This video was a long time coming, but we finally got it out! I run down my entire setup that I built to make dslr film scanning as easy and streamlined as possible!! I hope it serves you well in either answering whether its the right setup for you, or how to maybe improve on the system you are currently using. Also if you have any ideas as to how I can improve my setup, I would love to hear. Be sure to drop me a comment, and ask any questions you may have. Thanks for the constant support!! Cheers
Just as a follow up to my comments on your video, I've got a link for you on the Filmtoaster (slide / neg copier) which had caught my eye a while back .... Like I say .. " horses for courses " Watch "How To: Scan Film with your DSLR (Film Toaster)" on RUclips ruclips.net/video/OOfQZChtzK0/видео.html
John Taylor yea that’s a nice setup. Had seen it before. It’s same concept, just super pricey. Its why I had called this the diy film toaster in the video title.
Working on making this. Instead of the coupler I just used one of the screw clamps that the flex tube came with to attach it to the base. Just put it half on each piece and tightened it down.
1600 ISO... dawg it's stationary, set that ISO to like 50 or 100 even if you need to take a 10 sec exposure the camera isn't moving. You should never need to add noise to a picture you already took.
If the shutter speed is 1/60-1/30 at 1600, than at 100 it will be 1/4 - 1/2. And even if it will be 1 second - will it be soooo muuuuch slower than 1/60?
Agreed, this is one issue I also consider a mistake. Use lower ISO to achieve maximal dynamic range and minimal noise. 2nd aspect is, these days use rather a mirror-less camera with electronic shutter and avoid any issues with vibrations.
Exactly what I was thinking. Why set it to 1600 iso, that makes no sense, considering you can take a 10 or 20 sec exposure. Looks like someone needs to retake a basic photography class.
@John ok yeah, he's using live view so the mirror is up already. I used to tether my 5dmk2 to a laptop and check focus on it and you can even trigger the camera from the Laptop.
Great video; I chatted with you on Instagram today. I have scanned about 10,000 frames of B&W film, and only last week started to use my D750. I'll never go back. Even with 24 mp, the resolution beats my Epson 750 and my Nikon 4000. The whole drain-pipe setup is ingenious. Thanks so much for this. Great to find you.
If there's any curl in the negatives, like at the sprocket edges, f/8-11 might give you a bit more depth of focus to accommodate it. That's what I picked up from DP Review when they reviewed the Nikon film scanning set up, the ES-2, which I'm using with a Sony FX and a Nikon 60 2.8. I'm also using a Gagne Portra-Trace light box, about 10x12" and 5000k, works great. I'm getting a combination of 1/20th, f/8-11 and ISO 100 for 1:1 42mp shots. I have the camera on a copy stand, but would not need to, just easier. I trigger the shutter with a elec cable release plugged into the side of the camera, set for consistent 2 second delay. I just went through hundreds of negs and it was a huge time saver. Now I will batch process in PS to flip them all to positives and save to an external HD.
Have you thought about shooting tethered to your computer? That way, you can see what you're photographing in a larger image and can trip the shutter using the computer without touching the camera. Just a thought.
I've thought about it, but would rather have a documentary playing on the screen. haha. Its a good idea, I dont mind the 3" monitor on the camera though.
This is excellent..I'm just in the process of converting over from scanning to DSLR. Your adaptor is the clean simple solution I want. I was just about to chop up an old Durst enlarger into a copy stand. Kudos for using plumbing hardware. I've made tons of stuff over the years from it, I'm retired . From a socket to align the Xmas tree in a DIY stand to a new fliud reservior for the clutch master cyl on my truck. So much can be done with all these bits that fit together in so many ways. Many thanks I have boxes of stuff to scan this saves years.
Glad to hear the video helped out in your process! It’s pretty incredible what can be made with a few spare parts from the hardware store isn’t it! Sorry for the delay in response. I appreciate your comment
cheap diy film holder...when I got my Ektachrome back from the lab, I took two of the "less successful" frames and popped open the mounts...removed the film...then with a strip of film in between (to insure proper spacing) taped them together (making sure the frame holes were aligned)...now I had a film holder that I could slide any 35mm film through and tape down on my diffusion surface to hold in place..one advantage (besides price) this has is that my commercial film holders have a tiny crop on top and bottom...this allows me to move the film up/down if I need to get right to the edge of the frame...thanks for the channel!!!
will do...but, basically, I'm just sandwiching my negatives in between two empty cardboard slide mounts (the ones I get from my camera store pop open and I can easily remove whatever film is in there)...then, I just tape them together...two important things...one, make sure there is a "spacer" (I use a film strip as my spacer) inside when taping them together...and two...make sure the frames are aligned to insure maximum surface area exposed to light
Interesting video. Thanks Nick. You have me rethinking my yet to be implemented scanning/copying workflow. I read all the comments and can’t believe how often you had to repeat yourself. You’re a patient man.
Haha, thank you John! I’m here to serve, so if I need to repeat some words here or there its not big deal. Sorry for my delay in response. I appreciate the comment and kind words.
As someone that is new to film, I've spent the last few days researching scanning options and getting frustrated that everything seems either too costly, too time consuming, or compromising on quality. This is the definitely the avenue I will be going down first after watching this. Thanks so much
Hey James! Welcome to the film photography world! I’m glad the video helped in answering some of your questions. If you hit any snags, please feel free to reach out on instagram! Cheers
A couple of weeks ago my V800 broke down and it is out of warrenty. Instead of a costly repair I thought about going the scan-by-camera way. This video kicks my butt to do it. Helpful information as always.
What a great idea! My first attempt scanning with my DSLR (also 5DMkII + 100mm) was super cumbersome because I was using a tripod and it was so hard to get even focus across the negative. I'll will definitely try your method next time. Super helpful! Thanks!
Omg yayayayayay!!! Absolutely amazing. I’m just getting into film and the scanning was honestly the most intimidating and so frikkin costly. This is my exact lens as well! So PUMPED!! Many thanks!
Nick just wanted to mention something I do to get around the reverse controls issue. I use a batch process in Photoshop to simply switch all the negatives to positive. It does a whole folder of images in one batch. Once thats done I import the positives into Lightroom and then follow everything you do except that my controls work the right way around.
Hi Nick! The video is much appreciated! I also scan film with a dslr. I use an enlarger, simply removing the enlarger lens holder, setting the camera down on the base board and triggering the shutter via WiFi with an app on my phone. It's super bright backlighting so I shoot everything at f11 at 1/200 and adjust the iso between around 400~1600. I do this because I notice reduced sharpness from mirror slap at lower speeds. This is because I'm using a standard 50mm lens with a teleconverter and a crop sensor camera, so any vibration is very exacerbated. For your camera/lens combo I'd imagine you could shoot at a low iso and lower shutter speed with this approach. Cheers man!
Ah that's definitely an interesting way of going about it. I will have to ponder on the setup a bit, and see what parts may meld together well. Thank you for the suggestion.
Nick Exposed yeah, your set up looks pretty great tho, just thought you may be interested in experimenting. We appreciate what you do for our community too bro. All the best for now.
Nick Exposed main reason I made the suggestion was that I figured a new high output light table would probably cost you an arm and a leg compared to a crusty old 35mm durst 🤣
@@NickExposed Doesn't live view read from the sensor, with the mirror already locked up? Or were you referring to the fact that the light table was so dim that ISO 100 wasn't an option? Perhaps you've upgraded your light table since last year?
Depending on which camera you use, electronic shutter may be available, in which case, the sensor is just being turned off and on for exposure I think, no actual shutter action. I'm using a Sony a7Rii with two second delay, seems very quiet, steady. The flip up LCD is handy as is the white, red or yellow focus assist for the manual focus. I don't need to zoom in then.
@@NickExposed You ready for it? About two hours from start to finish of a roll of 39 frames. I've tried it all, scan without any touches in Silverfast then apply on LR later, to scan while editing in LR but I find it stressful because the scan don't take that long so there's almost like no time to waste because the next one will be done. So I just scan first and touch them later. But you see, this takes way too much time out of my life. I also don't own any digital cameras at the moment besides a phone but kinda been thinking about picking up one. A friend of mine suggested the a7r2 to go with my m glass...
Junr34 wow! That’s a loooong workflow! Yea this could be a game changer for you! Get your time back! Put it to better things like shooting or zine making 👌🏻👌🏻
Hi Nick. One thing I might comment on is........ You do not have a guard on the outside of the film to stop light spill onto the negative from your light table. A bit of black card will do... I honestly do think that your film scanning experience will be improved again once you cut that excess light out :-) Cracking vid by the way :-)
Thank you for the inspiration, I tried before with a tripod and messy setups and I got tired of all the thing that could possibly go wrong or move and mess up everything . As soon as I can I’ll try to build a fixed rig with a bellow and an old 50mm. Thank you!
Great video. I have been dslr scanning for years. My dedicated film scanner only takes 35mm so I tried tried dslr scanning and the speed and quality blew me away. I merge two frames from a Canon 6D together in Lightroom, but for really high quality I have used six frames. A good lightbox makes a huge difference. The Kaiser Slimlite Plano is just over $100 but worth every penny. I use a copy stand with a tripod head on it and some old enlarger film holders. The copy stand is always ready so set-up is just putting the camera onto the tripod head, turning on the lightbox and loading the film into the negative holder. I find that the negative holder from an enlarger tends to hold the film a little more flat, especially an issue with larger negatives. Not sure why you aren't using a slow enough shutter speed to get your iso down to 100. I think my longest exposure, at f11 and with the Kaiser, is about one second and usually more like a quarter second. That doesn't really slow down the process. I like your setup for 35mm. Just brilliant. I think I am going to give that a try, then I won't need to leave the copy stand setup all the time and the tube will mask out the room light so I won't have to keep turning them on and off as I load the negative holder and shoot. Thanks for posting this and please keep posting your amazing black and white film photos - really great work you are producing.
