35mm film negatives to digital ?

Ironwood

Senior Member
My wife found some of our old 35mm film negatives today.
I would like to convert some of them to digital.
I watched some youtube videos and did some googling, I learnt that you can do it with a yoghurt container and phone camera, or I can buy a gizmo off ebay to do it.

Can I use my D7100 and a macro lens while backlighting the negatives with a lightbox ?
Does anyone have any experience with this ? Any help would be appreciated.
 

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
This can work as long as you do your careful focus using Live View and mask the surrounding to prevent too much backlight contamination.
 

nickt

Senior Member
I was going to do this. Either make my own setup or get a thing off ebay. I think it would work. We ended up getting a scanner, so I dropped the idea. This was my quick feasibility test. I held the negative up to a window and took a macro shot hand held with my other hand. I inverted the colors and played with a few other things in Lightroom. The original negative was not all that sharp here. With a fixed setup and controlled light, I think there are good possibilities.

D71_0540.jpg
 

Fred Kingston

Senior Member
Nikon makes the "Slide Copying Adapter ES-1". It screws onto the front of your macro lens and you shoot an image of your slide. With a little careful manipulation, you can do a negative... I've used dedicated scanners and the little ES-1 is by far the easiest and produces the best results... the adapter is basically a two-part extension tube that lets you adjust the length of the tube so you can get a 1:1 ratio with any macro lens... it also has a frosted glass front element so you can point it at a regular flashgun or white light to get a nice soft diffused light...
 

Ironwood

Senior Member
Thanks for the help Marcel, Nick, and Fred.
Fred, that adapter sounds like it might be what I need, I will check out it’s cost and availability here. It will be Pre much a one use thing for me, as I won’t be taking any more film photos any time soon, or ever.
But as these are our Wedding photos, I would like to do a real and proper job of them.

Will let you know what I end up doing.
 

Sandpatch

Senior Member
As a sidenote, I think the ES-1 requires an FX body to work as advertised. I think I once figured out that DX cameras would require tubes.

I've messed around with some of the home-brew methods and got fair results, but the setup time was extensive and the adjustments required more patience than I possess. This digitized image is from one of my Kodachromes, taken with my D5100 using natural light behind the slide through a window. The slide is razor sharp, but I couldn't get the digitized image to be as sharp no matter how hard I tried. In view of my volume of slides, I'm headed toward a scanner, either the Epson V600 or V800.

2009-01-10 Sprout Red Valve Cover.jpg
 
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Dawg Pics

Senior Member
I have most of my Dad's images that I need to convert. All kinds of negatives and slides. I had started scanning slides, but I can only scan 4 at a time. I will be following this post regarding the negatives.
 

desmobob

Senior Member
The first dozen are big fun. Then I sent the next 200 off to India for scanning.

:unconscious: Years ago, I bought a Nikon Coolscan V ED, thinking I was going to scan all my old film negatives and slides. If I had followed through with that, I'd still be working on it today! S-L-O-W...

I think the ES-1 is the way to go!

Stay sharp,
Bob
 

Texas

Senior Member
A friend of mine has the expensive Nikon scanner and has offered to scan some of my leftovers. I won't do that to him.
 

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
As a sidenote, I think the ES-1 requires an FX body to work as advertised. I think I once figured out that DX cameras would require tubes.

I've messed around with some of the home-brew methods and got fair results, but the setup time was extensive and the adjustments required more patience than I possess. This digitized image is from one of my Kodachromes, taken with my D5100 using natural light behind the slide through a window. The slide is razor sharp, but I couldn't get the digitized image to be as sharp no matter how hard I tried. In view of my volume of slides, I'm headed toward a scanner, either the Epson V600 or V800.
Regarding sharpness, did you use the mirror up mode? I suspect that your shutter speed was a bit low and your aperture to big. I try a few with higher iso, smaller aperture and mirror up mode with a delay. Also, make certain you take the picture with the emulsion facing the lens, otherwise you'd be shooting through the film's backing causing diffraction and loss of sharpness.
 

Ironwood

Senior Member
As a sidenote, I think the ES-1 requires an FX body to work as advertised. I think I once figured out that DX cameras would require tubes.

I've messed around with some of the home-brew methods and got fair results, but the setup time was extensive and the adjustments required more patience than I possess. This digitized image is from one of my Kodachromes, taken with my D5100 using natural light behind the slide through a window. The slide is razor sharp, but I couldn't get the digitized image to be as sharp no matter how hard I tried. In view of my volume of slides, I'm headed toward a scanner, either the Epson V600 or V800.

