where there’s smoke there’s forum fire
I've got a bunch of 35mm slides that I never got around to scanning. Now I have a D800E, I have the following question.
Is the following combination going to give me good scans of the slides, or am I better off sending them off to a lab.
- D800E
- 55mm f/2.8 Macro AI-s
- PK-13 extension tube (gives 1:1 with 55mm)
- ES-1 slide copying adapter
- ExpoDisc white balance filter
Interesting idea. Id like to try that too.
Try it and see... Scan yourself about four or five slides, then send them off to be scanned. Compare your results with the lab. My guess, yours will be better as you will be able to adjust things as you go, and you might take more care with the slides, cleaning, etc. You can also adjust WB in the camera, do a crop and then scan.
Plus, if you have all the goodies, the cost will be a lot less.
That's just it, I 'only' have the D800E right now but I have 1,000's of slides from years ago.
My guess... by using a reversing ring on a 50mm - 100mm lens, I would bet one can use some plastic to build a slide holder mount a constant light source behind it and you will have a great copy machine. Just make certain no extraneous light is escaping around the slide holder.
B & H has the rings and adapters...
Nikon BR-2A Lens Reversing Ring - 52mm Thread
Nikon BR-5 Adapter Ring 62-52mm for BR-2A Reversing Ring & 62mm
and both can be had for about $70 total. Lots cheaper than purchase of a lens. And some of the best macros have been made with reversed lenses, so they must work well.
I've been using my Nikon 105mm f/2.8 AIS micro lens with a Nikon 4T close up lens with the slides on an LED lightpad and have had good results with the slides that are well exposed. I am using a Nikon D 80 on a tripod. This set up gives me a slight crop where as the 3T close up lens I was getting the slide mounts in the image occasionally. All the slides are around 30 years old. The Kodachromes have held up well, but the Ektachromes have faded and some have shifted toward the red. I've also noticed that some of slides have a tint of blue, so I switched my WB to daylight and they are better.
Your D 800E should give you even better results than my D 80.
I didn't send my slides out because I probably have around 4,000 old slides. Plus, by doing it slowly by myself, I am keeping them in the same order they are in in my slide cubes.
I thought about getting the new Plustek slide scanner for around $ 280, but didn't. It may be in my future though. I haven't noticed any dust or scratches on these slides so I really don't need that software which is on the Plustek.
I have noticed that leaning over the camera and duplicating these slides is hard on my back so I can only do a cube or two at a time. I went out to Lowes the other day and bought a back support belt for $ 15 that helps a little.
Also, I started out getting the exposure with my Sekonic L 508 spot meter, but I have gotten pretty good estimating the exposure now. I am shooting at f/2.8 at 1/125 sec on well exposed slides.
As a slide scanning specialist I would be mortified if I had to use the method you are proposing. I have Nikon scanners - D5000, D4000 and 8000 coolscans, I also have Epson and Canon scanning equipment. We always use the most appropriate scanner for the film be it APS, 35mm negatives, medium or large format etc.
One of the advantages of a specialist scanner is the specific scanning software which is available, for example Hamrick or Silverfast which are both excellent. This software helps with the elimination of dust and scratches and also with colour correction. DaveO mentions the blue shift familiar to us all in the Kodachrome slides, there is also the glorious redshift seen with Agfa stock. The scanning software allows precise colour adjustment often bringing the picture back entirely to the original colour.
My advice for 35mm slide scanning would be to use a specialist scanner (or someone like me who scans large numbers professionally), I would go for Nikon 4000 if you're new to the task as although it is a slower (firewire) scanner it is cheaper than the 5000 (USB) but with similar optical performance. There is other good scanning equipment from Minolta. I was not impressed with the results I achieved on the plustek and could not hand on heart recommend it.
Use the 4000 dpi scanning on the 4000 and 5000 scanners and minimum 24bit colour and you can obtain high quality archiveable material. Make sure your computer is up to the task, we use Apples with 4gb RAM, also we have large capacity drives for storage.
The blue shift I was talking about was not on the slide, but the image after taking a picture of it. I changed the WB to daylight and most of it went away. I don't know what the Nikon slide scanner costs, but I'd guess that is way higher than I am willing to pay.
Besides, didn't Nikon stop making slide copiers awhile ago. If it breaks, what do you do for parts to get it repaired?
If you look at the slides over a light box, especially the 1960's & 1970's Ektachromes they will probably appear bluer than they should. This is a well recognised deterioration but relatively easily corrected. The reddening of Agfa film is also relatively easily corrected. Adjusting the white balance helps bundles. I am writing a paper on this just now to go on my website though I was including mold damage and correcting for this. Most of the work I get in slide form requires colour balance adjustment to a greater or lesser extent.
The 5000's are about 1500 UKP the 4000s about 650 UKP on Ebay. Over the pond they appear similarly priced I bought a 4000 from a chap in the US for $700 but the import duty here in the UK was expensive. Nikon stopped making them about 2003 (?WHY?) but they still support them. I had one serviced a little while back and a clean up cost 200 UKP.
From my point of view getting someone to scan them with semi automated equipment (I can scan 20 slides an hour at 4000dpi on each of my scanners) is more worthwhile than trying to photograph each single shot yourself without the benefits of colour correction and dust plus scratch reduction. Obviously any editing I do takes extra time but my working material is already first class by the time I get to this point.