Thank you so much for the kind words. To answer the question about the shutter speed, its simply down to the lowest shutter speed live view will allow me to shoot at. Thats really all it is. I dont want to lose my histogram, and liveview function. For me I dont mind the difference in iso, as I dont feel its really adding that much in artifacts to the scan. I ca understand completely how others may feel differently, and even how the thought of lower iso being a cleaner scan is justified, but my work is not about perfection, so I dont need a perfect workflow, simply an effective one. Thanks again!
Excellent video Nick! and thanks for the shout-out :-D I am seriously impressed by the DIY rig you built. I am gonna check out "Bunnings" which is like an Australian version of Home Depot to see if they have the same square grate thing. Seriously would save pulling out the tripod, and can have different tubes for different film sizes
Especially when you only have one tripod and have to balance it between all sorts of projects. Hopefully Bunnings will have what you need, otherwise, I'm sure e-bay might help with some searching. Or JJ even mentioned in another comment the idea of 3d printing parts of the rig. That could be an option as well. Excited to see your upcoming vids delving into the color workflow!
@@NickExposed heya nick / pushing film... pardon my newb question. what if you were using a different camera, like say an APS-C camera with a 50mm macro lens on extension tubes.. should i even bother trying? how would you cut the tube to the right length for 35mm?
Punk Rachmaninoff that would work perfectly fine! How I figured out the minimum focus distance was quite unscientific. I placed the setup on the light table with a negative under the setup. Removed the pvc coupler and flexible coupling. Then simply held the camera and lens with lens hood above setup until the negative filled the entire frame when focused. Then took a ruler and measured the distance from the light table to the edge of the lens hood. Once I had that measurement I could then put the pvc coupling back into the setup and re-measure the same distance, marked the pvc coupler with permanent marker and made the cut from there. Hopefully that all makes sense 😅 it’s easier than my explanation makes it sound. If you run into any issues let me know.
This is awesome! I can't wait to build one of these. I have decades of color negatives to digitize so my Lightroom portion will be more complicated, but I love this build.
Excellent video, Nick! Thanks! It’s given me a few ideas for tweaking my set-up and trying to get that “level plane” - current set-up involves messing around with a spirit level, which is not sustainable and drives me mad! 😂
Haha I can definitely imagine! I wanted to take all the fiddling out of the equation and be able to run and gun as fast as possible. Glad it gave you some ideas.
A couple of questions: Do you need a macro lens? Would using extension tubes work in place of a macro lens? Do you need to use a full-framed DSLR? What about a 16MP cropped frame camera or Mirrorless camera?
Great questions, buddy! You do not need a full frame, a crop sensor will work just fine (just keep the focal length in mind). And an extension tube on a standard lens would also work well as a macro replacement. Thanks for asking these questions. Great questions!
Chris Pasion you’re welcome, Chris! I’m definitely not speaking down on the flatbed scanning, However it wasn’t a workflow for me. Especially for 35mm scans. Thanks for the comment
Nick - Outstanding video and information! Your scanning process is very efficient and your getting very high quality scans! I need to experiment with this. Thank you for sharing! 😎👍🏻
I'm an old film guy (old being the operative word) and have looked at various ways of digitising my film archive. I never considered consumer flatbed scanners suitable for 35mm, although 120 is probably doable. I invested in a Nikon Coolscan 4000 that produces decent results, but it is a slow process to get optimal scans. I always thought that using a digital camera made sense, remembering the old slide duplicators (most of my old archive is Kodachromes) from the film-only days and it seemed a logical solution. I recently picked up a basic slide duplicator that requires bellows and a 50mm lens with a 49mm filter. Enter the Zuiko 50mm from my Olympus OM1, with an adapter for it to fit my Canon 6D. The results were OK, but not quite as good as the Coolscan. I probably just need a bit more experimentation with settings. The main downside is that this manual rig doesn't work with live view, which would make focussing much better. Then I came across your video, via the Pushing Film channel. I love the simplicity of the set up. So after that preamble, my questions are; does it have to be the 100mm macro? Which one are you using? Would a less expensive 50mm macro work just as well, with the necessary height adjustment? Anyway, thanks for the video, it's got excited again about making scans with my DSLR.
I'm curious what LED light source you ended up with? I've run into 2 problems. 1) The "tracer" LED lights aren't as bright as I'd like to ideally shoot at ISO 100 without having to get into a 10 sec+ shutter speed. 2) The LED's that I have found that are bright enough (someone mentioned the Aputure small LED) don't produce seamless light like the tablet style tracers. If anybody has some info on bright and seamless LED options I'd love to hear. I know I could go shoot at ISO 100 and the shutter speed at 10+ seconds shouldn't matter but I'm using a tripod setup with trigger so the longer the shutter speed the more likely there could be movement. I'd like to completely eliminate that variable.
I went and bought the items you used and found out the thin wall is very important. My Home Depot doesn't sell that version of a coupling at all. After further investigation, the proper term for it is Sched 30 size. I was able to find one on Grainger and am ordering it now.
Great stuff as always, Nick! Can't wait to start using my Fuji for this and ditch the V550. Might try and 3d print something similar to your holder since the fuji lenses are so tiny!
John Taylor I’m not sure why that would be a backward step. I would argue the scans on the dslr are not only faster, but also sharper than the flatbed would offer. And depending on the dslr or micro 4/3 camera being used the size of the scans would be much larger than the flatbed would offer.
@@kiwipics at least with 35mm, I don't get the greatest scans with my V550 anyways and its such a slow process. I've scanned with a DSLR in the past and it's miles faster than a flatbed and I didn't notice a reduction in quality and that was with a T3i. Can't hurt to try it again with a newer camera.
@@SubtleToast ... Like I say, it's horses for courses. Everyone has their own way of working. For quick copies I'd use my Ohnar Zoom slide copier (from the 80's) and Snapseed to produce copies (not "scans") and upload to the net within minutes. For everything else there's the Epson 1200 and Nikon LS film scanner.
Terrific video tutorial! It could have used a tight shot of the film grain on the camera display (maybe even zoomed in) and a tight shot depicting the resulting sharpness of the camera-scanned film grain on the scanned negative and on the positive conversion (in Lightroom). I'm guessing the success of this process is as much about film grain sharpness as it is about dynamic range. Also, do you have a short, written narrative outlining the steps to build the lens adapter and film holder? Brilliant hack, as it creates a tripod stand AND makeshift extension tube! Kudos. Also missing from your otherwise complete tutorial: the final cut-length of the white PVC coupler (for a 100mm lens) the model number for the lens hood you used (though I'll be using a 100mm NIKKOR micro - I'll have to see if a hood is offered for that AF lens) and the height (thickness) in mm of your negative holder.
drrgr: you can reset the Lightroom curve to normal by going to photoshop, making some adjustments like cleaning up the image then back to Lightroom where the sliders will all be reverted to normal.
NIce video!! I thought I was the only crazy man copying negatives ( I don´t like calling it Scanning, because it is not ) by using my Sony a6000 and the nice 30 mm macro... I use the tipical negative and slide duplicator attached to the lens threat....work niiiiiice!! I am shooting film again thanks to this option.......thanks for sharing this.
Thanks for this excellent video. It seems to be an excellent solution, at least for 35mm. I wonder whether Adobe could implement an "Invert" function in the Develop module, so that we get rid of the inversed behaviors of settings once the curves preset is applied. This Invert command exists in Photoshop. Thanks again and photographic cheers from France. Jean
Jean Daubas yea, I’m seriously surprised they haven’t already. I do have creative cloud so I guess I should try the cc Lightroom and see if the feature already exists in there.
I was gonna ask why shoot at 1600 ISO, but you explained below bc of live view. Btw the Artograph LED tables are a good alternative to those cheaper pads, I just upgraded and it's a good 2-3 stops brighter than the generic pad I was using. It's got a better color spectrum too which should help with color scans. I'm usually shooting f11, ISO 100 1/15th on a A7II for b&w
Kudos! Thanks for making this video, it's a great tutorial. I am bummed that the diameter of the flange (pipe) on the drain grate is too small for 6 X 6 medium format frames!! (I think I've figured out a work-around). Looking forward to scanning a bunch of neg/slide film.
Love the Home Depot set up. Way more convenient than my tripod setup but that’s for medium and large format. I really hate that adobe hasn’t implemented Invert function for Lightroom. It’s such a pita for the sliders to be reversed! I hear Nikon D850 has a function to invert in-camera fwiw.
Yea the d850 can invert natively in Camera. I believe in live view even, which would be a Giant game changer for the workflow. But I’m invested into the canon setup and can’t justify that large of a price tag for a single feature. I’ve been hearing great things about Negative Lab Pro, but I would really only be using it for inverting, and again for my budget $100 for an invert is a bit steep for me. If I did more color work it would be better justified. Thanks for the comment and thoughts Ron! Always a pleasure hearing from you.
I’m still working on my setup. I’ve tried 30 megapixel canon EOS R and lately Olympus Pen F 20 megapixel camera with macro lens. Camera leveled on a dedicated high quality tripod, negatives flat on a light table. Using negative lab pro in Lightroom. Still the Pakon 135 + is faster and at 6 megapixels produces sharper, better scans.
