Building my Perfect Film Scanning Setup - with Kyle McDougall

Today - we're building our Perfect Budget Home Film Scanning Setup, with the help of Kyle McDougall. Kyle has built plenty of home film scanning setups over on his channel, and I've enlisted his expertise to help me create my own. As much as I love the scans I get for both 35mm and 120 film from my lab, using their Noritsu and Frontier scanners - I really wanted the flexibility (and affordability) of scanning both formats at home. Let's take a look at how we got on!

Kyle's Channel: @KyleMcDougall

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00:00 Intro
01:07 Film Scanning Components
08:54 Scanning Attempt #1
12:23 A Few Changes Needed
14:27 Overall Thoughts

[Alymcbil]

Great video, can't wait for the next!

[TeddyCavachon]

It is easy to DIY a horizontal copy stand similar to a graphic arts process camera if handy with woodworking tools.

Just take a 1” x 8” board as the base and then make a 8” x 8” x 8” box to slide back and forth down it between two pieces of trim. The camera is attached to the box with a 1/4” - 20 bolt. The box and rails solve all the alignment issues. An LED light box can be attached the end of the board with a tape-hinged piece of glass to hold the negatives.

[erikalvner]

I have that exact same "copy stand". It's showcased in a video on my channel (together with my process for converting negatives in the free and open source software Darktable).

However, it's not a copy stand. It's a modified enlarger. I bought it as an enlarger and drilled a hole to fit a tripod head through it. It's probably the easiest and cheapest way of finding a good copy stand.


EDIT: I use the Lomography Digitaliza backlight and film holder. Works like a charm, is only around £50 and works for 35mm as well as most medium format sizes. It also comes with a removable spirit level to make sure everything is, yeah, level. No need for the mirror trick and whatnot. It's a great overall tool for a very very reasonable sum.

[ianlainchbury]

Interesting video. It's always nice to see others setups. I'm using an A4 light tablet, from Wex, a Pentax K70 mounted on a tripod, and a Pentax SMC M 50mm F1.7 lens... coupled with 32mm extn tubes for 35mm and 12mm extn tube for 120/6x6/645. 3d printed neg carriers. Scan the rear of the film...emulsion side, and flip in post to reduce reflections. For software, I'm using GIMP, which does the job with batch image manipulation first, to flip and invert. Then I trim to sizes, and usually apply autolevels. Works well.

[samue]

I'm not an expert on digital cameras, but I have been camera scanning for about two years now; and I think that 20-25 megapixels is a great sweet spot for film scanning. Compared to a 35 or 48 MP camera, you get a much better signal to noise ratio with each photo site getting a larger amount of light. That advantage can definitely evaporate somewhat if you aren't able to scan at low ISO, and for that I recommend a strobe and an enlarger mixing chamber for diffusion. That's getting a little too far down the rabbit hole for most people but if you want to scan at a high shutter speed and rock bottom ISO then there's no better option!

[dan.allen.digital]

You may also want to get yourself a calibration target negative from Vlads test targets. It will let you test different apertures on you lens to find out which one performs the best. It will also help you see that your film is perfectly parallel better than the mirror

[Wanamgung]

Loved the video—really enjoyed how you showed the raw process, including the hiccups and how you solved them. Super helpful!

I'm considering investing in either the Epson V850 or using a mirrorless film scanning process. I'll be shooting family portraits and wedding photography, so I thought mirrorless film scanning might make more sense for efficiency. However, if I want the best resolution and high DPI, I wonder if I should stick with this plan. I have a Sony A7CII but would also need to buy a macro lens, and I'm torn between the Sigma 105mm or 70mm. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated!

[allinsiteUK]

How interesting.. I am about to setup a permanent digital camera scanning rig along the lines that you outline here.. but with a much lower budget. I currently use a dedicated Jessop 35mm Zoom slide duplicator mounted on a Canon 5D mk2. This I have used for 35mm negatives and transparencies simply holding the rig infront of a Bestlite LED310 with pretty acceptable results (if you don't peer to close the very corners of the frame scans).Software used Rawtherapee 5.9. Total outlay for that kit has been a little under £300. I want to work with my 6x4.5 6x6 and 6x9cm media next.. hence to need for a new rig. I will be trying my Durst 605 baseboard and column fitted with a Manfrotto 3way head.. with either a 10x12in light box with the florescent gubbins removed and one of my Aputure Amaran video lights inserted.. (the latter version with 95 certified colour rating) or the upturned head of my 5x4in LPL colour enlarge. If using the enlarger I can use the film marks that came with it, which I have in all the formats I need. It also provides a dark environment for the digitizing as the bellows of the enlarger and the opening in the lens panel 'may' privide a suitable extranious light shroud. Funilly, the lens I am looking to use for my first tests is a version of the same Vivitar macro primes that I bought in the 80s for my Nikon FM2. It is the 90mm f2.5 version that focuses down to 1:1. I did think that this lens might be the achilies heel of the setup as l thought that MTF results in tests I saw (probably in Amatuer Photographer mag) for that lens were not to hot. But having looked now at a review on Pentaxforums.com of this 'Komine' version, there may be more hope to be had. Maybe the review I recall was actually of the Series 1 35-80mm 2.8 vari focus lens (which I also have). Lets see how things go. 🫡

[analog_kido]

Are these scans with this lens reasonable sharp edge to egde? If you were building a new setup today, would you choose a same lens?

[migranthawker]

I don't understand why you need the extension tube with the macro lens. Does it not give 1:1 magnification? If not, why buy that model when others do. Also, a longer focal length - say 100mm macro would give a longer working distance, allowing easier access to the film holder etc. One major benefit of using a camera to digitise film is the ability to use auto exposure bracketing, then create a HDR image from the frames, this is especially useful when copying transparencies with their high contrast.

[das]

I scan my 120 6x6 with a Nikon Coolscan 8000. I wonder what the comparison of quality is like. My colour scans come in at 459MB at 4000dpi

[philipau]

How is it a downgrade on your lab scans? Is the resolution of your Sony the limiting factor?

[interdec]

Interesting video. I’m wondering if you have any thoughts about copying the negatives in this way; it seems to me that as well as the flaws in the original film camera lens you are introducing a second set of lens flaws, aberrations etc., as opposed to using a scanner. Also there will be the flaws introduced by the camera sensor. I’m revisiting film photography now, and just investigating ways to digitize.

[adeguntoro]

should i use spesific macro lens or "macro-capability" lens ? i own Tamron 17-70 and TTartisan 25mm?

[QuietCornersPhotography]

Thank you for the video, I'm trying to figure out what process works best for me and I don't really get on with my flatbed scanner so this is really interesting. Maybe a silly question but do you scan/photo a roll with the room overhead light on or off? Does it make any difference to the image? I'm guessing having the light on just makes the process easier and is preferable, but only if it doesn't impact the scan quality.

[chrisjenkins]

I thought you were going to show difference between the LAB scan and your scan in detail at 400%, 800% and 1600%.

[slothsarecool]

I found camera scanning really awful for darker images / night photography, it’s so hard to get consistent results with any stray light and lens reflections etc. Something to be aware of for anyone who shoots at night