Great idea on the sleeve. What I can recommend is adding some blutack to hold the light base in place once you've aligned it - this keeps the holder in place once you're aligned and you can do batch scanning without having to re-align each time. A simple macro/ automation for cropping could also be applied in software after.
Another option for a cheap copy stand is just getting a large wood cutting board, a metal pipe, a floor flange pipe fitting, a few screws, photography clamp, tripod head, and maybe some rubber feet. With a little work, you can have a decently sized, very sturdy copy stand for pretty cheap.
Exactly what I did, and it's MUCH more sturdy than this overpriced copy stand. The pipe, metal flange, and IKEA shelf I used are weighty and feel solid, no moving around the table while I scan, and no vibrations. I use rubber feet under the IKEA shelf base and a poured nylon mat under my makeshift light table (repurposed light therapy lamp) and I get perfect results.
@@ribsy Other than predrilling a few holes in the cutting board for the screws to hold the flange, it wasn't any harder than putting together some Legos. It mostly just takes knowing what pieces to look for.
Really cool of you to share this. As a film noob, just dipping in occasionally this stuff is gold to save me a lot of wasted time experimenting! Appreciated.
similar setup to me! love the essential film holder so much. at 13:22 you mention you dislike the whole alignment process of the cam and negative. The way I do it is, I place a small mirror over the negative, focus on my lens and make sure my aperture is in the very center of my frame👍after i simply remove the mirror and focus on the negative, takes me about 20s max. it not only saves me time during scanning, but also makes cropping super fast in post
I have used the Essential Film Holder for a long time, it works well & I love that I can use so many formats. I mark the column on my stand so I can always be at the correct height. Great video & the lens case idea is brilliant & something I am going to incorporate into my scanning.
Finally, the info clip i have been looking for. I have a basic knowledge and you have made things very,very clear. The sleeve idea is brilliant. Here is another idea, for the stand why not use an adapted enlarger stand. I picked one up for $1.00 and they are designed for easy fine adjustment.
I made my stand from 1/2 " pipe 17:20 with a flange and 3/4 plywood base I use a superclamp with a ball head and arca mount It works perfectly once it's adjusted I just pop in the arca grip on my camera and it's set to go I had the ball head and everything else was under.$75 the super clamp being the most expensive
Nice! Love the lens bag hack. My setup is similar, although I made a copy stand for around $60 using a cutting board, a flange + pipe from the hardware store, and a camera clamp grip from Amazon (similar to the manfrotto ones) + small Joby ball head that I just clamp on the pipe. I scan 4x5 sheets so the extra length helps, although I usually stitch anyway. Also, a cube 4-way spirit level for the hotshoe is a nice $2 move if your camera back isn't flat for a level.
Valoi have masks too for the 120 mask, 6.45, 6x6, and 6x7 . they also have a half frame for the 35mm mask or a pano 35mm and they are alot easiler to swap out than that selfbuild kit you are showing.
A another nice thing with the Valoi is that you can start with the hokders and add the advancer (in various parts) later. It's not the cheapest option, but it rem9ves a lot if frustration. I use half frame quite a bit and it has made a hyge difference to the physical confort of scanning.
Thank you! I’m going to try the lens bag trick! P.S. When I first got into film, I used a Canon 7D classic and taped the 18-55 kit lens on backwards as a makeshift macro until I could afford an actual macro lens lol
For the stand, you can really just make it yourself, there's a lot of tutorials over here, that's what I did and it works so good! And it can be unmounted anytime to save space too!
if you use a level on your camera then it is aligned to earth but not necessarily to your desk or film holder. best thing is to use a mirror as was mentioned in another comment. Another issue I found with most copy stands is that the camera is not perfectly aligned to the base or desk so adding a tripod head can make it more accurate but more shaky... The best gadget to solves all these issues is the Valoi Easy35 but it has some flaws as well, like added vignetting and it only works for 35mm, and it's not so cheap.