Fotos y Mas damn really? I’m super tempted to get a pakon but so many people seem to be selling them. Was hoping this DSLR method would be better quality.
nice rig :)) i have purchased the nikon film scan adapter, much more expensive .. kudos, your ingenious solution works as well or maybe better for u! i have adapted by panasonic g9 to shoot at 1:1 macro with 30mm macro lens. the detail and the grain is incredible when i shoot it as a high res by using pixel shift (80 megapixel files) , superb for large prints. the guy in the gallery swore i had shot the film on medium format! dunno why he thought so , but thought i should mention that.
I was actually thinking about that the other day, was wondering how well the pixel shift would work for it. Glad to hear it works out well. Probably a move I will make in the future.
Great video!! Any time you’re talking Home Depot photo gear hacks is a WIN. This is going to be a game changer for me. I hate flatbed scanning. My film never seems flat and I want the edges and carrier. Would some sort of anti newton ring glass work with a rig like this?
Yea I’m sure if you got two pieces of anti newton ring glass and sandwiched the film between it over the light table it would work just fine in replacement to a holder. Might need to watch out for more dust at that point, but a rocket blower can take care of that.
Hi Nick, just came across your video, really enjoyed it, and really helpful. I am based in the UK, hoping I can get the items to build my own. Can I ask how do you fit the lens hood, is it glued in place? How did you cut the opening in the lens hood for the camera to go in? Thank you. Has anyone come up with any modifications for 120 film scanning? Thank you.
Hi Paul! So the lenshood I have actually fits snuggly into the rubber collar on the setup. No modification to that part was needed. It's an aftermarket lens hood for the Canon 100mm f2 macro I think maybe from Neewer? Depending on what lens setup you have and whether you have a lenshood for it or not you may need to play around in a hardware store one afternoon to come up with a creative solution. I hope that helps. I am glad the video served you well. Let me know if you have any other questions. Cheers!
Depending on the holder I’m sure you could get it to work with the system. Some minor tweaks may be needed. At the same time with how cheap the setup is to build I’m sure you could build a second rig specifically for medium format with a bit of extra hunting at the hardware store. Let me know if you get something figured out. I would love to hear how it went
Does it have to be exactly 1:1 macro? Would a 1:2 work, for example? Also why don’t you do longer shutter speeds and lower iso instead of the high iso and 1/60? Just for the time saving?
1:2 will work just as well, you will just have to keep it in mind when building your rig. And I mentioned it in the video, the 5D mkii caps me at 1/30 on liveview. I dont go any lower because I dont want to lose my histogram or live view function. I work off of efficiency, not perfection. I can understand how others may prefer a longer shutter speed to lower the iso, but quite frankly, it really doesnt bother me personally.
@@NickExposed I have seen where shutter speeds between 1/15th sec and 1/60th sec, that the mirror vibration reduced sharpness. Has this been your experience?
I found that you can use an iPad or other tablet at full brightness instead of the light table. You just need to make sure that there is some distance between the screen and the film so it's out of focus and the pixel lattice won't show.
AManWhoWasntThere yea in testing it against my light table it was a bit more dim even at full brightness. But it is a great alternative for anyone just starting out with a fresh setup build.
Hey Nick, i wonder if one of those Amaran Aputure lights would be sufficient. They are Turbo Bright. could set it up so its sits a few inches back from the diffuser to stop bright points over the LEDs.
Thank you for sharing your workflow. The question is why is all these troubles since you already have a flatbed scanner and a Pakon +? For printing purposes may be?
Zerihun Hailu flatbed never gave sharp scans of 35mm film. No matter what I tried the grain was always fuzzy. Pakon was nice. But the scans were small and the virtual machine I was running for hosting windows xp on my MAC was finicky. So I sold the Pakon while prices were still high and spent $15 to use equipment that I already had anyway. And the scans I’m getting blow the Pakon and flatbed out of the water. Seems like a win win to me.
@@3196453 the depth of field is so shallow with the macro lens that it needs to be manually focused each frame to get critical focus. If it was a brighter light table I could lower the iso, close the aperture down. But because you’re supplying ample light you would be surprised at how little artifacting you get at 1600 to 3200
Best use ever for a digital camera. I use a Pakon now and that's great but it's limited to what it can scan. My Canon 9000f gets the remainder of the work load but it is slow and images sometimes get grainy. THANK YOU! for this video. How well does this work for C-41 and E6?
Great job and video. 👍 One thing I cannot resist to ask is, why don't you use the masking slider in the sharpening tool? If left to zero, it will increase the grain everywhere, there will be no specific detail sharpening applied. Is there any reason for this?
Klaus Tiburski you’re right. Someone else pointed this out as well. Not sure why I wasn’t using it. Probably confused me in the past or something. I’ve since changed my preset to have masking on it as well. Thanks for pointing this out as well.
I’d like to pick your brain on one thing: How would you deal with film that just won’t lay flat for love nor money? I have a film holder that does not hold down the film in between frames. Unless I give my film a bit of heat treatment prior to cutting, I have some films that have really given me a hard time. On one occasion I had to use the Anti Newton glass from my enlarger to hold it flat but I realize that not everyone has this opportunity - after all, AN glass is heck-a expensive and difficult to handle.
The easiest way to combat this is before cutting the film, and after letting the film dry, roll the fill backward on itself, emulsion side out, and place it in a film canister overnight. Should help solve your issue.
Nick Exposed I now do basically that but I put the film on a development reel and gently (!) warm it up with a hair dryer and let it cool again for a couple minutes. Works faster than leaving the film spooled overnight and I can proceed to scanning right away. That way the film will usually stay in the holder. So far I have not had my adverse effects from heating up the film. I just tried it out in desperation with no idea whether it would work. But at least I now know I was sort of on the right track. 😊👍🏻 Thanks for taking the time to reply, I appreciate it!
@@NickExposed Just wondering if photographing through the emulsion and flipping the image in the software will show less scratches and dust that is present in the base? While I hear it doesn't make a difference with 35mm film, there might be a difference in roll film or sheet film.
Nick Exposed Great video, I will definitely be making this, but as is the case when placing a negative in an enlarger for printing, the emulsion faces the paper, copying is the same, the emulsion should face the camera, this will give you the sharpest image. I have worked in pro labs and when we used pro scanners, the film always faced the scanner.
8:40 - SIlly question - you are not touching the camera, and the subject is absolutely immobile. Why not just turn the ISO down to its optimum level and pay the price in exposure time? I digitise using an old slide holder which also takes 35mm film and fits on the end of my 35mm macro lens. The camera is held rigidly on a tripod, so even a mechanical cable release won't induce significant shake. I have similar illumination issues, but given the lack of any relative movement between camera and film, I see no reason not to allow the shutter speed to be slow as heck.
Hooray for Pentax! That’s definitely valid. But I’m scanning 20-25 rolls at a time so two things come into factor. It extends the scanning time out. And I mentioned in the video that the live preview caps me at 1/30. So if I were to scan with longer shutterspeeds I would lose track of my histograms and it would take longer getting proper exposure.
OK, noted. My scanning volume is much, MUCH lower and longer exposures don't seem to make a difference for me (Pentax K-1). So for you, yeah, a brighter lightbox makes all the sense in the world.
Thanks Nick, great video. I'm going to teather mine and apply presets automatically in capture one to speed it up even more. What do think about the upgraded light box? 10k lux?
Thats a fantastic idea to expedite the workflow! Im not sure what my move will be on the upgrade. I have to do some solid research. If I spend the money again I want to be sure its the last time I have to do so, at least for an extended period of time.
Really interesting video. I have the Canon 100mm macro so this seems worth a try, only downside for me is that the fittings are different sizes in the UK, but it looks like I can get them on Amazon US and have them shipped. One thing you didn't mention is how the lens hood is held in the coupling .. is it just friction of have you had to glue it in?
Hey, do you feel this is better than the scanner.. ?I am thinking to scan my films as they are really expensive. 🤣I am still analysing which meathod is really good quality wise.. your feedback would be very helpful.:)
I have found this method to provide much higher quality results than the Pakon and Epson scanners I have had in the past. The only thing I have found that beats this method out is drum scans. Hope that helps
Good to see your set up Nick. I’ve been testing out DSLR scanning for a couple of weeks now and the results are excellent but using a tripod each time is a bit cumbersome. I like your drain coupling set up so I may use this myself. Do you think a longer coupling could work for MF too? Also are you applying a crop in the import preset as well? Thanks for sharing this video.
Craig Prentis hey Craig, gotta say I’m quite the fan of your work. Always enjoy the walk about and portrait videos from you 👌🏻👌🏻 The setup works great for medium format with the regular length of the pvc coupler. Should work well all the way up to 6x9. Otherwise extensions can be added. I thought about getting a second tube and having it cut specifically for 6x9. I don’t do a ton of mf shooting these days, but have a portrait project coming up that will require it. And no there’s no cropping applied on the preset. Trimming the pvc portion down removed much of the space that would have been cropped previously. It only leaves the black border of the frame, which I prefer to leave on during initial culling and edits. Hopefully that answers the question.
@@NickExposed thanks Nick, that's very kind. I'm really glad you've come across my channel and have enjoyed watching. I think I'll give it a go and see about building my own photo-plumbing-copy device as it seems to be a simple yet effective set up. Should be good for my 6x7 medium format work if needed but I'm happy to stick with the V850 for scanning those negs (and my 4x5s). Thanks for clearing up the cropping question. All the best.
