Scanning film with digital camera

[L Gebhardt]

The simplest solution would be a halogen or other continuous spectrum light source and color separation filters. We know excellent results can be achieved with color separation filters just by looking at dye transfers. I believe PE mentioned using them with RA4 paper and getting good results.

 

[Steven Lee]

@koraks I've added your blog post to my TODO list Thank you. @L Gebhardt where do you find color filters with a stated pass-through frequency? Photo grade filters at places like B&H aren't meant for that.

 

[L Gebhardt]

@Steven Lee Take a look at https://www.photrio.com/forum/threa...-3-separate-exposures-1-sheet-of-paper.67353/ There are quite a few options mentioned. With a monochrome sensor I would try to pick the sharpest cutting filters to get the least crosstalk in the colors. Adjust each exposure to the right as you take the separation shots.

You can see the curves for the Kodak Wratten filters at https://www.kodak.com/en/motion/page/wratten-2-filters

 

[Steven Lee]

@L Gebhardt thank you sir

 

[Patrick Robert James]

I've done camera scans before and I think they aren't worth the grief unless you set up a workstation that is ready to go all the time. I already have a Nikon scanner that will eat a whole roll of 35mm at a time while I am doing other things. For 120, 4x5, 16mm and Minox I use an old Canon flatbed scanner and I have that streamlined with Vuescan. I print everything in the darkroom though so my "standards" for scans is lower, but it works well for proofs. It would even be fine for posting on the internet but I don't post neg scans on the internet.

If you want to do camera scans of Minox, and you want to use the full resolution of the camera, you are going to have to use a bellows. I have an old Canon FL bellows that works great with a Sony mirrorless camera. Not so much for your Nikon, but a bellows will do nonetheless. For Minox I reverse a 30mm CE Rokkor Minolta enlarging lens. Works fine. It is a bit fiddly though. Much easier to toss them on the flatbed and scan them that way. Again, my standards for scanning are lower since I still print in the darkroom.

These days I mostly just do camera scans for stitching color neg. I still find that to be a pain. Color correction can get complicated. I've tried a bunch of ways but I end up doing it manually in LAB mode in Photoshop. I won't even try to explain how that works. I'll eventually filter my light source to negate the mask if I ever get serious about it. The upside to camera scanning is the resolution can be amazing. Better than a drum scanner if you are willing to stitch.