You should use 3m Velcro strips to fix the position of your light! This is a great video though I’m going to be looking into all of these for scanning my set up I’m building out currently
I was thinking about a similar setup, but when I priced everything, it seemed not that far off from a scanner, so I got the Epson V-something. Scanning with a camera might yield better results, though.
I was looking into low cost scanning setup options and this is perfect, thank you! Is there an ideal height you want to set the camera body above the scanning bed? I dont own a macro lens, I do have a 28-70 kit lens, can I use that? Thanks again!
you can use your 28-70 but it will not be ideal. you will likely have to have your camera really far from the negative and thus not be able to maximize the use of your sensor. all this means is fewer megapixels for your final scan -- this could be ok depending on the final destination of your image scans
I just pulled the trigger on the Lobster Holder. It's priced closer to the Valoi stuff but I love the design, including the fact that it comes with the lens hood. The Essential's price point and philosophy are so appealing but switching between formats seems like it would be a chore.
@@ribsy With what I know about light and scanning and color, my initial belief is that being able to see/capture more colors on the spectrum and to do that more accurately (what the CRI represents) would matter more than the white balance. They are two different metrics, and I imagine you could also have 99+ CRI with warm and cool as well. I do bet being able to change your capture white balance makes the editing of the scan a bit quicker and easier though - but doesn't affect accuracy. And 95+ CRI is hardly *bad*. Like I said, I think the price is right and for more casual or amateur photographers, I don't think they'll be able to tell the difference or even care how accurate their colors are. I'm not a scientist, and I'd love to do some actual deep dive research into this topic to confirm my hypothesis. I am curious is the white balance makes any other difference beyond ease of processing - my guess is "no" because of how white balance isn't baked in shooting raw.
Great video thanks for sharing. Because my Macro lens is 100mm that copy stand would be no use for my work. I just use a small coffee table and a tripod and that works for me. I am looking at a new way to mash as I have a pixl-latr and its not good. Great ideas with adapting enlarger masks.
So if i get it right you use a digital camera to photograph your analog negatives ? Why not photograph with a digital camera in the first place then an if the photo is good use photoshop to make whatever you want ? I also love film dont get me wrong but every click costs me 1euro at the time, if i want to avoid developing and scaning, which are fun but not the reason i photograph. What is your opinion on older film scaners ?
Scanning is simply a means for sharing the film photos digitally. that’s it - it doesn’t mean anything in terms of the joy and experience of using analog cameras and film
@@ribsy thank you for the reply. It would be interesting to see if there is noticeably more detail picked up in the high resolution mode, especially for medium format scans, or if it'll just enhance the grain.
@@ribsy thanks. I do the same but when I saw the different light temperatures I thought I might need to be programming it into the camera instead of AWB
Am I the only person who has never experienced problems with stray light? I usually scan with the lights dimmed, but even when my desk lamp is on, I've never had a problem with it
@@ribsy idk, not really🤷♂️ I have about the same setup as you, an EFH + light panel that shines much less brightly than yours - Kaiser slimlite Plano. Since the light from the light panel is much brighter than the one that hits the negative from the outside, I do not know how powerful the lighting in the room should be to create glare on the negative, except perhaps your lightbox on the left, yeah😁
@@ribsy Actually, I think it's a good idea for your new video - the effect of stray light on the final result😁 You can simulate stray light of different intensity and show the effect after the scan inversion. I think many people would be interested to see it. Because I don't even know what this problem looks like, I've never encountered it
@@jorgeu111 Hello, I shoot medium format, I have V600 scan like for 400 dollars. I find it awesome, it makes good job, good output, workflow, also good deal. So I ask because Im quite suprised that people still go for cam scan these days. Just seems its not worth it (not judging anyone, just honest opinion). No need for big smileys sir.