Hi! Thanks for the informative video! It looked as though you were adjusting the focus on the camera rather than the lens somehow whilst in manual mode? Did I see that right and was that because adjusting the focus on the lens was impossible due to the set up and if so how do you do it? thanks!
Hey thanks for the comment. I manually focus the lens on the barrel of the lens. I’m trying to think what you may have seen and the only thing I can think is you’re referring to punching in on the lcd to 10x to make sure focus was sharp. Hope that helps. The way the rig is set up it does not hinder the ability to manual focus.
I have the absolute worst time with color film. Black and white, no issue, at least not in comparison. Have you used this with color film? Any edge bleeding issues?
I haven’t used it with color film, but Matt Day and Pushing Film both have great videos talking about Dslr scanning with color film, if you haven’t seen them already. Sorry for the delay in response. You’ve probably got it all sorted out by now.
Any tips for some other lens for 5DM2 ? I have 70-200 F2.8 17-40 F4 Also oldschool nikkor 50 f1.4 and 35 f2.8. Vivitar FD 28-200 and 50 f1.8 Not really a macro guy, just not feeling to spend 500 bucks on a new 100mm macro lens :( Thanks What if i use Tokina AT-X 100mm f/2.8 MACRO ???
The Tokina macro should work. I would suggest getting an extension tube for the Nikkor 50 you mentioned. A 2x extension tube can be found on Craigslist, eBay, Facebook marketplace for dirt cheap. I just say that over the Tokina because the optics are going to more than likely be much sharper for the quality of scans you’re shooting for. Hope that helps. Really any old 50mm with a 2x macro tube attachment would serve you well. Or run with the Tokina and see if you feel you need to do anything else. Perhaps it would work great for you.
Why don’t you use the masking in the sharpening tool? I find myself cranking that to 80-90 pretty consistently and pushing the amount way up. I’m always interested in others philosophy.
Masking eases the sharpening off. Or so it appears whenever I've played with the slider. I'm sharpening for print, so I want to retain as much of the crisp detail of the sharpening applied as I can. So not the most sophisticated answer, but its what I've always done. lol
Nick Exposed yeah, your able to be more heavy handed with the sharpening because it’s only applying it to the details and not the whole picture. If you hold alt while you slide the masking up you what parts of the photo are being masked out in black. It means you can sharpen without making your grain look all messed up.
I purchased the drain, 3” PVC coupler and 3” flexible coupler at HD showing the associate your links. Maybe it’s me but the coupler doesn’t fit into the drain (they are the same diameter) and the flexible doesn’t slide over the coupler. Did you shave off material to get them to fit??? Great concept if it works. Thx
Really super exceptional, beautiful video, thanks! I would also like to acquire the 35 mm and 120 b & w negatives with my DSRL system (Nikon D4S + Sigma 150 macro f2.8), but I have problems with the light pad, why do I get the dithering (rings of newton?) which I recommend ? Your channel is very interesting Thanks
Massimo Dadone Newton rings are most commonly from the negatives touching glass or smooth plastic surfaces. Are you using a holder to separate the negatives from the light table!
There's no Home Depot in my country and these parts wouldn't fit my Tokina AT-X 90mm 2.5 as it is much smaller and didn't come with a hood. Still i have an idea to make something similar.
stefan zandburg if you go into the project with the general idea in mind I’m sure you can build something out of parts readily available to you, and that will fit your lens hood.
I found this video via Matt Day. I also have a MKII, is there any reason I couldn't use a FD adapter and the 50mm macro he uses in his video on my MKII? Thanks!
Love the enthusiasm, love the commitment, however your making something very simple, very complicated and with the Home Depot aspect far to cluttered and off putting. I remember May years ago and I’m talking 50 + years I had read a book on wine making and beer, it took me two years before a friend came round and said, yeah the books fine for the recipes and methods but this is how you do it, an hour later I had my first wine on the go, well actually 4 wines, since which I have made wine from from natural ingredients, beer and vermouth, all with rave reviews, it’s the same, the light pad is one of the most important it’s cc’s measurement but one of the ways around and gives you a better light, straighter light lines is the iPad free app to convert it. And the stand that’s parallel. DG New Forest U.K.
The thing the kit I described gives you is a light sealed tube chamber to keep from light spill and glares in the “scan”. Many who use an iPad or light table and a copy stand or tripod complain about glare and other side affects from the light around the negative. I’m still using the setup I made years ago and it makes it incredibly quick to setup at any given moment and get wonderful scans. With that being said use what works for you. We all just want a glass of wine at the end of the day (to use your wonderful analogy)
![Scanning without a Scanner: Digitizing Your Film [with a DSLR]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/N4f7d0-psIc/mqdefault.jpg)
![Scanning without a Scanner: Digitizing Your Film [with a DSLR]](/img/tr.png)
This video was a long time coming, but we finally got it out! I run down my entire setup that I built to make dslr film scanning as easy and streamlined as possible!! I hope it serves you well in either answering whether its the right setup for you, or how to maybe improve on the system you are currently using. Also if you have any ideas as to how I can improve my setup, I would love to hear. Be sure to drop me a comment, and ask any questions you may have. Thanks for the constant support!! Cheers
Oooh snap he’s definitely back. Dang man great job 👍👌🔥
Just as a follow up to my comments on your video, I've got a link for you on the Filmtoaster (slide / neg copier) which had caught my eye a while back .... Like I say .. " horses for courses "
Watch "How To: Scan Film with your DSLR (Film Toaster)" on RUclips
ruclips.net/video/OOfQZChtzK0/видео.html
Spencer Reed haha thanks buddy!
John Taylor yea that’s a nice setup. Had seen it before. It’s same concept, just super pricey. Its why I had called this the diy film toaster in the video title.
Working on making this. Instead of the coupler I just used one of the screw clamps that the flex tube came with to attach it to the base. Just put it half on each piece and tightened it down.
1600 ISO... dawg it's stationary, set that ISO to like 50 or 100 even if you need to take a 10 sec exposure the camera isn't moving. You should never need to add noise to a picture you already took.
And on top of that he's STILL raising the exposure an additional stop on a camera that came out in 2008.
If the shutter speed is 1/60-1/30 at 1600, than at 100 it will be 1/4 - 1/2. And even if it will be 1 second - will it be soooo muuuuch slower than 1/60?
Agreed, this is one issue I also consider a mistake. Use lower ISO to achieve maximal dynamic range and minimal noise. 2nd aspect is, these days use rather a mirror-less camera with electronic shutter and avoid any issues with vibrations.
Exactly what I was thinking. Why set it to 1600 iso, that makes no sense, considering you can take a 10 or 20 sec exposure. Looks like someone needs to retake a basic photography class.
@John ok yeah, he's using live view so the mirror is up already. I used to tether my 5dmk2 to a laptop and check focus on it and you can even trigger the camera from the Laptop.
Very clever photographer! Inspirational! So glad I found this. October 2024 in California
@@Dave-ht7dx thanks for the kind words! Glad the video is still making its way to people’s feeds all these years later.
Great video; I chatted with you on Instagram today. I have scanned about 10,000 frames of B&W film, and only last week started to use my D750. I'll never go back. Even with 24 mp, the resolution beats my Epson 750 and my Nikon 4000. The whole drain-pipe setup is ingenious. Thanks so much for this. Great to find you.
Chris Klug thanks again for the kind words. And yes it blows the flatbeds out of the water. 👌🏻👌🏻
Nick Exposed my current setup is for 35mm; I need to figure out how to do medium format as well.
You should use the sharpest f-stop on the lens which is often around f5.6 to get the clearest and sharpest photos.
Jesper Sichlau I’m not too worried about it. Upon my personal testing I really don’t notice a difference. But each have their own standards.
If there's any curl in the negatives, like at the sprocket edges, f/8-11 might give you a bit more depth of focus to accommodate it. That's what I picked up from DP Review when they reviewed the Nikon film scanning set up, the ES-2, which I'm using with a Sony FX and a Nikon 60 2.8. I'm also using a Gagne Portra-Trace light box, about 10x12" and 5000k, works great. I'm getting a combination of 1/20th, f/8-11 and ISO 100 for 1:1 42mp shots. I have the camera on a copy stand, but would not need to, just easier. I trigger the shutter with a elec cable release plugged into the side of the camera, set for consistent 2 second delay. I just went through hundreds of negs and it was a huge time saver. Now I will batch process in PS to flip them all to positives and save to an external HD.
Have you thought about shooting tethered to your computer? That way, you can see what you're photographing in a larger image and can trip the shutter using the computer without touching the camera. Just a thought.
I've thought about it, but would rather have a documentary playing on the screen. haha. Its a good idea, I dont mind the 3" monitor on the camera though.
Good idea.
This is excellent..I'm just in the process of converting over from scanning to DSLR. Your adaptor is the clean simple solution I want.
I was just about to chop up an old Durst enlarger into a copy stand.
Kudos for using plumbing hardware. I've made tons of stuff over the years from it, I'm retired . From a socket to align the Xmas tree in a DIY stand to a new fliud reservior for the clutch master cyl on my truck.
So much can be done with all these bits that fit together in so many ways. Many thanks I have boxes of stuff to scan this saves years.
