Flat-Bed Scanner as scanning back for 8X10 view camera?

[Drew Bedo]

Has any one out there adapted a flat bed scanner as a scanning back for an 8X10 view Ccamera?

[Ken Lee]

Try Google (http://www.google.com)

A quick search got me these links:

http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/tech/scanner.html

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2005/04/building_a_scan.html

http://www.fotocommunity.com/forum/read.php?f=47&i=391&t=391

[David A. Goldfarb]

I've seen some examples of images made with this sort of thing, and I've yet to see something that one could really use in a normal way, which is not to say that one couldn't do something creative and interesting with this. The scans are invariably streaky or show some kind of banding. I guess that's why people pay the big bucks for the scanning backs designed for the purpose.

[Ken Lee]

There will be issues with power supply, since scanners are designed to plug into the wall.

There may also be an issue with brightness and contrast. I doubt that flatbed scanners are designed to accommodate the levels and ranges of brightness that we encounter outdoors on a sunny day.

In fact, you should probably be careful not to "toast" the sensor inadvertently, by underexposing at first.

[Drew Bedo]

I found this paper by Wang and Heidrich in a thread "on another forum". They put together a working camera system that does pretty well in static studio situations; and yes….they DID get that rig to make pictures, but JEEZE they had to seriously modify the scanner. They chose to do multiple scans through an RBG filter wheel for color shots and still had to do software gymnastics to manage color balance and scanner artifacts. It is impressive from an academic viewpoint, but not really a DIY project. The paper is now four years old…an eon in Digi-Years. With the advances in both software and gear today, there has got to be a way to do this at home with stuff from Best Buy (or E-bay). Link to paper: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s5EvhHy7eQ


I have seen a few hundred bucks worth of Wii remote, Blue-Tooth what-it and Radio-Shack parts made to emulate a $6000 Smart Screen on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s5EvhHy7eQ .

Can’t some 14 yr-old hacker kluge together some scanner with, say, an I-Phone and a Giga-gig pocket drive to come up with a low-cost, practical scanning back for a view camera?
Chr

[Ken Lee]

I'd rather shoot a single sheet of 8x10 film, and then scan/adjust it later to my heart's content, in the comfort of my own... pajamas.

There are certain advantages to processes with multiple steps. Just as there are advantages to having cameras that are made of interchangeable components.

[scrichton]

Mr Wang is true hero of mine I have to say! Incredibly innovative and really seems like a good all round guy when sharing ideas.

On the scanning back side, kodak did make a battery powered scanner that scanned to a compact flash card, I have one somewhere so I can find the model for you.

Although, as previously said the disadvantages are too many to comprehend, really the only solution for homebrew scanning cameras is rotational lens based design i.e. nikon 35mm lens on an arc. Even so these are crap to say the least.