]

JJC makes a slide copier with the LEDs, but without the extension tubes for about one-third the price, I've used it with my Olympus 60mm macro with pretty good results. It's much better, and quicker, at copying slides than my old Canon flatbed slide copier/scanner. You do have to remember to brush the dust and other stuff off the slides. Like you I wish the slide holder was large enough to hold more slides, but it's not really an issue.

 

[tedolf]

Is there enough adjustability to work with a 30mm macro lens?

If you would be so kind, can you provide a link?

thanks

Tedolph

 

[mchnz]

Is there enough adjustability to work with a 30mm macro lens?

If you would be so kind, can you provide a link?

thanks

Tedolph

Link:

https://www.jjc.cc/index/goods/detail.html?id=1024

The fine print claims that it is "compatible" with "other" macro lenses (see the picture I posted of the instructions, plus also the same at the posted link).

It would depend on the distance from the font of the lens to the slide. The slide needs to be held so that it can reasonably fill the frame. I say reasonably because I don't suppose it's necessary to fill the frame edge to edge, especially so f a camera has a hires mode.

In the pictured configuration with the E-M5 II, there is one tube and an 46-52 step-up attached. The minimum distance between the slide and the front of the lens body is about 97mm, and this can extend to about 124 mm. The only workable distance with the 60mm f/2.8 is the fully extended one. I can add my own combos of step-up/step-down rings or filters to add a small amount of extra length.

For the head alone with no tubes attached and just the one 46-52 step-up, the minimum length to the mounted slide to the front of the lens body is about 58mm, and it can extend to about 85mm. Each extension tube adds about 39mm.

You'd have to determined whether the 30mm can work in either of these ranges. You could probably hold a slide up to light and see if you can fill the frame with it, if yes, measure the distance, then refer back to the above and see if might work.

Woody mentioned that the light and slide holder are available as a separate kit. That removes the issue of the extension tube lengths. You could then build a custom rig to suit.

One thing to note is that the instructions include warnings about not leaving the film too close to the light for prolonged periods. After being on for a few minutes, the light temperature measures about 40C (104F). The light's direct holder-mount brings the film much closer to the light. The separate mount-head increases the separation of the light to about 25mm, it would be possible to point a fan across the air-gap. This temperature measurement was with the light full on, it can be turned down, that might reduce the temperature (haven't tested it though).

As I mentioned, with the separate head, you can run you own light source, such as a flash.

After scanning a couple of boxes of slides, I have found this tube based setup very convenient. There is no need to rigidly mount the slide, light or camera, they are bound to each other. The whole rig is quite small and light can live in the box when not in use.

 

[gentzel]

I have one of these arriving later this week, for use with an EM5iii & 60mm.

I found this thread to contain a wealth of information, including advice for use with both the 30mm & 60mm Olympus macro lenses. Did your kit come with a 46mm-52mm step-up ring, or did you have to supply that yourself?

 

[mchnz]

I have one of these arriving later this week, for use with an EM5iii & 60mm.

I found this thread to contain a wealth of information, including advice for use with both the 30mm & 60mm Olympus macro lenses. Did your kit come with a 46mm-52mm step-up ring, or did you have to supply that yourself?

It came with it, along with a bunch of others. Just assemble and go.

 

[Milkyfilkins]

I have used the 30mm lens along with the Essential Film Holder, you just need to add a cheap led light panel and you are good to go. I have had very good results from this system.

Essential Film Holder - Affordable DSLR Film Scanning Solution

Transform your film scanning workflow with the Essential Film Holder. Scan 35mm, medium format, and slides with precision and ease.

clifforth.co.uk

 

[tedolf]

Is there enough adjustability to work with a 30mm macro lens?

If you would be so kind, can you provide a link?

thanks

Tedolph

Link:

https://www.jjc.cc/index/goods/detail.html?id=1024

The fine print claims that it is "compatible" with "other" macro lenses (see the picture I posted of the instructions, plus also the same at the posted link).

It would depend on the distance from the font of the lens to the slide. The slide needs to be held so that it can reasonably fill the frame. I say reasonably because I don't suppose it's necessary to fill the frame edge to edge, especially so f a camera has a hires mode.