Glad to hear the video helped out in your process! It’s pretty incredible what can be made with a few spare parts from the hardware store isn’t it! Sorry for the delay in response. I appreciate your comment
cheap diy film holder...when I got my Ektachrome back from the lab, I took two of the "less successful" frames and popped open the mounts...removed the film...then with a strip of film in between (to insure proper spacing) taped them together (making sure the frame holes were aligned)...now I had a film holder that I could slide any 35mm film through and tape down on my diffusion surface to hold in place..one advantage (besides price) this has is that my commercial film holders have a tiny crop on top and bottom...this allows me to move the film up/down if I need to get right to the edge of the frame...thanks for the channel!!!
deltadave44 Im having a difficult time picturing what you’re describing. Could you send me photos of the setup on Instagram?
will do...but, basically, I'm just sandwiching my negatives in between two empty cardboard slide mounts (the ones I get from my camera store pop open and I can easily remove whatever film is in there)...then, I just tape them together...two important things...one, make sure there is a "spacer" (I use a film strip as my spacer) inside when taping them together...and two...make sure the frames are aligned to insure maximum surface area exposed to light
I posted a pic of it on my IG account and a pic from the scan...tagged you in both...thanks again for all the informative and inspirational videos!
Interesting video. Thanks Nick. You have me rethinking my yet to be implemented scanning/copying workflow. I read all the comments and can’t believe how often you had to repeat yourself. You’re a patient man.
Haha, thank you John! I’m here to serve, so if I need to repeat some words here or there its not big deal. Sorry for my delay in response. I appreciate the comment and kind words.
As someone that is new to film, I've spent the last few days researching scanning options and getting frustrated that everything seems either too costly, too time consuming, or compromising on quality. This is the definitely the avenue I will be going down first after watching this. Thanks so much
Hey James! Welcome to the film photography world! I’m glad the video helped in answering some of your questions. If you hit any snags, please feel free to reach out on instagram! Cheers
A couple of weeks ago my V800 broke down and it is out of warrenty. Instead of a costly repair I thought about going the scan-by-camera way. This video kicks my butt to do it. Helpful information as always.
Tom Wiesemann ah man, good timing in the video I guess. Happy to share it with ya. Hope you get it all sorted out soon enough
What a great idea! My first attempt scanning with my DSLR (also 5DMkII + 100mm) was super cumbersome because I was using a tripod and it was so hard to get even focus across the negative. I'll will definitely try your method next time. Super helpful! Thanks!
Samuel L. Streetlife the rig really does make all the difference. I hope the build goes well for you.
Omg yayayayayay!!! Absolutely amazing. I’m just getting into film and the scanning was honestly the most intimidating and so frikkin costly. This is my exact lens as well! So PUMPED!! Many thanks!
I love that! So glad this was helpful for you! Enjoy
Nick just wanted to mention something I do to get around the reverse controls issue. I use a batch process in Photoshop to simply switch all the negatives to positive. It does a whole folder of images in one batch. Once thats done I import the positives into Lightroom and then follow everything you do except that my controls work the right way around.
Jim Sollows that’s a great idea! I didn’t think about the batch feature in photoshop. Thanks for the recommendation!
Hi Nick! The video is much appreciated! I also scan film with a dslr. I use an enlarger, simply removing the enlarger lens holder, setting the camera down on the base board and triggering the shutter via WiFi with an app on my phone. It's super bright backlighting so I shoot everything at f11 at 1/200 and adjust the iso between around 400~1600. I do this because I notice reduced sharpness from mirror slap at lower speeds. This is because I'm using a standard 50mm lens with a teleconverter and a crop sensor camera, so any vibration is very exacerbated. For your camera/lens combo I'd imagine you could shoot at a low iso and lower shutter speed with this approach.
Cheers man!
Ah that's definitely an interesting way of going about it. I will have to ponder on the setup a bit, and see what parts may meld together well. Thank you for the suggestion.
Nick Exposed yeah, your set up looks pretty great tho, just thought you may be interested in experimenting.
We appreciate what you do for our community too bro. All the best for now.
Nick Exposed main reason I made the suggestion was that I figured a new high output light table would probably cost you an arm and a leg compared to a crusty old 35mm durst 🤣
use the 2s timer, your DSLR should then lift the mirror, wait for 2s and then expose. Hence no mirror slapping induced blur.
Stu Lora that sounds like a good idea but I imagine it would depend on the model of camera right? I'm using a Nikon d5600. Thanks for your input!
Interesting diy solution for negative scanning
@@macadoodle100 thank you
I would use f5.6 and adjust the shutter speed @100iso and lock up the mirror.
canturgan that would take away my live view functionality and really render the whole setup unusable.
@@NickExposed Doesn't live view read from the sensor, with the mirror already locked up? Or were you referring to the fact that the light table was so dim that ISO 100 wasn't an option? Perhaps you've upgraded your light table since last year?
Depending on which camera you use, electronic shutter may be available, in which case, the sensor is just being turned off and on for exposure I think, no actual shutter action. I'm using a Sony a7Rii with two second delay, seems very quiet, steady. The flip up LCD is handy as is the white, red or yellow focus assist for the manual focus. I don't need to zoom in then.
Coming from someone that scans from the Plustek 8200i, when you said 15 mins, I think I'll have to give this a try!
How long is the scanning process on the 8200i?
@@NickExposed You ready for it? About two hours from start to finish of a roll of 39 frames. I've tried it all, scan without any touches in Silverfast then apply on LR later, to scan while editing in LR but I find it stressful because the scan don't take that long so there's almost like no time to waste because the next one will be done. So I just scan first and touch them later. But you see, this takes way too much time out of my life. I also don't own any digital cameras at the moment besides a phone but kinda been thinking about picking up one. A friend of mine suggested the a7r2 to go with my m glass...
Junr34 wow! That’s a loooong workflow! Yea this could be a game changer for you! Get your time back! Put it to better things like shooting or zine making 👌🏻👌🏻
@@nuj427 I wonder if your computer is slowing you down? I use the 8200 and I can do a roll in about 45 minutes.
Hi Nick.
One thing I might comment on is........ You do not have a guard on the outside of the film to stop light spill onto the negative from your light table. A bit of black card will do... I honestly do think that your film scanning experience will be improved again once you cut that excess light out :-)
Cracking vid by the way :-)
Thank you for the inspiration, I tried before with a tripod and messy setups and I got tired of all the thing that could possibly go wrong or move and mess up everything .
As soon as I can I’ll try to build a fixed rig with a bellow and an old 50mm.
Thank you!
Domenico Stefani yea I had tried it years ago and hated resetting up the tripod each time. I’m happy this setup can alleviate all those pain points.
Excellent, detailed video Nick! Something for the future for me, I think, but I will definitely follow this video if I do move away from the flatbed!
Alan Tobin thanks buddy! It will be here if you ever feel like making the switch.
Great video! As for color film I recommend using Negative Lab Pro in Lightroom
this is the video i was looking for! thank you so much for the details!
I really appreciate the dslr mounting system also! Great idea!
So happy you found it useful!!
Great video Nick! Best description of DSLR scanning I’ve seen!
Michael Epstein thank you, Michael! I’m humbled to hear that.
Great video. I have been dslr scanning for years. My dedicated film scanner only takes 35mm so I tried tried dslr scanning and the speed and quality blew me away. I merge two frames from a Canon 6D together in Lightroom, but for really high quality I have used six frames. A good lightbox makes a huge difference. The Kaiser Slimlite Plano is just over $100 but worth every penny. I use a copy stand with a tripod head on it and some old enlarger film holders. The copy stand is always ready so set-up is just putting the camera onto the tripod head, turning on the lightbox and loading the film into the negative holder. I find that the negative holder from an enlarger tends to hold the film a little more flat, especially an issue with larger negatives. Not sure why you aren't using a slow enough shutter speed to get your iso down to 100. I think my longest exposure, at f11 and with the Kaiser, is about one second and usually more like a quarter second. That doesn't really slow down the process. I like your setup for 35mm. Just brilliant. I think I am going to give that a try, then I won't need to leave the copy stand setup all the time and the tube will mask out the room light so I won't have to keep turning them on and off as I load the negative holder and shoot. Thanks for posting this and please keep posting your amazing black and white film photos - really great work you are producing.
Thank you so much for the kind words. To answer the question about the shutter speed, its simply down to the lowest shutter speed live view will allow me to shoot at. Thats really all it is. I dont want to lose my histogram, and liveview function. For me I dont mind the difference in iso, as I dont feel its really adding that much in artifacts to the scan. I ca understand completely how others may feel differently, and even how the thought of lower iso being a cleaner scan is justified, but my work is not about perfection, so I dont need a perfect workflow, simply an effective one. Thanks again!
@@NickExposed Interesting. The 6D allows live view for very long shutter speeds.
Excellent video Nick! and thanks for the shout-out :-D I am seriously impressed by the DIY rig you built. I am gonna check out "Bunnings" which is like an Australian version of Home Depot to see if they have the same square grate thing. Seriously would save pulling out the tripod, and can have different tubes for different film sizes
Especially when you only have one tripod and have to balance it between all sorts of projects. Hopefully Bunnings will have what you need, otherwise, I'm sure e-bay might help with some searching. Or JJ even mentioned in another comment the idea of 3d printing parts of the rig. That could be an option as well. Excited to see your upcoming vids delving into the color workflow!
@@NickExposed heya nick / pushing film... pardon my newb question. what if you were using a different camera, like say an APS-C camera with a 50mm macro lens on extension tubes.. should i even bother trying? how would you cut the tube to the right length for 35mm?