@@jerseyhovidea I see. Thanks for context. Camera scanning offers a different process and no, I haven't seen anybody pursuing it to save money. I started thinking the fact I already have a camera would only need a few parts to complete the setup but that only "works" if you assemble something and stay there. The moment you upgrade things it breaks any chance of "saving". This happen to me and looking back I could get 2 epson scanners with what I have spent.
Hey. My setup is super similar and cost me around $250USD (light, film holder, copy stand, already had a 1:1 macro lens) and $100 for Negative Lab Pro. The setup is certainly a pain the first time, or any other time you need to move/rebuild it compared to a scanner, but once you are actually scanning you can tear through a roll in minutes. I recently rescanned 30 rolls from this summer in 1 day. That's 1000+ photos at like 37-38 images per roll. With the V600 that would take me like 48 hours of scanning since each frame used to take me like 2-3 minutes. However, if your lab cuts your negatives, it takes another minute or two per roll of camera scanning since you're now doing 6-ish frames at a time and gotta resleeve them etc. I personally found the V600 slow and underwhelming for 35mm, but the colours and density are fine on either. For medium format or larger I wouldn't mind sticking with a scanner.
Absolutely love the idea of using a Lens Bag to control stray light I love that idea. I have a question, the Essential Film Holder which I purchased based on your review (with your link) I seem to get corner reflections from the mask? Do you experience this? I was thinking of toning down the light source to help minimize it. Any suggestions?
I haven’t noticed that issue but I also use a cheap light. Perhaps lower power would minimize that - I recommend you join their facebook group and see what others say
Ribs, I love you but man are gear review videos not your thing. Not trying to throw shade but you can tell your out of your element. I miss when you were out in the streets shooting, getting those portraits and interacting with people. I’m sure gear videos make more money or give you more eyes, but it ain’t worth it man. From a fellow shooter who loves your work.
i think your comment comes from a good place but it’s weird to tell me what what videos I should and shouldn’t make. I’m not trying to win any awards for my gear video - just sharing my process and tools in case it’s helpful for some (many have already said it is)
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
the sleeve is genius
Yea it works very well
Great idea on the sleeve. What I can recommend is adding some blutack to hold the light base in place once you've aligned it - this keeps the holder in place once you're aligned and you can do batch scanning without having to re-align each time. A simple macro/ automation for cropping could also be applied in software after.
Another option for a cheap copy stand is just getting a large wood cutting board, a metal pipe, a floor flange pipe fitting, a few screws, photography clamp, tripod head, and maybe some rubber feet. With a little work, you can have a decently sized, very sturdy copy stand for pretty cheap.
That sound a bit difficult for non handy people like me haha
Exactly what I did, and it's MUCH more sturdy than this overpriced copy stand. The pipe, metal flange, and IKEA shelf I used are weighty and feel solid, no moving around the table while I scan, and no vibrations. I use rubber feet under the IKEA shelf base and a poured nylon mat under my makeshift light table (repurposed light therapy lamp) and I get perfect results.
@@ribsy Other than predrilling a few holes in the cutting board for the screws to hold the flange, it wasn't any harder than putting together some Legos. It mostly just takes knowing what pieces to look for.
Really cool of you to share this. As a film noob, just dipping in occasionally this stuff is gold to save me a lot of wasted time experimenting! Appreciated.
nice! haha
I love my Valoi equipment. Very reliable and developed by geniuses.
Yea valoi is super reliable
similar setup to me! love the essential film holder so much.
at 13:22 you mention you dislike the whole alignment process of the cam and negative. The way I do it is, I place a small mirror over the negative, focus on my lens and make sure my aperture is in the very center of my frame👍after i simply remove the mirror and focus on the negative, takes me about 20s max. it not only saves me time during scanning, but also makes cropping super fast in post
Thanks for the rec
I can recommend the essential film holder also. The diffuser is also very important and included. Provides very even light.
Yup
Omg this is sooooo smart!! I’m stealing it!! 👏🏻🤓
Haha do it!
