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Author Topic: Digital Back for "scanning" Negatives.  (Read 3673 times)

FredBGG

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Digital Back for "scanning" Negatives.
« on: December 17, 2012, 03:42:55 am »

I have decided to have my entire film archives digitized/scanned (30 years of work).

On another thread some suggested that a digital back could be used instead of a Hasselblad scanner.

This had made me give it some thought.

First question can anyone point me to some good examples of MF film "scanned" with a digital back.
I'd really like to look at some crops showing reproduction of grain structure.

Taking a look at the used market there are some very good prices.

IQ140 one year old sold for $ 12,000 (Great compared to $ 22,000 new)
IQ160 sold for $ 24,000 with 4.5 year VA warranty (Great compared to new VA back for $ 40,000)
P30 with DF body and 3 lenses for $4,300 with 18 month VA warranty

I plan to do the "scanning" using the back on a two frame stitch setup using either the Fuji 100mm f4 (excellent macro lens)

I'm also thinking of a D800E for the scanning. Also a two or 4 frame stitch.

My neighbor who made parts for the mars rover can make motorized rig to move the camera for a 2 or 4 frame stitch
and control my Nikon can be scripted to control the camera and rig as well as save the files in groups an send them to a stitch program.
140 mp "scans"

To hold the negative down very flat I could use a high volatile wet scan solution as the "scan" would be very quick
so the negative would not also need to be taped down to avoid evaporation.

Is anyone here doing anything like this?
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MHFA

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Re: Digital Back for "scanning" Negatives.
« Reply #1 on: December 17, 2012, 04:53:09 am »

Used DrumScanner (2000€) ist the best way....

I love to work with my MFDB, but for this job a Nikon 800E is much easier and cheaper....

Michael
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MichaelEzra

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Re: Digital Back for "scanning" Negatives.
« Reply #2 on: December 17, 2012, 08:45:51 am »

HI Fred. It is very tempting to me also to quickly snap through the captures instead of a slow scanning. How would you align the camera with the negative? This would require high accuracy to get maximum sharpness.
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Doug Peterson

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Re: Digital Back for "scanning" Negatives.
« Reply #3 on: December 17, 2012, 09:46:58 am »

Used DrumScanner (2000€) ist the best way....

I love to work with my MFDB, but for this job a Nikon 800E is much easier and cheaper....

Good luck with your project! It's a fun area to develop solutions in (as we have done wit our DT Film Scanning Kit which can hit (FADGI 4-star/best quality and hundreds of scans per hours).

Since you'll be going it on your own rather than working with value added dealers you'll get to find all the technical difficulties yourself and invent your own solutions. Nothing like a good project for the winter!
« Last Edit: December 17, 2012, 11:10:53 am by Doug Peterson »
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Rob C

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Re: Digital Back for "scanning" Negatives.
« Reply #4 on: December 17, 2012, 09:49:38 am »

You could do worse than buy an old Durst enlarger frame to support the camera; film on lightbox on baseboard and camera up on the column in place of the enlarger head. However, if using that system, you really need a camera that allows for the use of a non-pentaprism focussing option - a waist-level finder at least. It's not very practical having to stand on boxes to peer down into a prism, and you don't want the setup to be low near the floor because of dust - nature will already afford you enough spotting as it is.
Of course, if you own an MF digital camera and a medium-length micro lens for it, you're ahead of the game due to larger sensor.

I use a manual AIS(?) 2.8/105 Micro Nikkor and it's wonderful.

Rob C

P.S. Having just read Fred's post on this topic in another thread, with the budget he has available and the additional agenda re. his friend, I'd forget the sytem I just outlined. However, for anyone else where cash matters, it works.
« Last Edit: December 17, 2012, 09:58:52 am by Rob C »
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EricWHiss

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Re: Digital Back for "scanning" Negatives.
« Reply #5 on: December 17, 2012, 10:15:13 am »

Look for a bowens Illumitran and mount your D800 to it.  A good illumitran set will include holders for the negatives and you just move them through. Takes no time at all.   If you have color negs, that's a different issue since most scanners have color correction for different film types.    Since I am doing mostly black and white,  I use my CF 528 on a kaiser copy stand.  I can't compare this to drum scans because I haven't got them, but it seems very acceptable to me.   
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Peter McLennan

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Re: Digital Back for "scanning" Negatives.
« Reply #6 on: December 17, 2012, 12:01:31 pm »

I intend to do this with my D800.  I spent most of a month a few years ago with a Nikon film scanner digitizing a whack of 35mm slides and 120 material. It took for #%&@ing EVER. I read a dozen novels while I scanned.  It was a slow, painful process with varying results.