In the pictured configuration with the E-M5 II, there is one tube and an 46-52 step-up attached. The minimum distance between the slide and the front of the lens body is about 97mm, and this can extend to about 124 mm. The only workable distance with the 60mm f/2.8 is the fully extended one. I can add my own combos of step-up/step-down rings or filters to add a small amount of extra length.

For the head alone with no tubes attached and just the one 46-52 step-up, the minimum length to the mounted slide to the front of the lens body is about 58mm, and it can extend to about 85mm. Each extension tube adds about 39mm.

You'd have to determined whether the 30mm can work in either of these ranges. You could probably hold a slide up to light and see if you can fill the frame with it, if yes, measure the distance, then refer back to the above and see if might work.

Woody mentioned that the light and slide holder are available as a separate kit. That removes the issue of the extension tube lengths. You could then build a custom rig to suit.

One thing to note is that the instructions include warnings about not leaving the film too close to the light for prolonged periods. After being on for a few minutes, the light temperature measures about 40C (104F). The light's direct holder-mount brings the film much closer to the light. The separate mount-head increases the separation of the light to about 25mm, it would be possible to point a fan across the air-gap. This temperature measurement was with the light full on, it can be turned down, that might reduce the temperature (haven't tested it though).

As I mentioned, with the separate head, you can run you own light source, such as a flash.

After scanning a couple of boxes of slides, I have found this tube based setup very convenient. There is no need to rigidly mount the slide, light or camera, they are bound to each other. The whole rig is quite small and light can live in the box when not in use.

Thanks for all this.

Exactly what I needed and more.

Tedolph

 

[d_chiesa]

I'm thinking about picking one up myself; from your quick sample, it looks like alignment is not bad.

All in all it seems like a quite decent system for the price; did you check also if the LED light is even?

Thanks for any extra comment or thought!

 

[mchnz]

I'm thinking about picking one up myself; from your quick sample, it looks like alignment is not bad.

All in all it seems like a quite decent system for the price; did you check also if the LED light is even?

I had not really given it a close look, I just jumped in and used it. I took a look just now. A jpeg of a black screen exposed for 17% grey appears even. This is just by looking, not checking numerically. Spot metering the corners and the centre gives the same value. (This was with the 60mm f/2.8 at f/5.6, and the light at maximum brightness.)

Thanks for any extra comment or thought!

For the price I think it's a good deal. The light and the holder are plastic. The extension tubes and adapter rings are metal, so they're quite ridgid.

One mishap so far. After twisting the rig up tight last night, a metal B+W protection filter that I was using as an extra spacer bound itself to the metal 46-52mm adapter. No amount of twisting would shift it. A few sharp taps around the adapter with a ballpoint pen caused it to come loose - phew!

 

[Funkmon]

I bought one of those cell phone film scanners and slap on the 50mm macro from 4/3rds.

I am a multi tasker. LOL



Issues: accidentally adding noise

Dust

Alignment and cropping hair frames. Examples from most recent scan.

 

[tammons]

For many years I've been meaning to do a bit of DIY and hack together a rig to scan some old slides. I could not resist this reasonably priced, more immediate, solution which supports the Olympus 60mm f/2.8 out of the box (it was about US$88 local retail in New Zealand):

JJC Film Digitizing Adapter and LED Light Set

60mm details on bottom right

All the bits were nicely protected and packaged.

Assembled on a E-M5 II, but I will likely try to use the OM-1, perhaps with Hires for some scans.

Without any thought about appropriate settings, or even properly adjusting the alignment, I grabbed a slide and took a photo:

Quick scan, a little jpeg post processing, adjusted exposure, gamma, and a smidgen of sharpening.

This is not a detailed review, just my impressions in the first few hours out of the box...

The main viewing-angle-adjuster/head is plastic. It's not the most precise adjustment mechanism, the holder slides along the barrel and has a locking knob. When fully extended in the specified 60mm macro configuration, the head holds the slide at the right distance so the it fills the width of the m43 frame, perhaps with a tiny amount of clipping. Stacking a filter or a step-up ring can be used to increased the distance to avoid any clipping.

