Scanning with a DSLR

[cooltouch]

Well, at this point, I can only look forward to owning a 5D MkII (or equivalent) someday. Until then I'll have to make do with my lowly 10.1mp EOS DSLR. Still, 10.1mp translates into about 2600ppi, which is better than most all flatbed scanners are capable of. I've been slowly going through my slide and B&W negative collections, digitizing them with a slide duplicator I've cobbled together for use with that camera. At its heart is an old pre-AI 55mm f/3.5 Micro-Nikkor. It may be old, but it is a very sharp lens.

Nikon F3, Tamron 300mm f/2.8 LDIF, Fujichrome 100, circa 1991

Nikon FM, 135mm f/2.8 Nikkor, Fujichrome 100, circa 1989

Canon F-1, Vivitar S1 28-90/2.8-3.5, Kodachrome 64, circa 1986

Canon F-1, Vivitar S1 28-90/2.8-3.5, Kodachrome 64, circa 1987

Canon FTbn, Vivitar S1 28-90/2.8-3.5, Czech B&W film, circa 1984

I still need to try some of the techniques mentioned here for scanning negatives. Right now, it's a real hit-or-miss operation.

 

[Athiril]

flat screen computer LCD is a great backlight, as long as you put a little distance between the film and the screen (~20cm)

You make a photoshop document and fill the background colour to balance the RGB exposure on your dSLR so the peaks all match for C-41 @ 5600K balance on the dSLR, no compromise

Bottom crop is dSLR

 

[OldBikerPete]

One CANNOT correctly factor out the mask of a color negative film using corrective filters because the mask is the unreacted color of the color dyes - the density of the mask is reduced according to the density of the image.

There is a plugin available for Photoshop to turn scans of negatives into positives. I can't exactly remember the name of it off-hand but it's something like 'NegImage'

EDIT: The names of the plugins are: NegPos and ColorNeg by CF Systems
http://www.c-f-systems.com

Peter