I just purchased the negative supply curated kit, and overall I am very impressed with the results. I am very unimpressed with the fact that nothing is level out of the box, and the copy stand included has no way of adjusting axis… which is affecting the corner sharpness of my images. Most of my scans are of 35mm, 6x6 and 6x7. The 35mm scans look better than I have ever seen, but I am still wanting more from the 6x6 and 6x7 files.
I am currently using a Nikon Z7ii + 105 2.8. I also have a GFX 50sii that I am looking into using.
attached is a 200% crop of a scan with this setup. I am wondering if there is much more information to be had from 120 negatives, or if I am nearing the limits. These scans will be printed around 40-50inch.
After using the Negative Supply copy stand for a few days I have quickly come to realise I will need a much sturdier and more adjustable copy stand to achieve sharp grain edge to edge. Basically everything is out of axis out of the box from this kit.
200% crop.
I am wondering if my using the GFX for the past year has led to overly high standards of pixel peeping. Though I often print in the colour darkroom upwards of 1m so I know what to usually expect from a 120 negative.
I think these look good, but I want more !
and for the camera scan nay sayers,
these images have twice the detail of what I can get from my epson V850.
and much better than what I have gotten from Frontier and Noritsu machines.
Welcome to the community, there is a lot of information on here so many of your questions will have been discussed, and your reservations about copy stands. I would very much recommend making yoursel an adjustable base board with adjustable feet at each corner. If it is a reasonable size then you can make very fine adjustments with the aid of a mirror.
As to the resolution for 120 the Z7ii is giving you about 2500 pixels to the inch and the Fuji about 2800. Not directly comparable to a dedicated film scanner but a guide at least. My Imacon will give 3200 as an example. Stitching with the long side of your sensor across the width of the film will offer a marked improvement for any negatives that need it, or pixel shift possibly….?
You can consider several things when scanning 120 film.
Let’s assume, for a moment, that mechanical issues are absent.
Mismatch of the source and sensor aspect ratio lead to losses compared to the sensor’s nominal megapixel figures.Scanning 6x6 with an FF sensor wastes at least 33% of sensor pixels. Leaves about 30 usable Mpixels of the Z72. 25% loss with a GFX, leaving 36 Mpixels of the GFX50.
Work around the mismatch with stitching or Lightroom’s Super Resolution? Tried it with scans of 645 negatives and the gain/effort favours Super Resolution in my case. Printing reaaallly big asks for stitching.
Mechanical considerations
Vertical setups need to be super-sturdy
Attach the lens rather than the camera unless the lens is really light
Keep the lens as close to the column as possible to avoid elastic movement
Keep the rig as small as possible - a long column tends to vibrate longer
Horizontal setups can be less demanding
Try to connect the film carrier to the lens (think Nikon ES-2) rather than a baseboard
for better rigidity and to eliminate stray light hitting the negative
The backlight should be (much) bigger than the negative to prevent falloff
Make things adjustable. Prefer positive- over non-positive locking (screws over friction)
I suppose that you could go in closer, a higher nmagnification, just to see what kind of extra detail you can get from that supermarket trolley detail. Then if it is significant, if it will show in your (very large) prints, work out the best way to achieve it. I have printed much smaller A3/16" x 12" prints from my 35mm camera scans where I have similar sized prints that I produced in the colour darkroom. The camera ‘scans’ seemed to show more grain, I didn’t delve into it though.
You have posted an excellent GFX 50 camera scan of your Mamiya 7 negative (renowned for their sharpness). What lens did you use on the GFX?
Welcome to forum! You are absolutely correct that in almost all cases - except maybe Valoi easy120 the alignment between sensor and film is never guaranteed. Fine tuning for alignment can be labor intensive and sometimes frustrating process. See my article for optional pieces you may need to get the good alignment: Mechanics of Film Digitizing by Vlads Test Target | On Film Scanning
thank you all for the replies. considering the outrageous amount I spent on the NS setup I will be working to perfect my process using it… an adjustable baseboard will be my next step.
I am wondering also if anyone has used focus stacking for scanning, and has any tips for flatter focus scans using it?
Vlad I do need to purchase some test targets eventually!
I am sorry for the confusion, the top image is digital shot with the GFX. I was mainly comparing colour and sharpness between the film and digital shot.
Sorry, I should have realised that. Those links that Digitizer has given you are very well worth looking at, there are so many ways to approach this and that’s a pretty unique resource. Somewhere in there is an adjustable base with micrometer adjusted corners, extraordinary. As you’ll see others advocate various ways of micro-adjusting the camera using geared heads or even leveling heads used horizontally. For my setup I prefer not to add extra mass to the load supported by the stand so an adjustable base works better for me. Left to right rotation can usually be handled at the camera mount so it’s front to back alignment that needs attention and even the best stands will need some adjustment here.
I have made an adjustable base with screw in feet now but before that I was very happy to use card shims under a flat board to adjust instead. The mirror means that once aligned it doesn’t matter how you got there. Vlad’s target is great for confirmation as well, the point where all the Siemens stars zing into focus with focus peaking is very reassuring.
I just started camera scanning as well and I needed 120 and 35mm. I initially looked at negative supply kits at first. They looked high quality but on the expensive side. Then I saw the new Valoi Easy 120 system. Its much cheaper and I went for it. It works quite well, its all aluminum, good quality. Mainly its advantage is no need for alignment because everything is fixed in place, vertical scanning is very easy. I just leave the lens mounted and you can just pop the camera on and start right away.
