What is your digital camera “scanning” setup?

[abruzzi]

I built a digitizing stand with a Beseler 45V-XL enlarger, Z-axis micrometer stages, and linear rails.

I have the shell of an Omega D3 in my garage (I bought it with a D2, and scavenged the best parts from both to build my enlarger.) I consdered using that as the basis for my scanning rig, but I'm horrible with DIY, so making a mount for the camera that is level or adjustable to make level is a bit out of my skills, but your setup looks very nice. The D3 is still in the garage gathering dust. My current plan (mentioned earlier in another thread) will be to build a "copy stand" out of spare sinar parts, and mount the camera to a P2 rear standard. When the parts arrive I'll try it out to see if it might work well.

[Peter De Smidt]

An old version of my setup:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmRHTausFls

Daniel's version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXy7RJwIBAo&t=0s

[darr]

Just posted Part 3 of my digital scanning journey for anyone interested.

Best to you,
darr

[PatrickMarq]

Darr,

Great article quite clarifying, and I like the font choice on your website.
For me I still have mixed feeling about camera scanning, I see the advantages but struggle with the levelling, stitching and bracketing, for now I find this to be hassle mainly with 6x6 or larger.
You end up with HDRI + pano stichting in Lightroom and my MacMini struggles with this.
Also now after covid I must work 2 day’s from home and this means clearing out my desk of photography material each time.
I have a Nikon D750 with a 60mm macro lens and the Negative Supply holders, but a cheap copy stand, perhaps I must give this another go … now after reading your post .

[darr]

Darr,

Great article quite clarifying, and I like the font choice on your website.
For me I still have mixed feeling about camera scanning, I see the advantages but struggle with the levelling, stitching and bracketing, for now I find this to be hassle mainly with 6x6 or larger.
You end up with HDRI + pano stichting in Lightroom and my MacMini struggles with this.
Also now after covid I must work 2 day’s from home and this means clearing out my desk of photography material each time.
I have a Nikon D750 with a 60mm macro lens and the Negative Supply holders, but a cheap copy stand, perhaps I must give this another go … now after reading your post .

Thank you Patrick.

I do shoot auto-bracketing on all my negatives because the camera is setup to take a series of one stop brackets and it happens in the blink of an eye. However, I do not use brackets in post all the time; only on difficult highlight areas which is not that often. I also prefer using the little bubble levels placed on my camera back to level, which takes no effort at all if you have a copy stand with either a leveling base or ball head attached. A leveling base that can stay permanently attached is best as I find mine has stayed level over time, even when moving the copy stand back to storage. The advantage of the copy stand in part, is its grid. When digitizing my 4x5" film, I slide the Skier Copy Box (copy box) so I am making four parts of the rectangle quickly. First I align the copy box on a horizontal grid line under the camera in preparation for my first slice which is the bottom left film rebate to two-thirds across the film. Then I slide the box a little along the horizontal line until the right film rebate is under and aligned at the edge of the lens, and take my second slice. Then I slide the box along a vertical grid line and align the top right rebate corner to the edge, shoot a slice, and slide the copy box again using a horizontal grid line (I eyeball it once I got good at it) for the final top left film rebate shot. Once I got the hang of it, it goes quicker than it sounds.

I do understand my technique for digitizing 4x5" film requires a copy stand, and enough computing power to allow Lightroom or Photoshop to piece them together. But in all honesty, my iMac is getting old in the tooth (late 2015), but my 64GB RAM probably helps more than I realize. It sounds like you have great tools, you just need a copy stand IMO. I would not be able to do what I do without a copy stand and using a tripod would not work for me as it would not be precise enough and standing over a tripod looking down would hurt my back making me not want to do it.

Feel free to contact me if I can help answer any questions for you.

Kind regards,
Darr

[PatrickMarq]

Darr,

I have done some test with some 35mm film, bracketing 3 images, the results where quite impressive especially comparing them to the same scans done with my Reflecta ProScan 10T. Sharper more detail …
For a long time I was happy with the results !
But the horror when executing those tasks in Lightroom and some in Photoshop. My Mac Mini has only 2 core CPU and 16 GB ram.
So after some consideration I have ordered the basic Mac Studio M1 Max.

Patrick

[r.e.]

But the horror when executing those tasks in Lightroom and some in Photoshop. My Mac Mini has only 2 core CPU and 16 GB ram.
So after some consideration I have ordered the basic Mac Studio M1 Max.

You're going to see quite an improvement in performance

[darr]

Darr,

I have done some test with some 35mm film, bracketing 3 images, the results where quite impressive especially comparing them to the same scans done with my Reflecta ProScan 10T. Sharper more detail …
For a long time I was happy with the results !
But the horror when executing those tasks in Lightroom and some in Photoshop. My Mac Mini has only 2 core CPU and 16 GB ram.
So after some consideration I have ordered the basic Mac Studio M1 Max.

Patrick

Wonderful!!
You will have a screaming machine now.

[joelio]

Attachment 228174

I built a digitizing stand with a Beseler 45V-XL enlarger, Z-axis micrometer stages, and linear rails.

This looks like it employs multiple Z-axis stages. Are they all turned independently or can they be “left loose” and a single stage being turned will move the remaining three?

Thanks.

[Leszek Vogt]

I have the shell of an Omega D3 in my garage (I bought it with a D2, and scavenged the best parts from both to build my enlarger.) I consdered using that as the basis for my scanning rig, but I'm horribthfor le with DIY, so making a mount for the camera that is level or adjustable to make level is a bit out of my skills, but your setup looks very nice. The D3 is still in the garage gathering dust. My current plan (mentioned earlier in another thread) will be to build a "copy stand" out of spare sinar parts, and mount the camera to a P2 rear standard. When the parts arrive I'll try it out to see if it might work well.

I've managed to build this contraption and it works. I didn't dump lots of $'s into it. As may have been indicated, good & reliable light is essential and so is level adjustments.

In order for this to work accordingly, and it does not matter how expensive the contraption, one has to be able to adjust and set the taking lens - it needs to be parallel to the scanning material and to the light, IMO.