alastair_anderson Posted October 30, 2012 Share Posted October 30, 2012 <p>Hi all, I'm hoping to copy some slides but am having difficulty. I wonder if anyone has tried this.<br>It seems that I can't mount the bellows on the camera directly - there is some impediment. I've tried using an extension tube, and can now get the bellows on the camera, but can't achieve focus without cropping the slide.<br>Any suggestions?</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter_doucette Posted October 30, 2012 Share Posted October 30, 2012 <p>I've been able to mount my PB-5 bellows on a D40, D100, and D7000 by turning the mounting ring to "portrait" mode, and then mounting the camera.<br> I wish I had a D800 to try. The biggest problem is getting the whole slide without cropping on the smaller sensor.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodeo_joe1 Posted October 30, 2012 Share Posted October 30, 2012 <p>Which lens are you trying to use Alastair? The simple solution would be to use a slightly longer lens with the bellows and extension tube combo, but then you may not be able to rack out the slide holder far enough.</p> <p>Basically Nikon made a poor design decision with these bellows. The camera mount should be made removable from the bellows so that it can be attached to the camera separately and then the bellows fitted to the mount. Pentax never made such a screw-up with their bellows design, if you'll pardon the pun.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim_jones3 Posted October 30, 2012 Share Posted October 30, 2012 <p>Nikon designed the PB-5 well enough, certainly better than the old PB-2. The problem is with new cameras not being designed to work with accessories of several decades earlier.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alastair_anderson Posted October 30, 2012 Author Share Posted October 30, 2012 <p>Thanks for the help. Yes, RJ. That's the best solution for me; the 105, f2.5 won't allow me to rack the slide holder out far enough and the 60 macro crops the image. But I can manage with my 85 f1.4D. This is not the best lens for the purpose but at least it works.<br> Thanks very much for all your comments. I'm thinking of adding a piece of aluminium tube to the holder so that in future I can rack it out another couple of feet. In the mean time I'll use the 85.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alastair_anderson Posted October 30, 2012 Author Share Posted October 30, 2012 <p>In fact, I've just tried Peter's solution and that works perfectly. Thank you, Peter. Don't know why I didn't think of that myself! This means I can use an old 50 f2 (H) lens which has a 52 filter thread. The slide holder clips onto it like a lens cap and thereby eliminates stray light.</p> <p>Now, can anyone tell me what the optimum aperture for copying is? I'm leaning towards using flash as a light source.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellis_vener_photography Posted October 30, 2012 Share Posted October 30, 2012 Something in the f/8 to f/11 range will be optimal although you should test. You have to balance out diffeaction limited resolution issues with film curvature (depth of field) issues with mounted slides. Flash is good. I recommend you point it at a neutral white or gray surface rather than directly at the slide. Have you seen Peter Krogh's "The DAM Book"? It and http://www.thedambook.com are the best sources of information on making digital dupes. I have done exactly what you are doing but after trying a bellows unit and camera lens was lucky enough to find for a reasonable price a Beseler Dual Mode Slide Duplicator and. Rodenstock 75mm f/4 APO-Rodagon lens designed for duping and have used this rig with a D3x, 1Ds Mark III and D800. Make sure you shoot 14 bit NEFs. Losslessy compressed is fine. Not TIFFs or JPEGs. Worry more about blowing out highlights than underexposing. Contrast can be an issue. Handle WB in your raw processing program. Try to focus on the area of greatest visual interest which may not necessarily be the center of the slide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellis_vener_photography Posted October 30, 2012 Share Posted October 30, 2012 Also see http://www.photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00PrhC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter_doucette Posted October 30, 2012 Share Posted October 30, 2012 <p>I should have mentioned to turn the camera back to landscape mode after mounting the lens.</p> <p>According to the PB-5 instruction manual, when using the 50 f2, your working range will be from 2.5 to 7.2 cm from the plane of focus to the front edge of the lens barrel when in normal use. When reversed, working distance will be 4.8 to 6.8, but you will be at a higher than 1:1 magnification. The remarks listed: " The more the lens is stopped down, the better the image is." (normal), and "At high magnifications, the corner-image somewhat degenerates when the lens is stopped down further than f8." (Reversed)<br> For 1:1 reproduction, the slide should be about 6.4 cm from the front of the lens barrel, and remember to focus the lens at infinity.