1Ds II - anyone here who uses it as a negative scanner?

[cm1]

Is there someone here that uses the last top model digital EOS as a film scanner?

 

If yes, how do you use it? Bellows, macro lens etc.?

 

Can you show us some examples of the quality thatcan be achieved?

[keith_lubow]

At work, this is exactly how we digitized our historical negs for a certain project. We started with a scanner, but it picked up too many defects on the negs. The camera is the first 1Ds, though, not the Mk. II. The lens is the 50mm macro, and we have it on a copy stand over a daylight-balanced light box. After placing a sheet of optical glass over the negs, and then black cropping Ls around them, it is fired from the computer.

 

Most of the negs are 4x5, though.

 

There are bellows slide copiers of many different brands available for doing this with 35mm film. Anything that can be adapted to your Canon's lens mount should work.

 

Keith

[ilkka_nissila]

Keith, ever heard of ICE?

[cm1]

Ilkka, I expect that a historic archive contains traditional silver-halogenide b/w negatives. ICE is absolutely useless with traditional b/w films.

 

I have the same problem with my negatives, as 95% of them are traditional b/w emulsions, only 5% are slides and color negs.

 

The extra problem that occurs is that scanners from Nikon, for example, do not allow to catch the full range of such negatives, the highlights are so dense that the scanners lose a lot of details: faces often look like gypsum, tones are often awful. As an addition, the lamps in these scanners produce a kind of light that overemphasize the film grain.

 

Because of all that I purchased an Imacon 646 scanner, a very costly machine as you know. But I haven't lost hope that there are better possibilities - maybe I can sell of that precious masterpiece then.

[keith_lubow]

Yes.