Other than contrast, dust and the glacial pace of production, the biggest problem I encountered was negative flatness.  Focus blending with problematic originals should be a relative breeze with direct photography.

Even with 35mm materials, a 36MP image at 1:1 should recover most of the details in the original.  Shooting tethered direct to LR would further speed up the process.

I'll use the negative carriers from my old Omega C67, and maybe its light source, too.
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FredBGG

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Re: Digital Back for "scanning" Negatives.
« Reply #7 on: December 17, 2012, 12:05:47 pm »

HI Fred. It is very tempting to me also to quickly snap through the captures instead of a slow scanning. How would you align the camera with the negative? This would require high accuracy to get maximum sharpness.

I have a Durst copy stand as well as 4x5 flash reproduction box with glass plate for wet mounting. Alignment won't be a problem.
Room ionizer and hepa filter on air conditioner will keep dust down.
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FredBGG

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Re: Digital Back for "scanning" Negatives.
« Reply #8 on: December 17, 2012, 01:45:26 pm »

Nothing like a good project for the winter!

Many projects not enough time... I guess I need to move to where there is a proper winter... ;)
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ErikKaffehr

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Re: Digital Back for "scanning" Negatives.
« Reply #9 on: December 17, 2012, 01:55:23 pm »

Welcome to Sweden ;-)

Best regards
Erik

Many projects not enough time... I guess I need to move to where there is a proper winter... ;)
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FredBGG

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Re: Digital Back for "scanning" Negatives.
« Reply #10 on: December 18, 2012, 03:31:10 am »

No high rest scan examples anyone?
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michele

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Re: Digital Back for "scanning" Negatives.
« Reply #11 on: December 18, 2012, 06:58:49 am »

I tested this solution with both Canon 5Dmk2 and PhaseOne p45+. You can get very good results with transparency and black&white film, with negative color it's a big challenge, you need a very good curve to get good colors out of the file. I don't like the grain texture, developing the raw file with capture one you are going to see much digital grain against film grain, otherwise, developing the raw file with camera raw the digital grain will be much less and you will get a better smooth film grain. Here you can see a fast way to invert the negative with capture one: http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/2012/11/11/using-a-dslr-to-scan-negative-film-by-stefan-schmidt/

I find this way very good, but a good scanner can give you much better colors from a color negative... The biggest advantage of a digital camera that captures film is the dinamic range... you can get details in the deepes shadows and in the highest light like the sun, but you have to work hard in order to get good colors.

keeping the film flat when shooting it it's not that difficult... I used an old film holder of my epson scanner, or you can build it with a Durst enlarger film holder, it's not a big challenge.

michele

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Re: Digital Back for "scanning" Negatives.
« Reply #12 on: December 18, 2012, 07:14:13 am »

This is an example... The photograph is taken using an old olympus om-1 with a 28mm, the film is a new Portra 160 scanned with a 5Dmk2 and developed with camera raw, the scan is made using a rodenstock rodagon mounted on a macro bellow on the canon. The original file size is A3 but it's 8mb so I can't upload it here so now is A4 and is pretty much compressed

michele

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Re: Digital Back for "scanning" Negatives.
« Reply #13 on: December 18, 2012, 07:16:38 am »

If you want I can send you the original scan in raw file, give me your e-mail and I'll send it to you with wetransfer

FredBGG

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Re: Digital Back for "scanning" Negatives.
« Reply #14 on: December 18, 2012, 01:44:02 pm »

If you want I can send you the original scan in raw file, give me your e-mail and I'll send it to you with wetransfer

Grazie Michele!
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