<br> This was obviously written before diffraction was a factor to worry about. <br> It looks like the manual was printed in 1970.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lwg Posted October 30, 2012 Share Posted October 30, 2012 <p>I was able to mount the D800 on the PB4 with the turn to portrait trick Peter mentioned. I don't know if that works on the PB5.</p> <p>If you have an enlarger lens I find they work well on the PB4 for copying slides. I think I was using an 80mm. That option may be cheaper than a longer dedicated macro lens. I also think it would work even if you need to add an extension tube to get the camera to mount.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsfbr Posted October 30, 2012 Share Posted October 30, 2012 Diffraction was a worry in 1970. It just went away for the time when digital was not able to resolve enough to make it matter. I was wondering, why do you need to use landscape mode? Couldn't you just rotate the slide to match the camera? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_halliwell Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 <p>I'd ditch the bellows and get a nice condition 55mm f2.8 or f3.5 1:1 macro, set @ 6.3 with that little slide-holder thingy Nikon used to make mounted on the front..</p> <p>I'd guess an SB-800 on a sc-28/29 round the front would manage lighting....or maybe something even simpler like a mirror to bounce the hot-shoe mounted flash-light back in the front, through the slide?</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter_doucette Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 <p>You can rotate the slide, but you end up using the rear tripod mount which will not always allow good support.<br> Besides, it looks nicer this way...</p><div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodeo_joe1 Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 <p>I'll second the advice to use a 55mm micro-Nikkor or Apo-Rodagon for flat copying. A short while ago I was checking out an AF 105mm micro-Nikkor (1st AF version - i.e. non D), and the field wasn't terriby flat at 1:1. Even worse at 1:2. It was easily bettered by my old faithfull Tamron SP AF 90mm, and by both f/3.5 and f/2.8 versions of 55mm MF micro-Nikkor. All versions of 50mm "standard" lens that I've tried have had pretty bad field curvature at macro distances too.</p> <p>Having a lens with a flat field and low LoCA means that you can use a wider aperture and pretty much forget about diffraction effects.</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Smith Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 <blockquote> <p>Beseler Dual Mode Slide Duplicator and. Rodenstock 75mm f/4 APO-Rodagon lens designed for duping and have used this rig with a D3x, 1Ds Mark III and D800</p> </blockquote> <p>I have essentially the same kit but with a Chromapro duplicator (tungsten light source) and use a 5DmKII. I stop the Rodagon down to f11 as although f8 is the highest resolution, f11's depth of field improves overall edge to edge focus slightly and I cannot detect any loss in resolution compared to f8. Agree with Ellis, don't blow the highlights - a slide's contrast range easily fits in a DSLR's dynamic range so it is pretty easy. The results are superior or equal to my 35mm dedicated slide scanner - better in speed, ease of color balancing, and lack of grain/dust exaggeration.</p> Robin Smith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sebastianmoran Posted October 31, 2012 Share Posted October 31, 2012 <p>Alastair, the 75mm f/4 APO Rodagon D is the perfect lens for 1:1 reproduction, as in digitizing slides with an FX camera. </p> <p>Remember that at 1:1, your effective aperture is 2x the marked aperture. Diffraction is, of course, an issue, especially with a sensor as high resolution as the D800, so shoot at the middle apertures (f/5.6 or f/8).</p> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john_narsuitus Posted November 1, 2012 Share Posted November 1, 2012 <p>Most of my 1:1 slide copy work has been from slide to slide. I used a 55mm macro lens mounted in reverse position on a PB4 bellows. I used a Vivitar 283 flash with a diffuser positioned about 30cm from the slide. With the flash set to the manual exposure mode, my exposures were f/11 for ISO 100 film.</p> <p>However, I will have a similar problem on an upcoming project. I have some slides to digitize and I am unable to use my scanner to obtain a 1:1 digital copy as I usually do. If I am forced to use my PB4 bellows and DX body, I may try a longer focal length lens (105mm macro) to avoid the problem caused by inserting an extension tube between the body and the bellows for proper mounting.</p> <p><a href=" <p> </p><div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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