I have used the Essential Film Holder for a long time, it works well & I love that I can use so many formats. I mark the column on my stand so I can always be at the correct height. Great video & the lens case idea is brilliant & something I am going to incorporate into my scanning.
Yes it’s a great tool
Sleeve is brilliant. I’ve been digitizing at home for a few years now and this is the first time I’ve seen this.
give it a shot!
Thanks for sharing the latest on your setup! If I decide to move away from flatbed scanning, I'm going to consider each of these products!
yea! they are worth it if you make the switch
Finally, the info clip i have been looking for. I have a basic knowledge and you have made things very,very clear. The sleeve idea is brilliant. Here is another idea, for the stand why not use an adapted enlarger stand. I picked one up for $1.00 and they are designed for easy fine adjustment.
Glad it was useful
Good idea 💡 about the light 'tent'/bag👏
Thanks
Clicked for the lens sleeve in the thumbnail.. Absolutely incredible. I was using a cardboard cut out but it wasn't that thorough. Good stuff!!
Yup! The secret weapon
Excellent!
Thanks. Cool setup and smart ideas
Thanks
You came in clutch with the lens pouch idea 💯
🙌
Nice!
The sleeve solution is great!
Thanks!
I made my stand from 1/2 " pipe 17:20 with a flange and 3/4 plywood base I use a superclamp with a ball head and arca mount
It works perfectly once it's adjusted I just pop in the arca grip on my camera and it's set to go
I had the ball head and everything else was under.$75 the super clamp being the most expensive
Interesting
Thanks for sharing! Nice setup, it's about time I start scanning at home.
It’s worth it imo despite the upfront investment
Nice! Love the lens bag hack. My setup is similar, although I made a copy stand for around $60 using a cutting board, a flange + pipe from the hardware store, and a camera clamp grip from Amazon (similar to the manfrotto ones) + small Joby ball head that I just clamp on the pipe. I scan 4x5 sheets so the extra length helps, although I usually stitch anyway. Also, a cube 4-way spirit level for the hotshoe is a nice $2 move if your camera back isn't flat for a level.
Sounds like a nice custom setup
Really awesome break down man, the secret at the end is brilliant, I had a feeling that's what you were using from the thumbnail haha
Haha yup!
Valoi have masks too for the 120 mask, 6.45, 6x6, and 6x7 . they also have a half frame for the 35mm mask or a pano 35mm and they are alot easiler to swap out than that selfbuild kit you are showing.
expensive is not always needed, as long as the results are good.
Great video.
Totally agree
A another nice thing with the Valoi is that you can start with the hokders and add the advancer (in various parts) later. It's not the cheapest option, but it rem9ves a lot if frustration. I use half frame quite a bit and it has made a hyge difference to the physical confort of scanning.
Oh def can imagine that
Very informative, thank you!
you are welcome
Thank you! I’m going to try the lens bag trick! P.S. When I first got into film, I used a Canon 7D classic and taped the 18-55 kit lens on backwards as a makeshift macro until I could afford an actual macro lens lol
love the 'by any means' attitude!
Once you get the camera aligned with the holder, use some blue painters tape to keep it from moving.
Good call
For the stand, you can really just make it yourself, there's a lot of tutorials over here, that's what I did and it works so good!
And it can be unmounted anytime to save space too!
me too. I built a very simple, and versatile stand for about $50
That’s great
Great setup, a mouse mat would work to reduce the film holder from slipping.
A yes good point!
if you use a level on your camera then it is aligned to earth but not necessarily to your desk or film holder. best thing is to use a mirror as was mentioned in another comment. Another issue I found with most copy stands is that the camera is not perfectly aligned to the base or desk so adding a tripod head can make it more accurate but more shaky... The best gadget to solves all these issues is the Valoi Easy35 but it has some flaws as well, like added vignetting and it only works for 35mm, and it's not so cheap.
