[HN Gopher] Filmolino SlideScanner
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       Filmolino SlideScanner
        
       Author : _Microft
       Score  : 47 points
       Date   : 2023-12-23 08:05 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (filmolino.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (filmolino.com)
        
       | danboarder wrote:
       | This is cool. I was recently thinking about how to scan in a lot
       | of family slides from the 60s, 70s, and 80s and now I think I
       | want to build one of these to streamline the capture process...
       | 
       | My previous plan was to just set up a projector in a dark room
       | and photograph off the big screen manually with my DSLR (I
       | thought this might also work for 8mm film reels as well).
        
         | gsich wrote:
         | Better use a macro and a lightbox, photograph your
         | slides/negatives.
        
       | nubinetwork wrote:
       | Is this better than using a flatbed scanner?
        
         | gsich wrote:
         | DSLR (or mirrorless) scanning is way superior to flatbed. Not
         | just quality but also speed. You can "scan" a roll of 36
         | pictures in ~10 minutes compared to 5 minutes per frame with a
         | flatbed.
        
           | ancientworldnow wrote:
           | It's definitely not superior in quality compared to a good
           | flatbed but speed is much better.
        
             | jetrink wrote:
             | For 35mm, flatbeds just do not have comparable resolution
             | to a digital camera with a good macro lens. The most you'll
             | get out of the best flatbed is about 2300dpi (measured from
             | resolved detail, not pixels). Generally, you end up with
             | about 6-8MP of usable detail.
             | 
             | If you own a digital camera already and are comfortable
             | tinkering with your setup and workflow at first, camera
             | scanning is the way to go. You'll get almost the full
             | detail that 35mm film has to offer in less time overall for
             | about the same cost.
        
             | flipthefrog wrote:
             | This simply isnt true. A DSLR with a sharp macro lens is a
             | lot better than a flatbed. A dedicated filmscanner like
             | those made by Nikon and Minolta 15-20 years ago, is very
             | slow, but the quality is even higher
        
               | yzydserd wrote:
               | 20 years ago so had a 4000 dpi film scanner. It was very
               | slow, noisy, and memory hungry. But it made great scans.
               | I have hundreds of rolls of B&W 35mm and 6x7's on 120
               | film that I'd love to rescan. I don't own a digital
               | camera to take a photo of the film. Does anyone have
               | experience on how to go about this? I've searched across
               | HN and didn't come up with much. Surely there are 35mm
               | shooters today that have some contemporary high quality
               | solution? Perhaps an epson v850? This thread gives me
               | pause that it'd not be as good as using a digital camera
               | rig.
        
             | lm28469 wrote:
             | The best flatbed you can get as a consumer (Epson v850) is
             | about as good as a mid range dedicated scanner (plustek),
             | and it costs 2 or 3 times more.
             | 
             | A proper camera based setup is both faster and better in
             | term of output. I scan my own film with a 40 mpx debayered
             | camera and get at least 4 times the effective resolution of
             | my v850
        
               | qingcharles wrote:
               | Can you tell us more about your setup?
               | 
               | I used to scan film with a Hasselblad X5, but I seemed to
               | be hitting the level of grain with that beast.
        
               | yzydserd wrote:
               | I have hundreds of old rolls of B&W film I want to scan.
               | I was looking at the v850 which seems to have a 6400dpi
               | resolution which is ~60MP for 35mm film. Or a plustek
               | opticfilm. Can you clarify what sort of camera based rig
               | at a similar price point would be superior? Where's the
               | 4x resolution come in?
        
               | flipthefrog wrote:
               | While a lot of scanners advertise crazy high resolutions,
               | this is often just marketing mumbo jumbo. They only
               | resolve details at half or a quarter of the claimed
               | resolution. See www.filmscanner.info for tests of the
               | resolution on many scanners. My Nikon CoolScan scans at
               | 4000 dpi and has an insanely sharp lens, which is enough
               | to resolve the grain on most 35mm film stocks. Unless you
               | shoot a lot of 50 iso and lower, thats more than enough
        
           | pimlottc wrote:
           | How does that work exactly? Do you have some sort of jig for
           | positioning the slides, lighting, etc?
        
             | dekhn wrote:
             | The way I did it was: 3d print a jig that held a very
             | bright LED, a diffuser plate (to spread the LED light over
             | the entire slide), the slide, and lens, and then pointed my
             | DSLR at that. It wasn't very fast but I can easily see
             | several ways I could have sped it up.
        
         | qingcharles wrote:
         | You might just want to pay someone to do it. I used to have one
         | of these $20,000 Hasselblad X5s and they do a really nice job
         | with slides -- you can get someone to scan your slides on
         | theirs, e.g.:
         | 
         | https://www.iconla.com/film-services/imacon-scanning/
        
       | c0nsumer wrote:
       | Years ago I bought a Nikon Coolscan V to scan in all of my
       | parents' old 110 slides. I would have loved a solution like this
       | at the time, although that worked well (and way better than I
       | thought) and the price ended up reasonable. I wish scanners like
       | that were still made.
       | 
       | Here's an old httrack image of the page I had documenting the
       | process:
       | https://nuxx.net/wiki_archive/A/110_Slide_/_35mm_Negative_Sc...
       | 
       | Unfortunately it's not really repeatable as these scanners
       | command quite a high price used and are fairly hard to come by.
        
         | qingcharles wrote:
         | Great article, thank you!
        
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