Copying slides/negatives with D60

[d_max]

I recently had some negatives scanned professionally and found the quality very poor (significant loss of detail and lot of noise).

I had two aims in mind. Firstly, to build an electronic database of my film images (like a proofsheet with searchable index) and second, to go digital "all the way" ie. consolidate the film work into the digital library at full, printable resolution.

Is it possible to copy slides and film negatives using the D60 to achieve this?

I suppose one would need a good lightboard (with a film/slide holder) and a good 1:1 macro lens. To automate the process negatives could be batch inverted and normalised using a photoshop action and then sorted manually.

Had anyone tried this? What results should I expect?

max

[Kenmc]

I do this with some images...

I cut a hole in a piece of cardboard that holds the slide. Then I set up a studio flash behind the cardboard to light the image, and I use the 180mm macro Canon lens. I get good results. Better than I expected, but still it is nowhere near as good as a scan with a Nikon 4000 scanner.

They look fine printed as 4x6's, but I would not say the 8x10's are fine. They look flat and you can tell that something is strange about the image. The images I have liked the most came from nighttime images on medium format positives.

If you have a lot of slides you really want to convert, spend the money and buy a really good scanner.

Also, next time before you have an image scanned make sure you know what kind of scanner they are using and what dpi and image size you are getting.

A "professional" shop in my town was using an $300 Epson scanner that did not give "professional" results.

[d_max]

BTW the local shop uses the sony UYS90 scanner with 3072x2048 output. (The output was very poor quality - exaggerated contrast, poor balance and too much noise from 400 pro film). I don't think it's a cheap scanner.

Do you use a diffuser underneath the slide?

[EA6B]

In a word, no! Nothing out there yet that will let you get anywhere near to a proper scanner.

E

[imago57]

I think you should have the slides/negatives scanned by a professional service if you don't want to spend the money for a good scanner, but make sure you ask NOT to make any adjustments to the scans. In other words you should ask for a RAW scan, no sharpening, no curves or levels adjustments , and then treat the file as if it was a RAW file out of your digital camera and make all the necessary adjustments in photoshop. You will save a lot of time and money that way.