I find the level gets me close and doesn’t lead to any visible distortion in my straight lines. Good enough for me 😅
You should use 3m Velcro strips to fix the position of your light! This is a great video though I’m going to be looking into all of these for scanning my set up I’m building out currently
That’s a good point!
I was thinking about a similar setup, but when I priced everything, it seemed not that far off from a scanner, so I got the Epson V-something. Scanning with a camera might yield better results, though.
For me it’s the frustration of dealer with a flatbed - the film holders and the software are inferior imo
@@ribsy True. I am looking at better software.
I was looking into low cost scanning setup options and this is perfect, thank you! Is there an ideal height you want to set the camera body above the scanning bed? I dont own a macro lens, I do have a 28-70 kit lens, can I use that? Thanks again!
you can use your 28-70 but it will not be ideal. you will likely have to have your camera really far from the negative and thus not be able to maximize the use of your sensor. all this means is fewer megapixels for your final scan -- this could be ok depending on the final destination of your image scans
I just pulled the trigger on the Lobster Holder. It's priced closer to the Valoi stuff but I love the design, including the fact that it comes with the lens hood. The Essential's price point and philosophy are so appealing but switching between formats seems like it would be a chore.
Oh cool
Dedicated copy stand for $150. You can buy a pretty decent tripod with a horizontal boom for less. Good call on lens bag.
Horizontal booms move too much in my experience, plus take up a lot of space
Wonderful idea to reuse an old lens bag.
Yup!
The price is right on that light table, but I'd rather have a 99 CRI with only one color vs this 95 CRI with three colors.
Interesting, why?
@@ribsy With what I know about light and scanning and color, my initial belief is that being able to see/capture more colors on the spectrum and to do that more accurately (what the CRI represents) would matter more than the white balance. They are two different metrics, and I imagine you could also have 99+ CRI with warm and cool as well. I do bet being able to change your capture white balance makes the editing of the scan a bit quicker and easier though - but doesn't affect accuracy. And 95+ CRI is hardly *bad*. Like I said, I think the price is right and for more casual or amateur photographers, I don't think they'll be able to tell the difference or even care how accurate their colors are.
I'm not a scientist, and I'd love to do some actual deep dive research into this topic to confirm my hypothesis. I am curious is the white balance makes any other difference beyond ease of processing - my guess is "no" because of how white balance isn't baked in shooting raw.
The level doesn't mean anything unless you also check the level of the negative. Then you would know they are parallel
Great video thanks for sharing. Because my Macro lens is 100mm that copy stand would be no use for my work. I just use a small coffee table and a tripod and that works for me. I am looking at a new way to mash as I have a pixl-latr and its not good. Great ideas with adapting enlarger masks.
Yup!
So if i get it right you use a digital camera to photograph your analog negatives ? Why not photograph with a digital camera in the first place then an if the photo is good use photoshop to make whatever you want ? I also love film dont get me wrong but every click costs me 1euro at the time, if i want to avoid developing and scaning, which are fun but not the reason i photograph. What is your opinion on older film scaners ?
Scanning is simply a means for sharing the film photos digitally. that’s it - it doesn’t mean anything in terms of the joy and experience of using analog cameras and film
I have my lab do everything. They can do a way better job than I ever could.
Don’t sell yourself short!
@@ribsy To quote Dirty Harry. " A mans got to know his limitations" And I know mine. Again I'd rather take it to a lab and give them business.
Do you use the 96MP high resolution mode on the S9 or just a single shot 24MP for scanning? Is 24MP enough for medium format film?
I use the regular 24MP. And I think 24 is more than enough for most applications including digital prints up to a certain size
@@ribsy thank you for the reply. It would be interesting to see if there is noticeably more detail picked up in the high resolution mode, especially for medium format scans, or if it'll just enhance the grain.
Hi, would you recommend this EFH or Valoi Easy35?
Im planning on scanning 35mm film on these 2 options.
Thanks!