Punk Rachmaninoff that would work perfectly fine! How I figured out the minimum focus distance was quite unscientific. I placed the setup on the light table with a negative under the setup. Removed the pvc coupler and flexible coupling. Then simply held the camera and lens with lens hood above setup until the negative filled the entire frame when focused. Then took a ruler and measured the distance from the light table to the edge of the lens hood. Once I had that measurement I could then put the pvc coupling back into the setup and re-measure the same distance, marked the pvc coupler with permanent marker and made the cut from there. Hopefully that all makes sense 😅 it’s easier than my explanation makes it sound. If you run into any issues let me know.
@@punkrachmaninoff An APSC camera with say a Canon FD 55mm Macro is a perfect cheap option and you will get amazing results if done correctly.
This is awesome! I can't wait to build one of these. I have decades of color negatives to digitize so my Lightroom portion will be more complicated, but I love this build.
Glad to hear it helped. Hopefully you have been able to build it and start using it by now. Thanks for the comment
Brilliant video. I was hoping for an Epson V600 for Christmas but this looks better!
Excellent video, Nick! Thanks! It’s given me a few ideas for tweaking my set-up and trying to get that “level plane” - current set-up involves messing around with a spirit level, which is not sustainable and drives me mad! 😂
Haha I can definitely imagine! I wanted to take all the fiddling out of the equation and be able to run and gun as fast as possible. Glad it gave you some ideas.
If you tether your camera to Lightroom or a monitor you can cut down the time or at least see your image on a larger screen. Great how-to video!
The Photographer's Eye thanks dude. It’s a great idea, however it removes my ability of watching full screen documentaries while I scan. Haha
A couple of questions:
Do you need a macro lens? Would using extension tubes work in place of a macro lens?
Do you need to use a full-framed DSLR? What about a 16MP cropped frame camera or Mirrorless camera?
Great questions, buddy! You do not need a full frame, a crop sensor will work just fine (just keep the focal length in mind). And an extension tube on a standard lens would also work well as a macro replacement. Thanks for asking these questions. Great questions!
Thanks for this info! Definitely will check this out for myself eventually, once I get tired of my V550 workflow / results
Chris Pasion you’re welcome, Chris! I’m definitely not speaking down on the flatbed scanning, However it wasn’t a workflow for me. Especially for 35mm scans. Thanks for the comment
Nick -
Outstanding video and information! Your scanning process is very efficient and your getting very high quality scans! I need to experiment with this. Thank you for sharing! 😎👍🏻
Happy to share as always! Thanks for the kind words buddy!
I'm an old film guy (old being the operative word) and have looked at various ways of digitising my film archive. I never considered consumer flatbed scanners suitable for 35mm, although 120 is probably doable. I invested in a Nikon Coolscan 4000 that produces decent results, but it is a slow process to get optimal scans. I always thought that using a digital camera made sense, remembering the old slide duplicators (most of my old archive is Kodachromes) from the film-only days and it seemed a logical solution. I recently picked up a basic slide duplicator that requires bellows and a 50mm lens with a 49mm filter. Enter the Zuiko 50mm from my Olympus OM1, with an adapter for it to fit my Canon 6D. The results were OK, but not quite as good as the Coolscan. I probably just need a bit more experimentation with settings. The main downside is that this manual rig doesn't work with live view, which would make focussing much better. Then I came across your video, via the Pushing Film channel. I love the simplicity of the set up. So after that preamble, my questions are; does it have to be the 100mm macro? Which one are you using? Would a less expensive 50mm macro work just as well, with the necessary height adjustment? Anyway, thanks for the video, it's got excited again about making scans with my DSLR.
Good to know there’s life after my sp500 dies.. great workflow Nick!
Chris Walters thanks Chris!
Thanks a lot. With cameras like the Fuji X-T2 etc you can use the app on the phone as remote. Even easier
babarfyi that is very true. Newer cameras like that have plenty of upper hand advantages
I'm curious what LED light source you ended up with? I've run into 2 problems. 1) The "tracer" LED lights aren't as bright as I'd like to ideally shoot at ISO 100 without having to get into a 10 sec+ shutter speed. 2) The LED's that I have found that are bright enough (someone mentioned the Aputure small LED) don't produce seamless light like the tablet style tracers. If anybody has some info on bright and seamless LED options I'd love to hear.
I know I could go shoot at ISO 100 and the shutter speed at 10+ seconds shouldn't matter but I'm using a tripod setup with trigger so the longer the shutter speed the more likely there could be movement. I'd like to completely eliminate that variable.
forums.negativelabpro.com/t/suggested-backlight-sources-for-scanning-film-with-dslr/130
@@filminrussia7095 Thanks very much!
I went and bought the items you used and found out the thin wall is very important. My Home Depot doesn't sell that version of a coupling at all. After further investigation, the proper term for it is Sched 30 size. I was able to find one on Grainger and am ordering it now.
I just got back from Home Depot and found the two pieces but they did not have that coupling. I'll have to check out the site you mentioned here.
Great stuff as always, Nick! Can't wait to start using my Fuji for this and ditch the V550. Might try and 3d print something similar to your holder since the fuji lenses are so tiny!
That's a great idea! You could probably 3d print the entire rig to fit your needs. Let me know how it goes!
Why ditch the V550 ? ..... such a backward step.
John Taylor I’m not sure why that would be a backward step. I would argue the scans on the dslr are not only faster, but also sharper than the flatbed would offer. And depending on the dslr or micro 4/3 camera being used the size of the scans would be much larger than the flatbed would offer.
@@kiwipics at least with 35mm, I don't get the greatest scans with my V550 anyways and its such a slow process. I've scanned with a DSLR in the past and it's miles faster than a flatbed and I didn't notice a reduction in quality and that was with a T3i. Can't hurt to try it again with a newer camera.
@@SubtleToast ... Like I say, it's horses for courses. Everyone has their own way of working. For quick copies I'd use my Ohnar Zoom slide copier (from the 80's) and Snapseed to produce copies (not "scans") and upload to the net within minutes.
For everything else there's the Epson 1200 and Nikon LS film scanner.
Terrific video tutorial! It could have used a tight shot of the film grain on the camera display (maybe even zoomed in) and a tight shot depicting the resulting sharpness of the camera-scanned film grain on the scanned negative and on the positive conversion (in Lightroom). I'm guessing the success of this process is as much about film grain sharpness as it is about dynamic range. Also, do you have a short, written narrative outlining the steps to build the lens adapter and film holder? Brilliant hack, as it creates a tripod stand AND makeshift extension tube! Kudos. Also missing from your otherwise complete tutorial: the final cut-length of the white PVC coupler (for a 100mm lens) the model number for the lens hood you used (though I'll be using a 100mm NIKKOR micro - I'll have to see if a hood is offered for that AF lens) and the height (thickness) in mm of your negative holder.
So detailed. Thank you!
drrgr: you can reset the Lightroom curve to normal by going to photoshop, making some adjustments like cleaning up the image then back to Lightroom where the sliders will all be reverted to normal.
If you don't mind the added time in the workflow, this is a great work around for the reversed controls!
NIce video!! I thought I was the only crazy man copying negatives ( I don´t like calling it Scanning, because it is not ) by using my Sony a6000 and the nice 30 mm macro... I use the tipical negative and slide duplicator attached to the lens threat....work niiiiiice!! I am shooting film again thanks to this option.......thanks for sharing this.
Mario Bluewings what is scanning but a digital copy process? Semantics haha. Thanks Mario! Happy to hear you’re back to shooting film.
Thanks for this excellent video. It seems to be an excellent solution, at least for 35mm. I wonder whether Adobe could implement an "Invert" function in the Develop module, so that we get rid of the inversed behaviors of settings once the curves preset is applied. This Invert command exists in Photoshop.
Thanks again and photographic cheers from France. Jean
Jean Daubas yea, I’m seriously surprised they haven’t already. I do have creative cloud so I guess I should try the cc Lightroom and see if the feature already exists in there.
@@NickExposed AFAIK this feature does also not exist in CC
@@Prdips bummer. It cant be too hard for them to release it. Hopefully soon.
I was gonna ask why shoot at 1600 ISO, but you explained below bc of live view. Btw the Artograph LED tables are a good alternative to those cheaper pads, I just upgraded and it's a good 2-3 stops brighter than the generic pad I was using. It's got a better color spectrum too which should help with color scans.
I'm usually shooting f11, ISO 100 1/15th on a A7II for b&w
Joseph Delgadillo oh fantastic! I’ll look for one of those light pads. That would help out quite a bit.
What lens do you use on Sony?
@@filminrussia7095 a 55mm Micro Nikkor but I'd like to upgrade to something more modern
Kudos! Thanks for making this video, it's a great tutorial. I am bummed that the diameter of the flange (pipe) on the drain grate is too small for 6 X 6 medium format frames!! (I think I've figured out a work-around). Looking forward to scanning a bunch of neg/slide film.
There are different sized flange’s so hopefully through some hardware store hunting you find a proper solution
Love the Home Depot set up. Way more convenient than my tripod setup but that’s for medium and large format. I really hate that adobe hasn’t implemented Invert function for Lightroom. It’s such a pita for the sliders to be reversed! I hear Nikon D850 has a function to invert in-camera fwiw.
Oh shit, just saw negativelabpro.com !!! Worth the $99 not to mess with reverse sliders lol
Yea the d850 can invert natively in Camera. I believe in live view even, which would be a Giant game changer for the workflow. But I’m invested into the canon setup and can’t justify that large of a price tag for a single feature. I’ve been hearing great things about Negative Lab Pro, but I would really only be using it for inverting, and again for my budget $100 for an invert is a bit steep for me. If I did more color work it would be better justified. Thanks for the comment and thoughts Ron! Always a pleasure hearing from you.
