Thanks to everyone that has shared here! I was inspired to make a homebrew version out of a thrift store shadow box (I cut out the sides to access the film) and added some leveling feet (threaded type from the home store). My shop is quite small and I now have something that fits better and is much less fiddly!
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Sorry for the late response: Cinestill CS-LITE. The disadvantage is it flickers from a 1/200 second
Do you mean you get interference/striping at exposures longer than 1/200 sec? I don’t with mine, Fuji X-T2.
Exactly! I could have figured out much earlier that it was the power supply. I’ve tried various power supplies and even those that don’t flicker have big differences in performance - they all deliver 2A current. The differences in brightness are up to 1.5 f-stops.
The worst power supply is shown on the left, the best on the right
Oh, I forgot, the Cinestill CS can only be connected to USB power supplies.
That sounds like a result, it didn’t occur to me that it might be the power supply in fact. When it first came out I read that you could use it with a 5W power supply (from a mobile phone say) but that for full brightness you needed 10W. I’ve been using it with a 12W A5224 Ipad power supply, I see that these days Ipads need 20W so I guess if I had one of those it might not get warm.
I’m new at this, here is MK I:
Camera: Leica SL
Lens: Laowa 90mm f2.8
Base: A $20 stair plank from Home Depot
Mount: CAMVATE cheese plate screwed to base
Post: NEEWER 30" post
Rail: Novoflex Castel M
Light Box: RALENO S300K
Film holder: VALOI 360
Not optimal. The post flexes too much and the weight of the rail and camera causes it to lean slightly. I’ve purchased an inexpensive leveling base, but… I’ve also ordered some t-rail stuff to hopefully provide a more stable vertical support. (leveling base will still likely be required or useful).
Light box is great for what I purchased it for, but I would like something brighter… not sure if such a thing exists. Also it requires a janky shim setup (in my case scrap wood) to level it as it does not sit level.
Film holder slides around on the large light box, but that also gives me flexibility with quickly switching from 135 to 120. I need more experience scanning to determine if I need a more rigid base for the holder to support a more efficient work flow.
It’s pretty fascinating to see the different approaches people have taken to create their own setups as documented in this thread. It would have been useful to me to have known this existed before I started…
Attaching the column to the cheeseplate with just one screw introduces some elasticity and there is not much you can do about it, unless you attach a bigger plate or add a counterweight for balance.
If you attach the baseplate rotated by 90 degrees instead of having it point in the direction of the optical axis, you could add shims to compensate the tilt. Shimmed my setup for a while until I came across this device that is mostly used in astrophotography.
Also tried the 7 Artisans 60mm macro lens and found it did a good job, specially considering its discounted price of 130.- Tried with a few old slides that were sitting it out in a container:
Top left: Camera adjusted with mirror, the viewfinder grid does not show though 
Low left: Kodachrome slide taken and developed in 1972. Colours were good, no correction applied
The dark violet slides are Agfachrome, developed in 1985. No corrections applied.
The green slides are internegatives (virtual copies with inverted tone curve) that I had NLP convert to regain some of the colours. One could also improve the original slides manually, but going through internegatives and NLP is much easier. Note that success depends on how bad the slides really are. Some conversions will need some effort too.
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From the photo you seem to be using the edge of the light panel which may not be as uniform as the centre, worth checking anyway. Ideally the panel should be masked off around your film holder so I wonder if you could a make mask out of a suitable material that also locates your Valoi holder and so stops it sliding around, you could have 2, one for each format. There is now plenty of choice in terms of brighter panels, generally those designed as video light sources rather than for viewing or tracing. I use a Cinestill CS-Lite which is bright but smaller than you would like I imagine. A DIY leveling base with screw adjusters or just shims is well worth having as pretty much any setup will slump a bit on the stand.
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It’s not as bad as I made it out to be, the whole assembly is on our kitchen table for now, which is too unstable. On a more stable base I could make this work. I’m still going to try the T-Slot rail which I believe will be more rigid. I ordered an inexpensive Neewer tripod head leveling base which should allow me to dial in camera to holder orientation.
That’s a good point. I think when I get the leveler and requisite arca plates it will move the camera far enough out from the post I’ll be able to center it. I did test the panel when I received it and it does have some fall off toward the edges.