View attachment 304194
Hi Sandpatch, I have also read where Dx camera needs a extension tube to copy the entire image when using the ES1.
I have 100 images that I want to convert to digital, then would never use it again.
I am going to see if my local camera store does this, I know that they copy photos into digital files for a fee.

I have tried a couple using my iPad with a white screen for a backlight, D7100 and 55mm macro lens on a tripod. The results were not as good as I had hoped for. After reading Marcel’s post about making sure the film is up the right way, has me wondering if I had them wrong way up.

Check the exif on that photo, are you sure you used your D5100 ?
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
I have an Epson slide/negative scanner. It came with a holder for the negatives. One of the problems is the negatives tend to curl a little horizontally down the middle of each strip even when they are inserted into the holder. So if you were going to take photos with a camera/lens, the curvature might have posed a problem for you. I hope having the camera store scan them will work out for you--if they do it.
 

Ironwood

Senior Member
I have an Epson slide/negative scanner. It came with a holder for the negatives. One of the problems is the negatives tend to curl a little horizontally down the middle of each strip even when they are inserted into the holder. So if you were going to take photos with a camera/lens, the curvature might have posed a problem for you. I hope having the camera store scan them will work out for you--if they do it.
Hi Cindy, yes the negatives do have natural curve in them, I made a holder out of black perspex that holds the neg and takes some/most of the curve out, and I used f16 when I took them, that should have given me enough dof , the focus pane would have been maybe 2mm thick, so should have allowed for a bit of curvature.
 

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
Hi Cindy, yes the negatives do have natural curve in them, I made a holder out of black perspex that holds the neg and takes some/most of the curve out, and I used f16 when I took them, that should have given me enough dof , the focus pane would have been maybe 2mm thick, so should have allowed for a bit of curvature.
Hi Brad,
Using F16 might induce some diffraction. I would personally use something between 8-11. Also if you could use an external flash bounced on a piece of white paper or cardboard, it could give you enough good constant light plus remove any chance of camera shake.
 

Sandpatch

Senior Member
… Check the exif on that photo, are you sure you used your D5100 ?

I've never noticed that on the EXIF -- thank you. That's really puzzling, I need to investigate where that came from. :confused: I don't recognize the camera source, but you may well be right that I didn't use my D5100 on that attempt.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts here. I suppose the solution might differ for each of us depending on the quantity of slides we need to digitize. I forget where I read it, but someone once wrote that for those of us like me who will likely choose the DIY route, "the first thing you'll realize is that you retired too late". ;)
 
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Ironwood

Senior Member
Hi Brad,
Using F16 might induce some diffraction. I would personally use something between 8-11. Also if you could use an external flash bounced on a piece of white paper or cardboard, it could give you enough good constant light plus remove any chance of camera shake.
Thanks Marcel, some good information there for me to try and improve on things.
f16 is what I use all the time for my macro work, it seems good for spiders etc, but maybe for this job I need to use a different approach. Definitely will try a wider aperture.
I am trying to picture in my head how to position things to try your bounced flash method. I had thought of shooting a flash through a sheet of white paper for a backlight, but bouncing might give a better quality light than going through the paper and possibly inducing another colour hue to deal with.
How far above the white paper would you recommend to position the film holder ?
 

Ironwood

Senior Member
Thanks for everyone's thoughts here. I suppose the solution might differ for each of us depending on the quantity of slides we need to digitize. I forget where I read it, but someone once wrote that for those of us like me who will likely choose the DIY route, "the first thing you'll realize is that you retired too late". ;)
Yes, I am quickly realising this could consume a lot of time Oz
 

Marcel

Happily retired
Staff member
Super Mod
Thanks Marcel, some good information there for me to try and improve on things.
f16 is what I use all the time for my macro work, it seems good for spiders etc, but maybe for this job I need to use a different approach. Definitely will try a wider aperture.
I am trying to picture in my head how to position things to try your bounced flash method. I had thought of shooting a flash through a sheet of white paper for a backlight, but bouncing might give a better quality light than going through the paper and possibly inducing another colour hue to deal with.
How far above the white paper would you recommend to position the film holder ?
Depending on the size of the paper sheet or cardboard, I'd say about 1-1 1/2 foot. It's just a question of trial and error, but when you find the good distance and flash power, you'll be good to go. If you want to reproduce your setup, just take measurements once you're satisfied with the results.
 
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