So I set up a very crude digital camera stand to quickly convert a few negs to digital. I used a very nice Sinar multishot MFD back at iso 25. The resolution was good and the D range was greater then the film but now that is what is troubling me. If I leave the camera to linear output then the image is such a small part of the 14bit histogram that it is noticeable combed after I expand it. I can change the endpoints in capture shop in post but I do not know if that actually will improve image quality as the problem seems to be in the raw data and I dont think there is a way to set the camera to lower the dynamic range so the bit depth is finer within the range of the film.
Now that I think about it I really could do more to mask the image, which would increase contrast some.
Still, I'm working with black and white film (Fp4). Doesnt that have a dmax of around 1.8 or 2? A Dmax of two is 100 times darker then a dmax of which is somewhere between 6-7 stops of contrast) If my camera capture 12 stops then a lot of data is lost. I could see DIY scanners working extremely well for slide film which captures the world in less stops and shows it in great contrast. Actual a film density range of 3.6 has a contrast ratio of 4000:1 and 12 stops is 4096:1 so a 12 stop camera would be an ideal to digitize chrome film (with just a little room to prevent clipping).
Are you guys getting good results with your DIY cameras and negative film? It has 1/40th the contrast ratio of negatives. I know high end CCD and drum scanners allow the analog signals to be adjusted prior to going through the analog to digital converter which makes them more ideal for film digitization. Can this be done with regular or MFD cameras as well?
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