I purchased a sheet of black velvet cloth and cut a rectangle out of that, cut a holder sized square in the middle and have been using that to mask. Effective but still slidy…
By the way, I was referring to an actual base, plywood say, with corner adjusters or shims, works very well. I was reluctant to recommend a tripod mounted levelling base because that would add to the weight and possibly exacerbate your problem, but it should work.
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While this will do some good for lighting your negatives, every item added introduces more elasticity. In order to limit the flexing of the assembly, you could add a wire rope with a tensioner instead of a counterweight. Fasten the column towards the centre of the baseplate and the rope between the top of the column and the edge of the baseplate.
Even though the column I use looks rather sturdy, it is elastic and therefore requires a remote trigger to avoid visible shake.
Attaching the film holder to the lens would provide a more rigid setup. Slide copiers of long time ago often were extensions to a bellows, some of which can be seen in this thread. Newer devices attach to the filter threads like Nikon’s ES 2. Downside being that most of these only comer 135 but exclude 120 format film.
I’ve made some upgrades, we’ll call this MK 1.1.
First, the light I’m using as a light table, I have two of. This is useful (I love when things I already have are useful for a new purpose!):
The slightly modified assembly adds this leveling base, which is solidly made and for the purpose of adjusting a few degrees is quite useful. This in my opinion is much easier than trying to set a ball head.
Also added is a panning adapter, the specific one, I don’t recommend. I anticipated the need for this but stupidly did not purchase one, so yesterday I had to run to a local shop and all they had was a cheap one that I would consider only workable in a pinch.
As I mentioned in my earlier post, the light is not designed to lay flat. The scrap wood supports I was using were irritating so I crafted a solution:
I super-glued a fender washer to the base, super glued a threaded t-nut to that. Then fashioned a foot out of some kind of rubber bumper, a bolt and a washer. The purpose for the fender washer is two fold: first to spread the load on the plastic light over a wider area and second to ensure the bolt didn’t screw down into the plastic or glue and damage something. I honestly was a bit skeptical of this, but it seems to work well. I can easily unscrew the legs when I’m not using the light in this way.
As @Harry suggested, I purchased some black card stock and created some better masks. I put the rubber feet on my holders which solves my sliding issue nicely. I did not put them on earlier as I wasn’t sure if I wanted some kind of purpose built holder. I think the mask and rubber feet are fine. And as Harry predicted the additional hardware allows me to get the camera over the center of the light.
@Digitizer, regarding stability I think this is pretty good, even with the added distance from the post. I’ve moved from the unstable kitchen table to the quite stable kitchen counter (obviously my wife is out of town)… There is movement in the post when I touch it but it dissipates quickly. Also, as I’m on a wood floor, someone walking past causes vibration. So in future if I’m going to do this with other people home I’ll have to move to the concrete floored basement.
It’s good enough (in an empty home) that I was able to create a pretty good 282 image focus stacked macro image of part of a rusty clamp, touching the focus rail between each image.
@Harry and @Digitizer I appreciate your input. Thank you.
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An aside… the strap is a bother… but I love this particular strap for carrying, if there is some kind of attachment mechanism that works for a leica SL that is unobtrusive and would allow me to easily remove the strap for this purpose I would love to hear about it.
Pipe and Flange Stand – A Popular DIY Solution
This design involves a plumber’s iron pipe attached to a board with a flange, creating a stable and reliable setup. Instead of a moving head, a super clamp creates a mounting point at any height. A micro focusing rail is highly recommended for fine-tuning the reproduction ratio and focusing. A 3D geared head or something similar is necessary for precise camera alignment. This setup is among the cheapest to make. The main pieces (board, flange, pipe) come from a home improvement store and can be had for around $40-60. The assembly is very simple and straightforward, requiring just an electric drill and a few bolts and nuts. However, the details can add up— a Manfrotto 2909 Super Clamp with a 2907 Reversible Short Stud sets you back another $40, a Manfrotto 208 3/8" Head Mounting Plate with Lock Screws is another $20, a micro focusing rail is at least $80, and a Benro 3D head or similar is another $130-180. So, just to suspend a camera above any film holder, you are out of about $350.
Advantages of this setup:
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The Benro 3D Geared head provides complete control over camera orientation in space.
