Digitizing slides and films using DSLR camera: I am planning to digitize my slides and films without using a scanner or sending to labs for scanning. I read on net that lot of people...

Mubashm Loc: Gaithersburg, Maryland

I am planning to digitize my slides and films without using a scanner or sending to labs for scanning. I read on net that lot of people are using DSLR camera to digitize their slides and films as it is fast and give you better quality. I want our members to share and suggestions in the light of their experience and knowledge. Thanks.

Mohammed

drmike99 Loc: Fairfield Connecticut

It’s fast and simple but it’s not scanning, it’s digitizing which is not the same. The cheap (Wolverine etc) stand-alone digitizers do much the same thing though probably not as well and are regarded poorly. If all you want is a decent copy then DSLR will suffice but a good scanner whether a dedicated film scanner or an Epson flatbed will be a slower but better output. It’s a shame to cheap out on the last step from slide or negative to digital image.

Screamin Scott Loc: Marshfield Wi, Baltimore Md, now Dallas Ga

I used a slide duplicator from film days to do mine along with a DSLR...

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

Mubashm wrote:

I am planning to digitize my slides and films without using a scanner or sending to labs for scanning. I read on net that lot of people are using DSLR camera to digitize their slides and films as it is fast and give you better quality. I want our members to share and suggestions in the light of their experience and knowledge. Thanks.

Mohammed

It sure is a fast way to do it, but the quality is not as high as using a good scanner!

PH CIB

I thought of renting a Nikon D850 and the special Nikon Lens to digitize my 35mm Slides are you all saying it still will not be the quality of scanning the slides ?

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Mubashm wrote:

I am planning to digitize my slides and films without using a scanner or sending to labs for scanning. I read on net that lot of people are using DSLR camera to digitize their slides and films as it is fast and give you better quality. I want our members to share and suggestions in the light of their experience and knowledge. Thanks.

Mohammed

Some examples... I used a Panasonic Lumix GH4, 30mm f/2.8 Lumix Macro lens, 5000°K light source, and a homemade rig made from junk, scrap wood, an old flash bracket, and an Omega B22XL enlarger negative carrier.

The slides are from 1978, the negatives from 1986 and 1971, respectively. All processing was done in Lightroom from raw files.

(Download)

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Mubashm wrote:

I am planning to digitize my slides and films without using a scanner or sending to labs for scanning. I read on net that lot of people are using DSLR camera to digitize their slides and films as it is fast and give you better quality. I want our members to share and suggestions in the light of their experience and knowledge. Thanks.

Mohammed

Build a light box to back light your slides and films, then put your camera on a tripod that is good and sturdy and use a closeup lens or macro lens. Practice getting it just the right distance away from your subject and use a cable release or electronic shutter release to take each frame. Clean each slide or film negative of all dust and finger prints first. You can google how to make a box. There are a lot of ways to build them. Burkphoto shows one great example of how to rig up a box and film holder. After a couple hours of putting it together just shoot away.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

If you can find a used Bowens Illumitran III, complete with bellows, 60mm Bogen Wide Angle enlarging lens, and the right T adapters for the lens and your camera body, it's more than a decent start. I had one in the 1980s and copied thousands and thousands of slides with it. It works just as well (probably a lot better!) with a digital camera, and is a bit more civilized than my home brew rig.

I've seen folks cut a slot in one end of a toilet paper roll core for a slide, and a corresponding cut in the other end for an iPhone... They bounce daylight from a window off of white paper behind the slide.

One bit of advice... If you use autofocus, photograph the EMULSION side of the film, and flop it in software. Most AF will focus on the base if you don't, leaving a soft image.

The only down side of this process is that you either have to do a great job cleaning the film, or you have to spot the digital images.

I use:

Staticmaster Brush
PEC-12 Film Cleaner from Photosol
Ilford Antistaticum cloths
Dust-Off

That's the same stuff I used 40 years ago. I use all four, depending on the film condition and what's on it.

Screamin Scott Loc: Marshfield Wi, Baltimore Md, now Dallas Ga

A sample of a duplication of a slide taken with the old slide duplicator from film days.

Pretty girl by Scott, on Flickr

ELNikkor

I kept my top of the line Bowens Illumitran I bought back in the late 80's, and have used it to digitize my favorite slides using El Nikkor 50 and 75mm enlarging lenses; glad I kept it!

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

Mubashm wrote:

I am planning to digitize my slides and films without using a scanner or sending to labs for scanning. I read on net that lot of people are using DSLR camera to digitize their slides and films as it is fast and give you better quality. I want our members to share and suggestions in the light of their experience and knowledge. Thanks.

Mohammed

It will not be to the quality of a decent scanner.
Also if you are not using a FF camera and using a duplicator you will likely not get the full slide in the copy but a cropped portion unless it goes out quite far as most duplicators, especially older ones were designed for FF cameras.

DaveMM Loc: Port Elizabeth, South Africa

I replied to the same topic on UHH back in 2011 (the third reply in the topic). I still have the set-up, although I have put in an LED downlighter as the light source which works much better than the 50W halogen lamp. Better colour, more even light and it is really cool when it is in use for a long time.

It may not be as good as a professional slide scanner, but it gives really good results. Far better and faster than normal scanners. I now tether my camera to my computer so I can see what is coming, and focus, on a 24" monitor.

BboH Loc: s of 2/21, Ellicott City, MD

Nikon has a device - the ES-2 - which is designed to be mounted onto its 60mm lens intended to be used with the D850 because of the extraordinary detail it is able to capture.
You can substitute and camera onto which the 60mm will mount. You cannot substitute for the 60mm for which the ES-2 was made to fit.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

These are my digitizing links. Good luck.

https://www.diyphotography.net/old-slides-want-scan-cheap-easy-way-home/
http://www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-products/product/slide-copy-adapters/es-1-slide-copying-adapter-for-52mm-thread.html
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-448681-1.html#7548235
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-457230-1.html#7687881
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.photos.scanner&hl=en
http://opteka.com/slidecopier.aspx
https://smile.amazon.com/Wolverine-Super-20MP-Digital-Converter/dp/B00GIDADP0/ref=smi_www_rco2_go_smi_g2609328962?_encoding=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0&ie=UTF8
http://www.scancafe.com/services/slide-scanning

par4fore Loc: Bay Shore N.Y.

Mubashm wrote:

I am planning to digitize my slides and films without using a scanner or sending to labs for scanning. I read on net that lot of people are using DSLR camera to digitize their slides and films as it is fast and give you better quality. I want our members to share and suggestions in the light of their experience and knowledge. Thanks.

Mohammed

Here is my results with this Nikon adapter.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/37453-REG/Nikon_3213_ES_1_Slide_Copying_Adapter.html

I bought some professional train slides on eBay and used PSCC to touch up the results.
Here are the results and photos of my setup.
https://flic.kr/s/aHsm7UqDUo

Good Luck.