I have inhereted a *bunch* of old negs, B&W and color, that I need to evaluate, and can't afford a multi-size scanner. Seems a digicam with some kind of copy attachment would be the way to go, as I could import the image into software such as the Adobe PhotoDeluxe I have, and convert to positive to view. How about the Nikon CP900? I could use it for both regular image capturing and the negs evaluation. Any other hi-res digicam maybe better for this purpose? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Tom Brown twb@wdn.com

-- Thomas W. Brown (twb@wdn.com), August 29, 1998

Answers

Hi Tom, thanks for the interesting post!

B&W is very simple, but color is tricky to get the color balance to come out properly. If B/W, you just invert the image in Photoshop or whatever, and you're done.

For color negs, you have to compensate for the orange background mask before you invert the colors, and it's tricky for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is variations between film emulsions.

As to doing this with a digicam, I've heard of people having good results quickly grabbing frames with an Oly D-500 or D-600 and auxiliary macro "filters" (actually, auxiliary lenses that attach to the front of the lens, via the filter threads). If absolute image quality isn't too important, you can get away with an inexpensive adapter ring to step up the Oly's odd 43mm thread size to a standard 52 or 55mm, and a cheap set of close-up filters. The D-500 has the best macro performance, thanks to its more telephoto lens. (You could do the same with many other digicams as well, as long as they have front-element filter threads.) You'll need to rig up some sort of a camera mount that lets you rack the camera in and out easily while keeping it square to the copy surface, and a back-lit surface to put the negs against. Dynamic range won't be fantastic, but you said all you're looking for are quick shots to evaluate the negs.

The other alternative is just a flatbed scanner with a transparency adapter, many of which can be had pretty cheaply. Even 600 dpi units will probably work ok for the 120-size negs, but 35mm will really push it. The HP PhotoSmart scanner will do a beautiful job on 35mm, and only costs $399 ($299 after rebate), so maybe an HP scanner and a separate flatbed will be the best answer. The digicam approach will give you results faster, the scanner results are likely to be higher quality.

-- Dave Etchells (web@imaging-resource.com), August 29, 1998.

Thanks to Dave E. for the very helpful advice on my problem of how to import neg images without emptying my bank account. Since I already have a good FB scanner (the H-P 5100SCe), which however is *not* available with transparency adapter, and since I also could put a digicam to good use in other ways, seems I should shoot for the best digitcam to handle my needs. The Olys sound good, but I wonder which other hi-res digicam might be most flexible for general use, as well, while also accepting filters and other attachments. As for the color neg comp problem, can anyone suggest which digital processing software (preferably under $100!) might best handle that complication? Thanks again not only for the help, but also for the great Web site which I just got introduced to this week.

-- Thomas W. Brown (twb@wdn.coom), August 29, 1998.

A bed scanner that DOES have an available transparency adapter will probably be cheaper, better and easier than a digital camera for this task. I also thought that some of the consumer ($500ish) slide/neg scanners could do 120 or 4x5 negs/chromes.

-- Ben Jackson (ben@ben.com), August 31, 1998.