digitising negatives

[RalphLambrecht]

I own a D800 and a 55mm Micro Nikkor. I was hoping that would be sufficient to digitize some old
B&W negatives. What else would I need and how would I go about it?

 

[runswithsizzers]

First question, What size negatives? Which will determine how much magnification you need.

 

[Eric Rose]

Ralph there are loads of youtube videos showing you how to do it.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

You would just need a copy stand, a light box and something to hold the negs, like an enlarger neg holder. Pretty simple. Don't expect super quality out of it though. Bayer sensor and such...

 

[Alan9940]

I've never used one, but I've heard high praise for the Nikon ES-2 Film Digitizer.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

First question, What size negatives? Which will determine how much magnification you need.

I'm mainly interested in 35mm negatives;in MF,I will stay in the analog workflow.

 

[KN4SMF]

Man, you don't want to get bogged down sitting in front of a computer doing archiving. The kiss of death to new creation.

 

[runswithsizzers]

I'm mainly interested in 35mm negatives;in MF,I will stay in the analog workflow.

To copy a 35mm negative with a full frame digital camera your magnification will be 1:1. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe your 55mm Micro Nikkor focuses to 1:2 (0.5x), so you will need whichever Nikon extension ring provides 1:1 magnification with that lens. I believe the one you need will add about 27-28mm of extension. <calculator here>

If you have a copy stand to hold the camera over the light source, use that. If not, use a tripod. If you can invert the central column of your tripod, that may work better <photo here> In that photo of my rig I am using a 100mm lens on an APS-C sensor to copy a 120 negative. Your camera will be much closer to the negative.

For a quick and easy light source use an iPhone, iPad, etc. Or get a small LED panel. There is an article which discusses light sources at <this link> That article emphasizes color, but there is also some more general information applicable to photographing b&w negatives.

A negative carrier from an enlarger can be used to hold the negative flat on the light source.

The camera sensor and the negative must be parallel. I use a bullseye bubble level. Center the bubble on the negative carrier and also on the back of the camera, and they should be aligned.

At 1:1 magnification, depth of field is quite limited. At f/11 dof is only about 0.68mm and at f/16 it's still just under 1mm. <dof calculator here> In my testing, I noticed defraction just starting to blur fine detail at f/16, and at f/22 it was more noticeable.

Carefully remove dust with a brush / blower.

Focus carefully, using whatever manual focus aids your camera provides. I focus my mirrorless camera wide open, zoomed in view, with focus highlight peaking enabled; then stop down to f/11-16 for the shot. Reduce / eliminate any room lights that might result in unwanted reflections. Use a shutter release cable, remote shutter release, or self-timer to prevent camera movement during the exposure.

The negative image is easily inverted to a positive in Photoshop. It's not hard to do in Lightroom, but it's not a simple menu selection either, so look it up if you need to. Suggest shooting RAW and don't downsample from 16-bit to 8-bit if you convert it to a TIFF while post processing.

I believe this method can produce better results from 35mm negatives than you would get from many flatbed scanners and minilabs.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

To copy a 35mm negative with a full frame digital camera your magnification will be 1:1. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe your 55mm Micro Nikkor focuses to 1:2 (0.5x), so you will need whichever Nikon extension ring provides 1:1 magnification with that lens. I believe the one you need will add about 27-28mm of extension. <calculator here>

If you have a copy stand to hold the camera over the light source, use that. If not, use a tripod. If you can invert the central column of your tripod, that may work better <photo here> In that photo of my rig I am using a 100mm lens on an APS-C sensor to copy a 120 negative. Your camera will be much closer to the negative.

For a quick and easy light source use an iPhone, iPad, etc. Or get a small LED panel. There is an article which discusses light sources at <this link> That article emphasizes color, but there is also some more general information applicable to photographing b&w negatives.

A negative carrier from an enlarger can be used to hold the negative flat on the light source.

The camera sensor and the negative must be parallel. I use a bullseye bubble level. Center the bubble on the negative carrier and also on the back of the camera, and they should be aligned.

At 1:1 magnification, depth of field is quite limited. At f/11 dof is only about 0.68mm and at f/16 it's still just under 1mm. <dof calculator here> In my testing, I noticed defraction just starting to blur fine detail at f/16, and at f/22 it was more noticeable.

Carefully remove dust with a brush / blower.

Focus carefully, using whatever manual focus aids your camera provides. I focus my mirrorless camera wide open, zoomed in view, with focus highlight peaking enabled; then stop down to f/11-16 for the shot. Reduce / eliminate any room lights that might result in unwanted reflections. Use a shutter release cable, remote shutter release, or self-timer to prevent camera movement during the exposure.

The negative image is easily inverted to a positive in Photoshop. It's not hard to do in Lightroom, but it's not a simple menu selection either, so look it up if you need to. Suggest shooting RAW and don't downsample from 16-bit to 8-bit if you convert it to a TIFF while post processing.

I believe this method can produce better results from 35mm negatives than you would get from many flatbed scanners and minilabs.

thanks for all the replies.