I would recommend both. If you want all the options for cheaper get the EFH
I couldn’t see how to order the Essential film holder, just to sign up for their news letter.
Use the link - then you can scroll down to the table and click the PayPal link for the unit you prefer
What white balance do you set on your camera? I've just been using it on AWB but I'm not sure if that's the best option.
Doesn’t matter, i shoot raw. In lightroom I balance to the film border
@@ribsy thanks. I do the same but when I saw the different light temperatures I thought I might need to be programming it into the camera instead of AWB
is the sigma lens a macro lens? i want to get into scanning my negatives but i dont have a macro lens
Yup it is
Am I the only person who has never experienced problems with stray light? I usually scan with the lights dimmed, but even when my desk lamp is on, I've never had a problem with it
It’s not always noticeable but also perhaps you have a good setup without stray lights affecting things
@@ribsy idk, not really🤷♂️ I have about the same setup as you, an EFH + light panel that shines much less brightly than yours - Kaiser slimlite Plano. Since the light from the light panel is much brighter than the one that hits the negative from the outside, I do not know how powerful the lighting in the room should be to create glare on the negative, except perhaps your lightbox on the left, yeah😁
@@ribsy Actually, I think it's a good idea for your new video - the effect of stray light on the final result😁 You can simulate stray light of different intensity and show the effect after the scan inversion. I think many people would be interested to see it. Because I don't even know what this problem looks like, I've never encountered it
Hello so how much did it cost all togehter?
if you're thinking of cost don't even shoot film :D
@@jorgeu111 Hello, I shoot medium format, I have V600 scan like for 400 dollars. I find it awesome, it makes good job, good output, workflow, also good deal. So I ask because Im quite suprised that people still go for cam scan these days. Just seems its not worth it (not judging anyone, just honest opinion). No need for big smileys sir.
@@jerseyhovidea I see. Thanks for context. Camera scanning offers a different process and no, I haven't seen anybody pursuing it to save money. I started thinking the fact I already have a camera would only need a few parts to complete the setup but that only "works" if you assemble something and stay there. The moment you upgrade things it breaks any chance of "saving". This happen to me and looking back I could get 2 epson scanners with what I have spent.
@@jorgeu111 thanks for honest reply, cheers!
Hey. My setup is super similar and cost me around $250USD (light, film holder, copy stand, already had a 1:1 macro lens) and $100 for Negative Lab Pro. The setup is certainly a pain the first time, or any other time you need to move/rebuild it compared to a scanner, but once you are actually scanning you can tear through a roll in minutes. I recently rescanned 30 rolls from this summer in 1 day. That's 1000+ photos at like 37-38 images per roll. With the V600 that would take me like 48 hours of scanning since each frame used to take me like 2-3 minutes. However, if your lab cuts your negatives, it takes another minute or two per roll of camera scanning since you're now doing 6-ish frames at a time and gotta resleeve them etc.
I personally found the V600 slow and underwhelming for 35mm, but the colours and density are fine on either. For medium format or larger I wouldn't mind sticking with a scanner.
You still have lens reclections.
Negligible
Absolutely love the idea of using a Lens Bag to control stray light I love that idea. I have a question, the Essential Film Holder which I purchased based on your review (with your link) I seem to get corner reflections from the mask? Do you experience this? I was thinking of toning down the light source to help minimize it. Any suggestions?
I haven’t noticed that issue but I also use a cheap light. Perhaps lower power would minimize that - I recommend you join their facebook group and see what others say
Ribs, I love you but man are gear review videos not your thing. Not trying to throw shade but you can tell your out of your element. I miss when you were out in the streets shooting, getting those portraits and interacting with people. I’m sure gear videos make more money or give you more eyes, but it ain’t worth it man. From a fellow shooter who loves your work.
i think your comment comes from a good place but it’s weird to tell me what what videos I should and shouldn’t make. I’m not trying to win any awards for my gear video - just sharing my process and tools in case it’s helpful for some (many have already said it is)