skatz

My Nikon D600 with 24.3 MP full-frame has been doing an OK job of digitizing (copying) my 35mm and 120 negatives using Micro-Nikkor lenses, copy stand, etc. But with a new Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mk III I wonder if the 80 MP tripod high-resolution mode would yield better results, even though the MFT sensor is half the size? I am asking if anyone has tried this and can offer an opinion of the relative quality I could expect, before I invest in an adapter for the Nikon lenses to the Olympus camera. Also, is there any reason the adapted Nikon lenses (fully manual everything) wouldn't be as suitable as the Olympus macro lenses for this application? I was not planning on buying an Olympus macro lens any time soon.
Thanks.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

The resolution of 35mm film is thought to be less than 24MP, more in the 16MP range. The idea of scanning (photography) film negatives is to get the images into a digital format to a) edit the now digital images and b) share and / or print from the edited digital files. Your medium format 120 matches closer to the 80MP resolution of a digital sensor.

So, my suggestion would be to use both, with the cameras capturing at their respective native ISOs. You can test both cameras on a few of both negative sizes. You'll likely see the overkill of 80MP against the 35mm negatives, but a wonderful resolution for the larger 120 negatives. Use your sharpest lenses for each camera.

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

You are on the right track but you don't really need to be too concerned about the resolution, especially for 35mm film.

Any digital resolution that reveals the grain of the film should be sufficient. I can already see grain at 22MP for 35mm with a Nikon Coolscan 9000, more $$ than anyone needs to spend today. But the Coolscan gives me about 70MP from 6x6cm and 80MP from a 6x7cm and that's where the extra MP helps.

The important consideration is to use a macro lens that will deal with the flat field of the original image better than a normal lens.

skatz

[quote=CHG_CANON]…
So, my suggestion would be to use both…”

Thanks for the idea. Perhaps I could use the E-M1 at native 20MP for 35mm and the high-res mode for 120 and larger negs. I’ll try it.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Don't waste a lot of time working on the actual production until you confirm, through editing the resulting image files, before deciding on which way to go. I did some macro photo shots a long time ago. I got much better results from an Espon V600 scanner. And, that scanner was a lot of work before I figured the best way to do it. I wish I'd found the final work-flow earlier without all the throwaway effort.