The slide/negative holder retention springs in the are quite strong. This means the slide holder requires some force applied to switch slides, which might knock the alignment. In practice it seems OK, I tend to get the force wrong and miss when I slide in the next slide, but making the slight left/right adjustment is pretty easy.

The LED-light is optional. It includes an on/off up/down brightness control. A diffuser is included if you want to use you own light source. The light can be used separately as a light, for macro, or whatever, and it includes tripod mounting threads.

The light has its own separate slide/negative retention clips. It could be used as a mini-stand alone slide/negative viewer or as part of some DIY rig.

Two extension tubes are included. The extension tubes are metal. The interior of the tubes are have a rough mat black texture that seems adequately anti-reflective.

The slide holder only holds two slides at a time, it would be nice if help more. But it was surprisingly quick to work through a box of slides.

It's not a high end solution, but I think the results will be good enough for transfering my old holiday slides to digital format. With so many parts included it could form the basis for some other DIY projects. It might be possible to use it to build something a little more sophisticated, perhaps by starting with the LED light with it's tripod threads, slide/negative rails, and incorporating a macro focusing rail.

Try this.

60mm macro at F8 (for more dof) and high rez mode.

On 80mp high rez, camera scanning B+W film, I am resolving the grain better with an Om1+60mm macro high rez scan than my Dimage 5400 scanner at 5400 ppi.

 

[tammons]

Is there enough adjustability to work with a 30mm macro lens?

If you would be so kind, can you provide a link?

thanks

Tedolph

I use the Om1 + 30mm macro on a macro rail.

It works well.

 

[mchnz]

...

Try this.

60mm macro at F8 (for more dof) and high rez mode.

On 80mp high rez, camera scanning B+W film, I am resolving the grain better with an Om1+60mm macro high rez scan than my Dimage 5400 scanner at 5400 ppi.

The first thing I tried was 80mp high res. I'm not sure many of my slides will benefit, but where there is detail to be had, it does bring it out better. Past landscapes with tripod hires hint at better color clarity as well.

It's sensible to increase the DOF, I was thinking f/5.6, but maybe f/8 would be a better bet.

Here's a 100% crop from a f/4 scan at 80mp, versus one at normal resolution (variations on image included in my first post):

JJC Film Digitizing Adapter and LED Light, OM-1, 60mm f/4, 80mp and LSF normal resolution.

--

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digitaltrails has 14 repositories available. Follow their code on GitHub.

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[tammons]

...

Try this.

60mm macro at F8 (for more dof) and high rez mode.

On 80mp high rez, camera scanning B+W film, I am resolving the grain better with an Om1+60mm macro high rez scan than my Dimage 5400 scanner at 5400 ppi.

The first thing I tried was 80mp high res. I'm not sure many of my slides will benefit, but where there is detail to be had, it does bring it out better. Past landscapes with tripod hires hint at better color clarity as well.

It's sensible to increase the DOF, I was thinking f/5.6, but maybe f/8 would be a better bet.

Here's a 100% crop from a f/4 scan at 80mp, versus one at normal resolution (variations on image included in my first post):

JJC Film Digitizing Adapter and LED Light, OM-1, 60mm f/4, 80mp and LSF normal resolution.

Are you photographing the emulsion side?

This is what I am getting out of 80mp high rez camera scan of CineStill BWxx film.

This is with the Oly 30mm macro.

The camera scan is with the Om1 + 30mm mounted on a Minolta Auto bellows IV macro rail. This aligns with the film holder almost perfectly with the Om1.

These are crops...

 

[mchnz]

...

Try this.

60mm macro at F8 (for more dof) and high rez mode.

On 80mp high rez, camera scanning B+W film, I am resolving the grain better with an Om1+60mm macro high rez scan than my Dimage 5400 scanner at 5400 ppi.

The first thing I tried was 80mp high res. I'm not sure many of my slides will benefit, but where there is detail to be had, it does bring it out better. Past landscapes with tripod hires hint at better color clarity as well.

It's sensible to increase the DOF, I was thinking f/5.6, but maybe f/8 would be a better bet.