Thanks for your answer.
The 30 year old Ektachromes have actually faded and gone a little blue. I also have some slides that went red. Don't remember if they were Agfachromes or not. I know some of my slides are Agfachrome though. Unfortunately, they don't do Kodachrome anymore, the one slide film that seems to hold up well to age.
What baffles me is that colour negatives are so stable. I get a lot of negatives to scan and use pretty much the same equipment. Provided the pictures have been kept in sleeves they tend to be low in dust and scratches with excellent colour stability. I guess it has to be something in the chemical processing - if you know the answer I'd love to hear it!
Fuji appears to have lasted best, that's just an unscientific observation and it would be good to get feedback on that.
I'll try to post some of the copied images of the old slides. I may have to post one photo to Photo of the Day. Don't know if I can post to here. The one I am posting is one that still has good color. I can't seem to post it here so I will post in POTD
These are some of the slides I have copied with the D 80. I posted a red shifted one, a blue shifted one, and normal one.
Somehow I posted one twice, sorry.
@ mr.farback.... if one does not have a scanner and wants to copy some slides, has the equipment I suggested, I was only suggesting it can be done. And going into a digital medium makes corrections easier especially when one has a D800.
Personally, I use my Coolscan 5000 which does a nice job....except Ektachromes which are 40-50 years old can be a real challenge...LOL.
If I wanted the best quality from the slides, I would most likely go through the process and time of the Scanner as It is a closed system and can be controlled with VueScan which I downloaded off the web.
But, for the best results, a high quality professional is the way to go. Unfortunately, folks like yourself may be difficult to find, especially in the USA.
Welcome to NRF
Interesting to see the pictures from DaveO, thanks. First comment is the dust which can be easily removed by Hamrick (Vuescan) software or silverfast. The second thing that hit me was the colour balance quite shifted as DaveO says, again relatively easy to correct. I do not think that removing dust doing the manual photography method will be easy as it will require manual editing. The problem can be reduced using a compressed air blower to remove some of the dust
I found this website listing scanning services in the US it may be helpful (I'm not listed as I am a UK based company so no personal advertising!!).
http://photo-scanning.findthebest.com/d/a/35mm-Slide
msmoto - what bit depth do you use with the 5000? and thanks for the welcome.
I hadn't noticed the dust when I posted them. Thanks for pointing that out. I do have LightRoom 3.6 so I could change the color balance on the ones that are affected. I haven't had a chance to watch the tutorials on Lightroom. I even bought a book on it for my Kindle. I just find myself doing other things instead of watching Youtube or reading the book.
dormant- Just watched a short video that came with N Photo mag volume10. He put prints up on a wall in his house that had even light all around. Camera on a tripod framed them some cropping in photoshop. Done. Slides he cleaned first then put them on a light box framed . done. Said he could do a box of slides in an hour. Said it's a lot faster than a scanner. Looked good to me and easy.
One of the most unusual projects I was given was to put digital images onto slide film. I used one of my Nikons with a wide angle Tamron lens to photograph the monitor screen. I used 200 asa film and a slow exposure. It worked and the customer was happy.
I digress!
Photographing slides on a slide box is always going to be a cheap compromise. It may work and the photographer might be happy with the results and at the end of the day that's what matters.
One of my 'customers' used my trial service. I offer to scan up to six images and send them back on a disc. His pictures were Ektachromes and required a lot of colour correction. He got the trial disc back and said thanks very much but I'm too expensive so he'll take photos of projections on a screen. I never heard from him again so perhaps he was happy with his results. I think I was a little irritated by the fact he said I was too expensive when I am one of the most competitive in the UK!
<Link removed>we are passionate about getting the slide scans as good as they can be. Our tag line is 'your memories - our passion' We want those slides preserved for the future at the best quality so future generations can appreciate them.
Whoaaaa - get off the soap box!
On a slightly different slant Steven Spielberg has been involved in digitising historical film in the UK for future generations - respect!
There are services that scan old slides. Many are quite cheap. Last I looked (in the US) I found a few that would do 1,000 for $100 (color corrected and all). For that price I think it would be a no-brainer.
For just a few slides, I have done what you are looking at with my 60mm, flashlight with a napkin diffuser, and proping everything up on a desk. I just wanted a 5 slides for a much larger family slide show on a few digital frames. It worked well enough and I even printed 4x6s with fairly good results.
I discovered this trick a few years ago and scanned many, many slides with a D70 (my first dslr) and a Bower Digital Duplicator (which I found on eBay for around fifty bucks) attached to an AF Micro Nikkor 60mm f/2.8. Amazing results.
I just got a D800 two days ago and plan to to scan many, many more slides this way, even ones I scanned with the D70. It's vastly better than sending slides out. Like most of you, I've got so many to scan, couldn't possibly afford a service. Also, as MsMoto mentioned, you have tremendous control with this system. Number one, you can shoot RAW and have astounding control right off the bat. Old film shots magically become editable in some very surprising ways. I even saved old slides that just were not that good. They are now thanks to RAW, PS6, ACR7 and LR4.
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