Nick Exposed I’ve put my phone on inverted colors and previewed the image that way.
Great work, Nick. Game changer.👍
milesmonroe65 thanks so much. And I definitely agree
I’m still working on my setup. I’ve tried 30 megapixel canon EOS R and lately Olympus Pen F 20 megapixel camera with macro lens. Camera leveled on a dedicated high quality tripod, negatives flat on a light table. Using negative lab pro in Lightroom. Still the Pakon 135 + is faster and at 6 megapixels produces sharper, better scans.
Fotos y Mas damn really? I’m super tempted to get a pakon but so many people seem to be selling them. Was hoping this DSLR method would be better quality.
nice rig :))
i have purchased the nikon film scan adapter, much more expensive .. kudos, your ingenious solution works as well or maybe better for u! i have adapted by panasonic g9 to shoot at 1:1 macro with 30mm macro lens. the detail and the grain is incredible when i shoot it as a high res by using pixel shift (80 megapixel files) , superb for large prints. the guy in the gallery swore i had shot the film on medium format! dunno why he thought so , but thought i should mention that.
I was actually thinking about that the other day, was wondering how well the pixel shift would work for it. Glad to hear it works out well. Probably a move I will make in the future.
Great video!! Any time you’re talking Home Depot photo gear hacks is a WIN. This is going to be a game changer for me. I hate flatbed scanning. My film never seems flat and I want the edges and carrier. Would some sort of anti newton ring glass work with a rig like this?
Yea I’m sure if you got two pieces of anti newton ring glass and sandwiched the film between it over the light table it would work just fine in replacement to a holder. Might need to watch out for more dust at that point, but a rocket blower can take care of that.
Great information and very good presentation, thank you.
You are welcome! Thanks for the kind words, Hugh!
Hi Nick, just came across your video, really enjoyed it, and really helpful. I am based in the UK, hoping I can get the items to build my own. Can I ask how do you fit the lens hood, is it glued in place? How did you cut the opening in the lens hood for the camera to go in? Thank you. Has anyone come up with any modifications for 120 film scanning? Thank you.
Hi Paul! So the lenshood I have actually fits snuggly into the rubber collar on the setup. No modification to that part was needed. It's an aftermarket lens hood for the Canon 100mm f2 macro I think maybe from Neewer? Depending on what lens setup you have and whether you have a lenshood for it or not you may need to play around in a hardware store one afternoon to come up with a creative solution. I hope that helps. I am glad the video served you well. Let me know if you have any other questions. Cheers!
Great job; great and very informative presentation; thank you....
Milan Dragojlovich you’re welcome 😊
Nice. Great advice on the histogram. I'll try this. Cheers!
Beautiful setup. What tweaks would you need to scan 120 film? Will a 120 film holder fit in place of the 35 mm holder?
Depending on the holder I’m sure you could get it to work with the system. Some minor tweaks may be needed. At the same time with how cheap the setup is to build I’m sure you could build a second rig specifically for medium format with a bit of extra hunting at the hardware store. Let me know if you get something figured out. I would love to hear how it went
Does it have to be exactly 1:1 macro? Would a 1:2 work, for example? Also why don’t you do longer shutter speeds and lower iso instead of the high iso and 1/60? Just for the time saving?
1:2 will work just as well, you will just have to keep it in mind when building your rig. And I mentioned it in the video, the 5D mkii caps me at 1/30 on liveview. I dont go any lower because I dont want to lose my histogram or live view function. I work off of efficiency, not perfection. I can understand how others may prefer a longer shutter speed to lower the iso, but quite frankly, it really doesnt bother me personally.
@@NickExposed I have seen where shutter speeds between 1/15th sec and 1/60th sec, that the mirror vibration reduced sharpness. Has this been your experience?
A 1 second exposure would not have this problem.
Awesome video bro . This is perfect
Dennis Brown jr. thank you so much 😊 happy to share
Thanks Nick!
Fellusch H you’re very welcome
I have a canon t3i cropped sensor will that effect the quality? Also what lens would work for it. Great video! Matt sent me
That would work just fine. You can use any macro lens, or a vintage lens with a macro extension tube and adapter. Hope that helps.
What’s the length of the tube and how did you calculate it for your lens length?
I found that you can use an iPad or other tablet at full brightness instead of the light table. You just need to make sure that there is some distance between the screen and the film so it's out of focus and the pixel lattice won't show.
AManWhoWasntThere yea in testing it against my light table it was a bit more dim even at full brightness. But it is a great alternative for anyone just starting out with a fresh setup build.
@@NickExposed There is a free app that can turn your tablet into a light screen, but I forget the name.
Very helpful. Thanks!
Robert Clark you’re very welcome 😊 thank you
Hey Nick, i wonder if one of those Amaran Aputure lights would be sufficient. They are Turbo Bright. could set it up so its sits a few inches back from the diffuser to stop bright points over the LEDs.
I’m sure it would probably work quite well. That’s a really great idea. If you give it a go let me know how it turns out. Thanks
Thank you for sharing your workflow. The question is why is all these troubles since you already have a flatbed scanner and a Pakon +? For printing purposes may be?
Zerihun Hailu flatbed never gave sharp scans of 35mm film. No matter what I tried the grain was always fuzzy. Pakon was nice. But the scans were small and the virtual machine I was running for hosting windows xp on my MAC was finicky. So I sold the Pakon while prices were still high and spent $15 to use equipment that I already had anyway. And the scans I’m getting blow the Pakon and flatbed out of the water. Seems like a win win to me.
Great video
@@3196453 thank you! Glad you found it helpful
Why not set it in manual focus so it will never change an lower the iso and shoot at slower shutter speed? Great video and awesome ideas!
@@3196453 the depth of field is so shallow with the macro lens that it needs to be manually focused each frame to get critical focus. If it was a brighter light table I could lower the iso, close the aperture down. But because you’re supplying ample light you would be surprised at how little artifacting you get at 1600 to 3200
Best use ever for a digital camera. I use a Pakon now and that's great but it's limited to what it can scan. My Canon 9000f gets the remainder of the work load but it is slow and images sometimes get grainy. THANK YOU! for this video. How well does this work for C-41 and E6?
I cannot thank you enough for this video, this was a gamechanger for me!
I’m very happy to hear that! Thanks for the comment :)
I always export the inverted images as DNG and import them again so I can edit them as I would edit regular digital files.
That makes sense
Great job and video. 👍
One thing I cannot resist to ask is, why don't you use the masking slider in the sharpening tool? If left to zero, it will increase the grain everywhere, there will be no specific detail sharpening applied. Is there any reason for this?
Klaus Tiburski you’re right. Someone else pointed this out as well. Not sure why I wasn’t using it. Probably confused me in the past or something. I’ve since changed my preset to have masking on it as well. Thanks for pointing this out as well.
thanks for your answer. Guess ou know the "trick" with the alt - key ?
I’d like to pick your brain on one thing:
How would you deal with film that just won’t lay flat for love nor money?
I have a film holder that does not hold down the film in between frames. Unless I give my film a bit of heat treatment prior to cutting, I have some films that have really given me a hard time. On one occasion I had to use the Anti Newton glass from my enlarger to hold it flat but I realize that not everyone has this opportunity - after all, AN glass is heck-a expensive and difficult to handle.
The easiest way to combat this is before cutting the film, and after letting the film dry, roll the fill backward on itself, emulsion side out, and place it in a film canister overnight. Should help solve your issue.
Nick Exposed I now do basically that but I put the film on a development reel and gently (!) warm it up with a hair dryer and let it cool again for a couple minutes. Works faster than leaving the film spooled overnight and I can proceed to scanning right away. That way the film will usually stay in the holder. So far I have not had my adverse effects from heating up the film. I just tried it out in desperation with no idea whether it would work. But at least I now know I was sort of on the right track. 😊👍🏻
Thanks for taking the time to reply, I appreciate it!
Mate - Awesome. Thank you.
Patrick Hamilton Happy to share. Thanks so much
what is the film used here? The grain and definition are just stunning!
HP5 pushed to 1600 developed in HC110 B. It’s a great combo!
Nick Exposed I developed hp5 in xtol and the grain was just too much for me. I think you have the perfect amount of grain here!
Zhang Yue Definitely give HC110 a go. It’s been my favorite developer for a few years now :)
Which side of the film are you sticking up towards the camera? Shiny side or dull side
DennisCarlson shiny side. I guess that’s one thing I could have mentioned in the video. 🤦🏻♂️
@@NickExposed Just wondering if photographing through the emulsion and flipping the image in the software will show less scratches and dust that is present in the base? While I hear it doesn't make a difference with 35mm film, there might be a difference in roll film or sheet film.
Nick Exposed Great video, I will definitely be making this, but as is the case when placing a negative in an enlarger for printing, the emulsion faces the paper, copying is the same, the emulsion should face the camera, this will give you the sharpest image. I have worked in pro labs and when we used pro scanners, the film always faced the scanner.
Great video! Does anyone know what the equivalent drain and pipes to look for in the U.K.? I can’t seem to find them at B&Q.
LetterBeacon I’m sure there has to be something. Perhaps evening finding the part on a US website that will ship. eBay maybe?
Nick Exposed I think I’ve found something similar -for any U.K. viewers I searched for a 150mm drain hopper and similar things came up.
