Scanning film without a scanner

Scanning film without a scanner

 

I'm thinking of getting a light box and shooting them with my dslr, or should I use my laptop screen? Will there be a lot of pixels?

Nearly every thread about scanning negatives/slides on this site for the last few years discusses the possibility to use a DSLR or mirrorless. So a little search will answer your question easily.

I use my laptop screen? Will there be a lot of pixels?

Depends. If you tape the film onto the screen: Maybe yes, if you place the film a bit in front of the screen those pixels will be OOF and blend together.

I prefer a lightbox as it can be horizontal - easier to deal with than taping film to a screen. The light is also a little more even (I have an LED one).

Use a laptop screen as a light box? It might work as long as there is enough separation from the film so that pixels in the screen are out of focus. Color balance might be a bit dicey. Remember that there are only red, green and blue pixels, which look white only in combination. As noted above, it would be better if the screen were horizontal. It's much easier to keep film in place that way without clamping or taping it.

 

Caution: Pressure on the LCD screen causes changes in color and brightness. Repeated taping may damage the screen, especially when you remove it.

 

If your are looking to "scan" 35 mm film or mounted slides, there are simpler ways to do it, using a macro lens and a film holder. Nikon makes two such holders, the ES-1 for mounted slides, and just announced, an ES-2 with holders for both slides and film strips. There is a translucent piece of plastic to provide diffusion. The light source can be a desk lamp (e.g., daylight LED) or flash.

 

There are two current threads in PNET, "Digital Darkroom" and "Film and Processing" which cover this subject extensively.

Laptop screen as lightbox will have obvious pixel grid.

 

If you want to do this, you need a good macro lens and a bellows/slide copier. Otherwise you're going to have soft results due to low sharpness in the lens. You also need a light source that's uniform and color controlled.

 

Plus side is that you should have a higher scan rate than with a film scanner.

 

Down side is no IR dust removal.

I constructed a lightbox specifically for this purpose which would sit on my enlarger base and also made a camera holder to attach to my enlarger, so things were always in proper alignment. Using a macro lens everything has turned out fine, and the time for scanning is much better than in my aged scanner.