DIY Film Digitizing (1 of 2)
This is my home-brewed setup for digitizing film negatives. I used to think a scanner would be the way to do this but after reading some things on the interwebs and seeing a comparison of the results, I decided that I already had the best scanner available--my DSLR.
All I needed was a decent macro that could photograph the negatives at 1.0x (1:1) magnification. That's because using a full-frame camera body, I am imaging the 35mm film at the same size as the sensor (36x24mm). That gives me all the good (and the bad) original detail using a 20 megapixel camera which has at least as much detail as the original film grains.
The foundation is a piece of 11-3/4 x 24 x 3/4-inch laminated shelving material ($4 USD) with a cut off piece of polycarbonate cutting board ($2 at Walmart), serving as the light diffuser, fastened at a 90-degree angle by a pair of L brackets ($2). From there, black foam board ($3) was assembled to contain a Pacific Image film holder ($10 at B&H) that can slide to easily side-to-side. There's about a 40x30mm hole cut into the foam board backing to allow light through to the negative.
A cheap ($13 at Amazon) macro focusing rail slider is mounted to the board via a standard 1/4-inch (20 thread) bolt through a hole drilled through the centerline at a position based on the minimum focusing distance (MFD) of the macro lens with room to go back about 10cm. To get 1:1 magnification on a macro, you have to be at the lens' MFD. Currently, mounting and unmounting the camera is my biggest pain as I have to unscrew the bolt from the bottom, then unscrew the focus rail from the body. Adding a quick-release mount to the macro focus rail would be ideal and may be my next tweak.
From there, the camera is powered by via an AC adapter ($20 at B&H) so as not to blow through batteries with the constant use of Live-view LCD view for adjustments. Although everything is fairly rigidly mounted and stable on this self-contained platform, I still use my remote/intervalometer ($17 at Amazon) for shutter release.
I tinkered with a few different light sources, but in the end went with a big 40-watt (2800-lumen 6500K) CFL for illumination ($7) housed in a 8-1/2 inch clamp light shell ($5).
The materials for the "light table" were about $56 USD total. The remote and AC adapter for the camera are another $37 getting cheap knock-offs that are all well-rated on Amazon and B&H.
The macro lens you choose can vary greatly. If you already have one, great. If not, you could buy-and-sell used without much cost in the end and is typically cheaper than renting.
Why no tripod? The adjustments are too meticulous and setting it up each time and getting everything aligned just right is a royal pain! I also found that most floors flex too much--just shifting your weight around can shift the distance by a fraction of a millimeter and make your image slightly out-of-focus. The self-contained platform never suffers from this.
DIY Film Digitizing (1 of 2)
This is my home-brewed setup for digitizing film negatives. I used to think a scanner would be the way to do this but after reading some things on the interwebs and seeing a comparison of the results, I decided that I already had the best scanner available--my DSLR.
All I needed was a decent macro that could photograph the negatives at 1.0x (1:1) magnification. That's because using a full-frame camera body, I am imaging the 35mm film at the same size as the sensor (36x24mm). That gives me all the good (and the bad) original detail using a 20 megapixel camera which has at least as much detail as the original film grains.
The foundation is a piece of 11-3/4 x 24 x 3/4-inch laminated shelving material ($4 USD) with a cut off piece of polycarbonate cutting board ($2 at Walmart), serving as the light diffuser, fastened at a 90-degree angle by a pair of L brackets ($2). From there, black foam board ($3) was assembled to contain a Pacific Image film holder ($10 at B&H) that can slide to easily side-to-side. There's about a 40x30mm hole cut into the foam board backing to allow light through to the negative.
A cheap ($13 at Amazon) macro focusing rail slider is mounted to the board via a standard 1/4-inch (20 thread) bolt through a hole drilled through the centerline at a position based on the minimum focusing distance (MFD) of the macro lens with room to go back about 10cm. To get 1:1 magnification on a macro, you have to be at the lens' MFD. Currently, mounting and unmounting the camera is my biggest pain as I have to unscrew the bolt from the bottom, then unscrew the focus rail from the body. Adding a quick-release mount to the macro focus rail would be ideal and may be my next tweak.
From there, the camera is powered by via an AC adapter ($20 at B&H) so as not to blow through batteries with the constant use of Live-view LCD view for adjustments. Although everything is fairly rigidly mounted and stable on this self-contained platform, I still use my remote/intervalometer ($17 at Amazon) for shutter release.
I tinkered with a few different light sources, but in the end went with a big 40-watt (2800-lumen 6500K) CFL for illumination ($7) housed in a 8-1/2 inch clamp light shell ($5).
The materials for the "light table" were about $56 USD total. The remote and AC adapter for the camera are another $37 getting cheap knock-offs that are all well-rated on Amazon and B&H.
The macro lens you choose can vary greatly. If you already have one, great. If not, you could buy-and-sell used without much cost in the end and is typically cheaper than renting.
Why no tripod? The adjustments are too meticulous and setting it up each time and getting everything aligned just right is a royal pain! I also found that most floors flex too much--just shifting your weight around can shift the distance by a fraction of a millimeter and make your image slightly out-of-focus. The self-contained platform never suffers from this.