"Scan" Minox 8x11 negative with digital camera

<p>Scan Minox 811 negative with film scanner is still the way to go, but digital camera with macro can also be used to scan Minox negative<br>

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<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/8479075-md.jpg" alt="" />

<p>Bird head , Vancouver Aquarium, Summer, 2008

<p>Minox C, Kodak Technical Pan, developed with Rodinal Special

<p>Scan with Panasonic Lumix LX3 in macro mode

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<p>Regarding film scanners, I have great results (which I will post) with an old minolta scan multi (only 2mb images) with glass carriers and a 'home made' minox mask. This scanner has a mask for minolta 16mm film as well.<br>

The killer feature with the scanner is the ability to choose where to focus the scanner lens on the small 8x11 image with adjustments for field of focus etc. You only get this with the last konica minolta driver, still available on the web.<br>

I haven't seen that feature on higher-specified scanners....</p>

<p>Martin, I started a similar thread in another forum and got lots of negative comment. Have a look at:<br>

<a href="http://members.ytv.home.ne.jp/minoxfan/DoItYour/D-DigiScan.html">http://members.ytv.home.ne.jp/minoxfan/DoItYour/D-DigiScan.html</a><br>

Translate with google etc.<br>

it's well worth a look. These fellows use an enlarging lens in front of a digicam with spacers to create a kind of ersatz camera. I wonder if an old FSU camera with a removable back would serve as well? Film across the gate and the shutter on 'B' etc and a light source behind. Went to try it as a mockup today and the powersupply of the scanner I intended to use as a white light box has died. Bugger.<br>

My Lumix won't go closer than 50mm and at that distance my Minolta-16 negs are still quite tiny. Maybe a single megapixel image? The added lens makes sense to me. It's got to be a semi-permanent setup to be practical, tho.<br>

How close did you manage to get to the Minox neg.?<br>

Murray Kelly</p>

<p>Murray, my Lumix LX3 in macro mode can get close to 10mm.<br>

The above picture was taken by holding a strip of Minox negative infront of the lens, with<br>

sky as background. Since there was no sturdy support, that accounted for the lack of sharpness. With a better setup, I think I might get sharper picture</p>

<p>Murray, my Lumix LX3 in macro mode can get close to 10mm.<br>

The above picture was taken by holding a strip of Minox negative infront of the lens, with<br>

sky as background. Since there was no sturdy support, that accounted for the lack of sharpness. With a better setup, I think I might get sharper picture</p>

<p>My Lumix DMC-TZ15 handbook says I cannot get closer than 5cm so the negative will be a very small part of the frame in the digital camera.<br>

A jig with a lens like the one quoted above will be my best bet.<br>

Murray</p>

<p>When I started to digitalize my Minox negatives I used a HP 20 scanner. Because this scanner is made only for 35 mm films, I had to glue black paper to both edges of the Minox film and then cut it down to 35 mm to suit the film transport system in this scanner. This was very time consuming and I got a lot of dust on the negs. The scanner also could not frame the small negatives so I had to frame three negs together. After that I "cropped" one of these negatives and went further with Photoshop.<br>

After some time I found out that I could use my old Nikon 990 for copying the negs. This camera focuses down to about 2 cm from the front lens and at this distance the 9x11 neg almost fills the sensor area of the Nikon 990.<br>

So what I do is that have my local photo shop to develop the negative colour Minox film. They do it in their standard 35 mm developing machine, they only move the film in their dark room from the cassett into a light tight holder that suits their machine.<br>

I take the film, which I not even cut, put it on a light table and flatten it with a sheet of good glass. Then I photograph the single frames of the film. I now have started to use a good lupe, a Peak 10x, between the glass and the camera.This makes the neg to fill the sensor of the Nikon. It also stabilizes the camera so it stays parallell to the film plane. I do not even have to use a tripod for the camera.<br>

The automatic focus and the automatic exposure of the camera works in the normal way. After photographing the negs I save the copies to the hard desk of my computer. I use Paint Shop Pro 7 to turn the photos from negative to positive, to remove dust marks and to enhance the photos.<br>

All this is done in minutes instead of hours.</p>

<p>Lars-Eric, that is a very impresssive result to my eyes. From an 8x11 Minox frame, too! Well done!<br>

One of the reasons I want to get into the camera scan arrangement is for the time saved and the probable better result than with my slow Aldi bought 4800x9600 ppi scanner, which is glacier-like in speed. My 9Mpix with autofocus (the scanner doesn't have that feature) Lumix would hopefully make it a breeze.<br>

I have no light box but a couple of alternatives come to mind. It's a thin strip (I use 16mm) and a plain fluorescent tube would likely substitute. Flat glass sandwich on top.<br>

Using a plain loupe woul never have entered my mind, as I would have expected aberation and some distortion. Yours must be very good quality. I can try a plain close-up lens on the camera as a trial.<br>

Thanks for the pic and information<br>

Murray</p>

<p>Well, guys, I hand held all the bits together - film on a sheet of paper w widow light, Helios-103 in L hand and the Lumix on enough zoom to fill the screen, and moving everything in and out until the autofocus caught on and got an image.<br>

To me this a giant step forward. After several attempts I got it pretty right and am now on the road to a permanent setup. Compared to scanning ther's no contest.</p>

<p>The camera is a Kiev30M, which is no Minox nor even a Minolta, but it does have focussing, altho I am not so sure the sacrifice of a Rokkor lens is worth the swap. Soon I will be able to tell more quickly. Film is Copex Rapid in H&W at recommended times.</p><div></div>

<p>Here: http://abdallah.hiof.no/minox/20090427-minox-scan/ are some results of DSLR "scanning" with a Canon 5Dii and Nikon PB-4 bellows and PS-4 slide copying adapter. The scans can be compared to the same negatives scanned in an ArtixScan 120f.<br>

- Børre Ludvigsen</p><div></div>