At that point B&W photos are pretty much just as fast to process they might need some cropping now rather than in VueScan, then inverting and then standard post-processing. Getting them into the computer is just as quick as transferring them as scans over my network from the scanning iMac to my MBA. A few seconds each to slide through the five frames in the film holder, autofocus and snap the picture. It is trivially quick to mount the EL-2 film holder on the front of a lens on the Nikon D850. He's very happy indeed.Īs you might know from the "I Like Film" thread, I have spent today exploring this.
A friend of mine recently decided to go the camera route after years with a Nikon 9000 and put together a system for less money than a new Epson V850 using a secondhand Nikon D810 (32mp) plus a macro lens, stand, light source, a couple of neg carriers etc. I don't think you would need to go as far as 47mp to see an improvement over a dedicated film scanner.
The last point about DoF taming a curly negative also partially covers your question about any slight mis-alignment, but this is fully solved with an iPhone laid flat on the LCD using a free bubble level app, this will confirm when everything is square. The camera also see's through the negative in the same way an enlarger lens does, the grain in the negative is layered but scanners tend to have very, very narrow DoF scanning only the emulsion surface. But in the darkroom or scanning with a camera the DoF is much greater, so the whole depth of grain is projected onto the paper or recorded as a file, even to the point that DoF can be used to tame a curly negative. The camera, well a modern-ish one, will also have a far greater dynamic range than even the best dedicated film scanner. You also don't create files with digital noise as happens with dedicated film scanners, especially with multi-scans. So using a suitable negative holder a strip of three 6圆 can be scanned with the camera in around fifteen seconds if you account for blowing any dust off and positioning the image square under the lens.
The 47mp sensor is obviously rectangular and the image square, but the full RAW file it produces is 53mb, which when inverted into a positive, cropped to square, and saved as a TIFF gives a 6圆 image of 173mb of genuine un-interpolated information. A 6圆 scan with my Nikon Z7 takes 1/15th second at f/16. As I recall a full resolution 6圆 scan my Plustek 120 would take four or five minutes (not including the preview time). Hi The scanner definitely wouldn't be faster than a camera.
Would I be right in assuming a scanner would be faster, especially for multiple scans, than the camera/macro lens setup? However, prepared to learn something new always. Must give it a go some time but rather prefer my scanning with either Nikon 5000 for 35mm or Nikon 8000 foe 6圆cm.
I think I can cobble together all the above from my 'junkpile'.
Seems that would exceed the cost of the software and maybe susceptible to mis-alignment. I am intrigued by your second observation to use a digi cam and macro lens + copystand and light source. A top quality scanner is a must of course. ViewScan IMO is brilliant, with a doable learning curve. Vuescan Vs Silverfast, but now NEVER use the Silverfast. Hey, you get another camera and new lens at the same time!
Use the 100 or 350 Euro you save and put it towards a digital body and a macro lens, copy stand, and light source. But equally scanning has moved on and the better option is to bite the bullet and admit regular film scanners are unable to match a good digital camera 'scan'. I would never argue Silverfast is better than Vuescan, Silverfast is a a carbuncle on scanning software.