Canon Slide duplicator FL

[exabetal]

I'm looking for a slide duplicator FL for use on my FL bellows. With the bellows mounted via an FD to EOS mount

adapter in principle this could be useful as a slide digitizer. Anybody tried this? How does the quality compare

to slides scanned with a true scanner, say the Nikon V or 9000?

 

Anybody has a slide duplicator on sale for cheap? Anybody knows were I could buy one. Adorama doesn't have one

and KEH's website seems out of order. I'm in the Netherlands.

[JDMvW]

<p>There are, and have been, thousands of these for sale on eBay. Almost all are "like new" and most still in their original boxes.<br>

The T-mount ones can easily be adapted to FD, at least. But why not get a EOS bellows?--they don't cost much if you get a cheap one. I think it's a mistake to let your FL bellows determine other purchases here.</p>

<p>Believe me a cheap one will do in this case, since the reason that there are so many of these copiers for sale on eBay, is that most were used <strong><em>once</em> </strong> . I believe this is as true of the Canon or Nikon ones as of the Spiratone ones.</p>

<p>It really sounds neat, doesn't it? Just a simple adapter that either goes on the camera directly or onto a lens, and you can copy slides like crazy. The only catch is that it really doesn't work very well, especially if your EOS is an APS-C sensor, but it doesn't work on 35mm either, not really. I speak here from the perspective of one who had always sorta wanted one of these, so I finally bid on one and got it and tried it out. It is now back in its original box and has probably now been used twice.</p>

<p>To make slide copying work, a Honeywell/Heiland Repronar or a Bowens Illumitran set up makes far more sense than the add-on camera attachment. Perhaps even better, an illuminator of some kind (a dichroic head from an enlarger turned upside down is good) and bellows and a closeup copy stand will work very well. Any good manual copy lens with this setup will be far superior to any optics in the so-called slide copier.</p>

[exabetal]

Thanks for your response. I had an FL bellows and slide copier twenty years ago for my EF and A-1, but sold it once I "moved up" to EOS. I wasn't aware that Canon had bellows for EOS cameras. Anyway, I got a new FL bellows now and wanted to check out if "scanning" my old slides and negs into with my EOS 40D was feasible using this set up.

I'm familiar with using a Nikon Coolscan V, but it's not mine and I have to borrow it for every new roll of film.

 

So I understand that the quality is lowish in comparison to what comes out of the Coolscan? It's back to finding an affordable quality scanner than...

[timwitt]

<p>I tried a Canon Auto Bellows with slide duplicator and 50mm macro lens on a 30D (APS-C) connected to the 30D with an adapter I made. The 1.6X crop factor prevents full copy of the slide. Oh well, now I use a Nikon LS4000.</p>

[jim_doty]

<p>I used to use the FD version (slide duplicator) on an autobellows with slide duplicating film to make a lot of duplicate slides. I much prefer using a slide scanner now. The Nikon Coolscan V ED film scanner does an excellent job. If you are thinking about a slide scanner, I would recommend going that route.</p>

[timwitt]

<p>I think I had focus problems too but I don't remember the specifics.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>The Canon bellows for EOS are very pricey, but there are non-auto bellows in EOS mount on eBay new for very little. They work just fine for various manual lenses.</p>

<p>In any case, try one of the FD>EOS adapters without the optics--I suppose it would work for FL?</p>

<p>Yeah, dedicated film scanners are just so much better. Even older ones can be used with VueScan.</p>

[robin_sibson1]

<blockquote>

<p>The Canon bellows for EOS are very pricey</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Well, they would be, since you'd have to persuade Canon to make them specially for you!</p>

<p>I suspect, JDMvW, that you are thinking of the Canon Auto Bellows that were the FD/FL-mount successor to the FL bellows, and operated the lens disphragm with a double cable release rather than the rocker mechanism that I remember from my own FL bellows all those years ago. EOS they weren't.</p>

<p>What the OP is looking for is the dedicated unit that screwed onto the front of the FL bellows monorail and had its own little bellows that clipped onto the front of whatever Canon FL (or FD) lens was mounted on the FL bellows, so that the whole setup functioned as a slide copier. With an FD-to-EOS glassless adaptor at the back, it would certainly operate on an EOS body with the FL/FD lens stopped down manually, and would work as well for digitising as it did for slide copying (even on a 1.6-factor body provided an appropriate lens was used). That is to say, not very.</p>

<p>There are a number of reasons why a film scanner is a much better choice than either a slide copier with a camera, or the majority of flatbed scanners, and one of the main ones is the use of an IR channel for dust and scratch removal. That alone is worth the price of entry. </p>

[JDMvW]

<p>Probably so. I <em>thought</em> I had seen some EOS auto-connect bellows for sale somewhere once upon a time, and my mind must have assumed that these were Canon. Whatever they were, they did cost a lot of money. The just plain ones I bought long ago were less than US$30 at the time.</p>

<p>Here's the rig with a Spiratone short barrel lens with a EOS T-mount on one of my bodies.</p><div></div>

[User_502260]

<p>The inexpensive bellows which are sold for Canon EF mount cameras usually lack a focusing rail. This means you have to move the whole assembly back and forth and then refocus/recompose. I have two Canon Bellows FL units with slide copier attachments. The Bellows FL looks better made than the later Auto Bellows. Eventually I would like to add the Auto Bellows to my collection. Scanners have indeed made slide copier attachments much less popular but you can still have some fun with a bellows and slide copier attachment. At my local lab, it would cost me less to shoot slides onto print film than to have prints made directly from the slides. If the prints are in the 4X6 to 5X7 range they should look as good as what I would get from having the slides scanned directly.</p>