There has been a lot of interest recently, both here and on YouTube, regarding how to transfer film (slides, black-and-white negatives, and color negatives) to digital files.

I'm in a pretty good position to discuss this, since for five years, I ran a high volume film scanning operation (and all other digital imaging departments) of a major portrait lab. 20 years before that, I did plenty of film duplication as an AV producer making big corporate slide shows. So...

There are three classic ways to do film-to-digital conversions:

> Use a service bureau

> Use a scanner

> Use a digital camera with macro lens or other sort of close-up attachment (enlarger lens on bellows, reversed normal lens on extension tubes, etc.)


The advantage of a service bureau is that you don't do much of anything. Just fill up a box with media and send it off. Some time later, receive your materials back, along with a disc, flash drive, or link to download the files.

The disadvantages of a service are that it is usually a bit expensive when you have lots of files to digitize. The service takes time. Many services send files to a remote scanning sweatshop in an emerging nation, to minimize their labor costs. Confidentiality is impossible to maintain, if you need that. And the quality can range from excellent to excrement.

The advantage of scanners is that you are in control. The scanner can be a reasonable expense ($230 to $1300 for a decent flatbed or film scanner). You can take advantage of technology that removes dust and scratches, restores some semblance of color balance to faded media, and so forth.

The disadvantages of scanning include:

> A lack of speed (Scans can take a boring minute or more per original for high resolution.)

> Complexity (If you don't understand the principles of digital imaging, you can get very disappointing results.)

> A lack of resolution (Flatbeds rarely focus film as accurately as I would like. Effective resolution usually is much lower than the scanner's rated resolution.)

> Obsolescence (I wish I had a $20 bill for every scanner abandoned by its manufacturer in less than five years! I'd take my wife to a fancy restaurant.)

The advantages of using digital cameras with macro lenses include:

> A full 36 exposure roll of film can be "scanned" (copied) in about seven minutes or so.

> Digital cameras can resolve more than original 35mm film did. Use a high resolution camera (50 to 100 MP) on medium format film, and the same is true.

> You can save raw files and process them the same way you would process other digital camera files.

> Excellent software exists for converting both black-and-white and color negatives to positive digital images *without* fighting curves tools.

> You may already have much of what you need to use your digital camera to copy film. Add a light source, a film holder, and some software, and you're set. Almost...

I've spent years mulling over how to proceed to digitize my collection of film. It's of no use to me as film... I want to make videos of it, sell products from it online, preserve some of it for family, etc.

Accordingly, I settled on the copy method for film. I'll flatbed scan prints, but film will get the macro treatment.

I've written a white paper explaining how I am doing it. It is a PDF file you can download and view with your favorite browser or PDF viewer. It contains links to videos, reviews, and commentaries, and to various sources for the products I'm using. (Some of the links may need to be copied and pasted into the URL line of your browser.) I've also included some samples I "scanned" from images recorded on film 30 to 50 years ago. Enjoy:

>