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The Micro focusing rail offers excellent focusing precision without the need to touch or rotate the lens barrel.
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An external monitor allows for easy reading of the overall image, and it has a built-in Focus Peaking feature.
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The VALOI 360 Advancer is a stable and massive film holder, so advancing film through the holder does not carry the risk of misplacing it.
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This is a very popular setup as it’s very cheap to start with: the base, the pipe, and flange will cost you about $35 USD or less if you have a plumber as a real-life friend.
List of components:
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Pipe 3/4" 24"
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Flange 3/4"
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Four 1/4-20 1 1/4" machine screws/nuts pairs
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Manfrotto 2909 Super Clamp with 2907 Reversible Short Stud
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Manfrotto 208 3/8" Head Mounting Plate with Lock Screws
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Laminate Base Plate
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Vlad’s Test Target
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Benro 3D Geared head
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NiSi Macro Focusing Rail NM-180 With 360-Degree Rotating Clamp
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SmallRig Cage for EOS R
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FeelWorld F6 Plus 5.5" 4K HDMI Monitor
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Valoi 360 Advancer + Valoi 35 holder + Raleno light
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Manfrotto Table Stand
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Canon EOS R Refurb from Canon
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Sigma 2.8/70mm Macro Art lens
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Canon EF to RF adapter
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Canon Remote control
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I’m still experimenting with my scanning setup. Vertical setups have an advantage in that the film can be put flat on the table, vs, the horizontal setup that has it’s advantages in other areas.
Currently testing this setup that is configured for best stability:
- Column (and baseboard) of a Fujimoto “Lucky” enlarger for 6x9 and smaller
- Shim to align the Novoflex rail (3.) Alignment done with a mirror.
- Novoflex rail with Arca clamp slider
- EOS R7 in a Tilta full cage that locks into the strap lugs of the camera for improved rigidity and a non-extending, fully manual 7 Artisan 60mm macro lens model II.
- Kaiser plano light panel
Thanks to the low position of the camera and the full cage, the rig is almost perfectly rigid. The position of the camera is for 1:1 reproduction, for 35 format negatives, the camera is at about halfway up the rail. the shim is a piece of cardboard plus some adhesive tape to hold the shim on the rail. With a setup that is so short, one could DIY something with a baseboard and some right angle brackets holding the rail. BTW, a rail with a spindle would really be useful, but Novoflex wants 650 Euros, which is a lot if we don’t take into account that it is sturdy, precise and built in Europe. For the moment, I’ll have to tighten the lock screw (the blue knob) very firmly to prevent the carriage from creeping downwards.
The full cage makes a real difference in stability, Attaching to the camera in three places helps to overcome the elasticity of the camera body attached by a single srew. Also, the orientation of the arca swiss mount is horizontal. This prevents the camera of slipping out of the rail carrier when the camera needs to be taken out.
If the big holder is in its lowest position as shown and with the camera in the lowes and highest position of the Novoflex, I get imaging ratios as shown in the screen capture below.
At 1:1, the lens is sharp at both f/2.8 and f/8, corners are at about 84% of center brightness.
At 1:3, f/2.8 looks a bit softer than with f/8 and corners are at about 96% of center brightness.
Test object: “Emulsion side” of a 50+ years old plastic “Geodreieck” as used in schools of the time.
The lens has simple pincushion distortion at macro distances. Manually correctable in Lightroom.
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Great looking setup, that Lucky enlarger column looks really solid, massive is probably the word. I first saw that Novoflex Castel-M rail in another post on here, I must say that it is an object of great beauty and would be perfect for this application. Eye-wateringly expensive even in the UK but it is in fact far more sophisticated than is needed with very fine micro adjustable click-stop steps for focus stacking in macro photography, click stops would be nice though. I wish I’d done metalwork at school now.
@gihlsong do you have any updated photos of your digitizing setup?
My camera is leveled with an Arca-Swiss C1 cube head, and I later attached a ROGETI CAP-GZA geared panning head to a clamp on the cube head, so all axes are adjustable with precise gear mechanisms.
Quite the amazing setup! I’m hopefully trying to setup something somewhat similar to this. I like the idea of the rails and z-axis adjusts below the light bed.
What do you use as a film holder for the scans?