Here's a 100% crop from a f/4 scan at 80mp, versus one at normal resolution (variations on image included in my first post):

JJC Film Digitizing Adapter and LED Light, OM-1, 60mm f/4, 80mp and LSF normal resolution.

Are you photographing the emulsion side?

This is what I am getting out of 80mp high rez camera scan of CineStill BWxx film.

This is with the Oly 30mm macro.

The camera scan is with the Om1 + 30mm mounted on a Minolta Auto bellows IV macro rail. This aligns with the film holder almost perfectly with the Om1.

These are crops...

I've no B&W slides to scan and no experience with that format.

My result seems typical of what I was getting from color negatives from my old DIY scanning rig.

This was the first slide to hand. I would say one or two scans of other color slides seem crisper, but I've not pixel peeped them. Quite a few are incorrectly exposed or incorrectly focused or suffer from shake. I would consider the example a success - at least for normal on screen viewing (4k monitor).

Truthfully, I rarely shot slides. I had no projector and the developed results came back with no prints (or maybe I was too cheap to request them - can't remember). Rumour had it, slides were superior, and that you had to be careful with the exposure. For me, slides turned out to be a bit of a pain. After a brief period shooting slides I went back to color film. I have four of those little yellow Kodak plastic boxes of slides to process, one left to go. I would I doubt whether any of my slides are exemplary of what can be achieved by the medium

It does seem that the color in the slides has required less correction than for similarly aged negatives.

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[mchnz]

...

Are you photographing the emulsion side?

Too much information before. The penny just dropped:

There's a right side to scan?! Who would have known, not me.

OK, so I scanned the dull side and then reversed the result. It didn't make as much difference as I had expected. Perhaps fine details seem a little more defined. However, given all the other unknowns that are contributing to the quality of the originals, I went looking for a better example. I think the following is one where the definition (and extra grain) is most apparent:

80MP hires, 60mm f/2.8 at f/8.

I might rescan some images, but for viewing on screen, it mostly it doesn't seem worth it.

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[tammons]

...

Are you photographing the emulsion side?

Too much information before. The penny just dropped:

There's a right side to scan?! Who would have known, not me.

OK, so I scanned the dull side and then reversed the result. It didn't make as much difference as I had expected. Perhaps fine details seem a little more defined. However, given all the other unknowns that are contributing to the quality of the originals, I went looking for a better example. I think the following is one where the definition (and extra grain) is most apparent:

80MP hires, 60mm f/2.8 at f/8.

I might rescan some images, but for viewing on screen, it mostly it doesn't seem worth it.

I have always found that scanning the emulsion side returned the sharpest results.

However, if average color film was shot in an average 35mm film camera then 35mm film really does not resolve that much detail. Probably around 10-12mp or so.

That said, I have a few drum scans of E100G that are super sharp and would come close to maxing out a 4000 ppi scanner. In which case would equal around 20mp.

 

[Seattle Myck]

Hi Teodolph,

Have you determined yet if it will also work with the Oly 30 mm macro? I am at a decision point on whether to pick up the 30 or the 60 mm macro for digitizing probably over a thousand or two of slides/negatives of my dad's and my own.

Sorry that I am piggy-backing on your efforts/determinations. I am wondering if you can use the single barrel (attached to the light) adjusting screw to adjust not just the angle/tilt but also micro-adjust along the barrel to fine tune the distance from they lens.

Thanks,Myck

 

[tedolf]

Hi Teodolph,

Have you determined yet if it will also work with the Oly 30 mm macro? I am at a decision point on whether to pick up the 30 or the 60 mm macro for digitizing probably over a thousand or two of slides/negatives of my dad's and my own.

My preliminary investigation suggests that it will. There are other very similar products that suggest a full frame Canon camera with a 60mm macro lens and 46mm filter thread will work. That is very similar to a 30mm lens on a 4/3 sensor.

Sorry that I am piggy-backing on your efforts/determinations. I am wondering if you can use the single barrel (attached to the light) adjusting screw to adjust not just the angle/tilt but also micro-adjust along the barrel to fine tune the distance from they lens.

I am going to order it and give it a try. I will be using APS negatives so I have to figure out how to mask, modify the film carrier.

Thanks,Myck

TEdolph