Thank you so much for your sharing!
8:40 - SIlly question - you are not touching the camera, and the subject is absolutely immobile. Why not just turn the ISO down to its optimum level and pay the price in exposure time?
I digitise using an old slide holder which also takes 35mm film and fits on the end of my 35mm macro lens. The camera is held rigidly on a tripod, so even a mechanical cable release won't induce significant shake. I have similar illumination issues, but given the lack of any relative movement between camera and film, I see no reason not to allow the shutter speed to be slow as heck.
Hooray for Pentax! That’s definitely valid. But I’m scanning 20-25 rolls at a time so two things come into factor. It extends the scanning time out. And I mentioned in the video that the live preview caps me at 1/30. So if I were to scan with longer shutterspeeds I would lose track of my histograms and it would take longer getting proper exposure.
OK, noted. My scanning volume is much, MUCH lower and longer exposures don't seem to make a difference for me (Pentax K-1). So for you, yeah, a brighter lightbox makes all the sense in the world.
Thanks Nick, great video. I'm going to teather mine and apply presets automatically in capture one to speed it up even more. What do think about the upgraded light box? 10k lux?
Thats a fantastic idea to expedite the workflow! Im not sure what my move will be on the upgrade. I have to do some solid research. If I spend the money again I want to be sure its the last time I have to do so, at least for an extended period of time.
@@NickExposed let us know my brother
jdebultra I sure will! Good seeing you in the comments! Hope you’re surviving well in the winter that just hit us!
Really interesting video. I have the Canon 100mm macro so this seems worth a try, only downside for me is that the fittings are different sizes in the UK, but it looks like I can get them on Amazon US and have them shipped. One thing you didn't mention is how the lens hood is held in the coupling .. is it just friction of have you had to glue it in?
Hey, do you feel this is better than the scanner.. ?I am thinking to scan my films as they are really expensive. 🤣I am still analysing which meathod is really good quality wise.. your feedback would be very helpful.:)
I have found this method to provide much higher quality results than the Pakon and Epson scanners I have had in the past. The only thing I have found that beats this method out is drum scans. Hope that helps
@@NickExposed Hey, thanks a lot :)
A light table from a tattoo parlor ive heard are good nick if you know any one in the ink industry
beau pfeiffer recordings I’ll have to look into that as an alternative. Thank you for the suggestion
no probs buddy
Good to see your set up Nick. I’ve been testing out DSLR scanning for a couple of weeks now and the results are excellent but using a tripod each time is a bit cumbersome. I like your drain coupling set up so I may use this myself. Do you think a longer coupling could work for MF too? Also are you applying a crop in the import preset as well? Thanks for sharing this video.
Craig Prentis hey Craig, gotta say I’m quite the fan of your work. Always enjoy the walk about and portrait videos from you 👌🏻👌🏻
The setup works great for medium format with the regular length of the pvc coupler. Should work well all the way up to 6x9. Otherwise extensions can be added. I thought about getting a second tube and having it cut specifically for 6x9. I don’t do a ton of mf shooting these days, but have a portrait project coming up that will require it.
And no there’s no cropping applied on the preset. Trimming the pvc portion down removed much of the space that would have been cropped previously. It only leaves the black border of the frame, which I prefer to leave on during initial culling and edits. Hopefully that answers the question.
@@NickExposed thanks Nick, that's very kind. I'm really glad you've come across my channel and have enjoyed watching. I think I'll give it a go and see about building my own photo-plumbing-copy device as it seems to be a simple yet effective set up. Should be good for my 6x7 medium format work if needed but I'm happy to stick with the V850 for scanning those negs (and my 4x5s). Thanks for clearing up the cropping question. All the best.
Hi! Thanks for the informative video! It looked as though you were adjusting the focus on the camera rather than the lens somehow whilst in manual mode? Did I see that right and was that because adjusting the focus on the lens was impossible due to the set up and if so how do you do it? thanks!
Hey thanks for the comment. I manually focus the lens on the barrel of the lens. I’m trying to think what you may have seen and the only thing I can think is you’re referring to punching in on the lcd to 10x to make sure focus was sharp. Hope that helps. The way the rig is set up it does not hinder the ability to manual focus.
Ah yeah that was what I was looking at, I get it now. Very helpful video, thanks again!
@@poodlesandwichmodding7101 Youre welcome! Thanks for watching :)
think your PVC scanner setup would work with 120 negs?
Yes! Just leave the pvc uncut and you should be good to go. Youll just have to find an alternative film holder.
ótimo vídeo. obrigado
I have tens of thousands of slides. Is there a bulk solution
I have the absolute worst time with color film. Black and white, no issue, at least not in comparison. Have you used this with color film? Any edge bleeding issues?
I haven’t used it with color film, but Matt Day and Pushing Film both have great videos talking about Dslr scanning with color film, if you haven’t seen them already. Sorry for the delay in response. You’ve probably got it all sorted out by now.
Any tips for some other lens for 5DM2 ?
I have 70-200 F2.8
17-40 F4
Also oldschool nikkor 50 f1.4 and 35 f2.8. Vivitar FD 28-200 and 50 f1.8
Not really a macro guy, just not feeling to spend 500 bucks on a new 100mm macro lens :(
Thanks
What if i use Tokina AT-X 100mm f/2.8 MACRO ???
The Tokina macro should work. I would suggest getting an extension tube for the Nikkor 50 you mentioned. A 2x extension tube can be found on Craigslist, eBay, Facebook marketplace for dirt cheap. I just say that over the Tokina because the optics are going to more than likely be much sharper for the quality of scans you’re shooting for. Hope that helps. Really any old 50mm with a 2x macro tube attachment would serve you well. Or run with the Tokina and see if you feel you need to do anything else. Perhaps it would work great for you.
@@NickExposed Do you mean 2x extender or macro tubes? How does it look like, i have no idea...
Thanks
Why don’t you use the masking in the sharpening tool? I find myself cranking that to 80-90 pretty consistently and pushing the amount way up. I’m always interested in others philosophy.
Masking eases the sharpening off. Or so it appears whenever I've played with the slider. I'm sharpening for print, so I want to retain as much of the crisp detail of the sharpening applied as I can. So not the most sophisticated answer, but its what I've always done. lol
Nick Exposed yeah, your able to be more heavy handed with the sharpening because it’s only applying it to the details and not the whole picture.
If you hold alt while you slide the masking up you what parts of the photo are being masked out in black. It means you can sharpen without making your grain look all messed up.
Dan Higginson interesting. I’ll play around with it. Thanks for pointing that out. I appreciate it
I purchased the drain, 3” PVC coupler and 3” flexible coupler at HD showing the associate your links. Maybe it’s me but the coupler doesn’t fit into the drain (they are the same diameter) and the flexible doesn’t slide over the coupler. Did you shave off material to get them to fit??? Great concept if it works. Thx
Same concept for 120 with the right film holder/carrier?
Dashan Sheying yea would work just fine for 120. You probably wouldn’t cut the pvc coupler down. But everything else would work well.
Hey thanks for that nice video. How did you set the AWB on the camera?
Really super exceptional, beautiful video, thanks! I would also like to acquire the 35 mm and 120 b & w negatives with my DSRL system (Nikon D4S + Sigma 150 macro f2.8), but I have problems with the light pad, why do I get the dithering (rings of newton?) which I recommend ? Your channel is very interesting
Thanks
Massimo Dadone Newton rings are most commonly from the negatives touching glass or smooth plastic surfaces. Are you using a holder to separate the negatives from the light table!
I have a canon 5d mk1 would that still be a good for scanning film?
It is still quite capable! You should definitely give it a go.
@@NickExposed nice I'm waiting on my 3d printed film holder and light table what macro lens would you recommend for it that's affordable
@@andywalczak7659 The 100mm macro canon is really affordable! I would think that you could find one for around 200 or less.
Nick, have you updated the light table yet? If so, what did you get? Thanks in advance.
There's no Home Depot in my country and these parts wouldn't fit my Tokina AT-X 90mm 2.5 as it is much smaller and didn't come with a hood. Still i have an idea to make something similar.
stefan zandburg if you go into the project with the general idea in mind I’m sure you can build something out of parts readily available to you, and that will fit your lens hood.
I found this video via Matt Day. I also have a MKII, is there any reason I couldn't use a FD adapter and the 50mm macro he uses in his video on my MKII? Thanks!
TMannion871 did you try/did it work? Im thinking of buying the 50mm macro to try myself.
Awesome info!
Love the enthusiasm, love the commitment, however your making something very simple, very complicated and with the Home Depot aspect far to cluttered and off putting. I remember May years ago and I’m talking 50 + years I had read a book on wine making and beer, it took me two years before a friend came round and said, yeah the books fine for the recipes and methods but this is how you do it, an hour later I had my first wine on the go, well actually 4 wines, since which I have made wine from from natural ingredients, beer and vermouth, all with rave reviews, it’s the same, the light pad is one of the most important it’s cc’s measurement but one of the ways around and gives you a better light, straighter light lines is the iPad free app to convert it. And the stand that’s parallel. DG New Forest U.K.
The thing the kit I described gives you is a light sealed tube chamber to keep from light spill and glares in the “scan”. Many who use an iPad or light table and a copy stand or tripod complain about glare and other side affects from the light around the negative. I’m still using the setup I made years ago and it makes it incredibly quick to setup at any given moment and get wonderful scans. With that being said use what works for you. We all just want a glass of wine at the end of the day (to use your wonderful analogy)