I need to copy some old 35mm slides.... lots of them! Any suggestions that will give me quality reproduction of the transparencies? I have a 105 nikkor macro for the D700. Unfortunately, what I have found on line does not point the way to that lens. What I have found points to a Nikon 55 f/2.8 Micro Nikkor, extention tube, and ES-1. Is that the best way to go? Hate to spend the bucks, but that seems to be the simplist way to go??? Thanks for any help.

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Ron you have a few choices. You say you have lots of slides to copy, what number is lots as this is important? If you are talking thousands or even hundreds, you may just want to pay a service to copy them for you. As for using your d700, the 105 mm is the wrong lens to get consistant results, although it could be done,you would have to set up a stage at the proper distance and make sure your camera is perfectly parallel to the slide. This could be accomplished with a copy stand. As you have found it is better to use a Nikkor 55 mm f/2.8 micro and an ES-1, or if you have one a PB-6 bellows with slide copying attachment. This assures the sensor plane and the film plane are in allignment and also keeps out stray light. You do not need any further extension tubes-that was needed when you used a DX camera. With the D700 you will get a 12 MP image in NEF format, but will need to make sure your slides are really clean as you will not have the advantage of Digital Ice to remove dust and scratches, which will require a lot of work in post. I have gotten excellent results this way; see my gallery for examples. The next option is to use a film scanner but this will cost you more than a 55 mm Micro Nikkor and when you are done copying your slides, it will essentially be useless, but you will get excellent results. The final method is to use a flatbed film scanner. Cheap flatbeds will give you awful results nowhere near what you will get from the above methods. The best results would come from pro scanners which are way to costly costing thousands. A good compromise would be the Epson V700 which can be had for about $500. It is designed to copy both film and photos and has two lenses that are selected automatically for the task at hand. The end result would give you around a 7 MP image that was cleaned with digital ice and you could copy about 6 slides at a time.

Bob Baldassano
My Nikonians Gallery

"Nikonians membership - My most important photographic investment, after the
camera"

Retirement is a gift of time - Don't waste it!

robsb,

Is Nikon licensing Digital Ice to Epson for the V700? I ended up buying a Nikon film scanner to get the Digital Ice, but, of course, didn't get the benefit of the flat-bed option for my existing prints.

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Digital Ice is built in to the scanner. It also comes with a copy of Silverfast SE, and all the film holders.

These are the general specs:

Scanner type
Flatbed color

Photoelectric device
Color CCD line sensor

Effective pixels
40,800 × 56,160 pixels

Document size
Reflective:
216 × 297 mm (8.5 × 11.7 inches) A4 or US letter size

Transparent:
203.2 × 254 mm (8 × 10 inches)
(four 35 mm film strips <6 frames each>, twelve 35 mm slides, two medium format 6 × 20 cm film frames or two 4 × 5 inch film frames)

Scanning resolution
4800 dpi (main scan: optical resolution by 6 line CCD with 122,400 pixels)
6400 dpi (main scan: optical resolution by 6 line CCD with 113,280 pixels)
9600 dpi with Micro Step

Output resolution
25 to 12,800 dpi (1 dpi steps)

Scanning speed
Approximately 12.3 msec per line at 4800 dpi
Approximately 3.1 msec per line at 600 dpi

Image data
16 bits per pixel per color internal
16 bits per pixel per color external (maximum)

Interface
One USB 2.0 port and one IEEE 1394/FireWire port

Light source
White cold cathode fluorescent lamp IR LED

I read a review, but don't recall where, that stated that the actual performance of the scanner was less than these specs state, ang gave a real equivilent of a 7 MP image. I have not tries slide scans yet, so I cannot comment as to the accuracy of that statement. Other reviews were more favorable.

You will note I misquoted some of the specs from memory as you can scan twice the number of slides at once than I had said.

Bob Baldassano
My Nikonians Gallery

"Nikonians membership - My most important photographic investment, after the
camera"

Retirement is a gift of time - Don't waste it!

>robsb,
>
>Is Nikon licensing Digital Ice to Epson for the V700?

Digital ICE was developed by Applied Science Fiction which is now a part of Kodak.

Just an FYI

Pete

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I thank you for taking the time to respond. After a lot of on-line research it seems my choice will be the 55 mm and ES-1. I wonder if doing my own copying equal the quality of using a service to copy them, assuming I can clean them well? Guess I can always adjust things in CS4 if needed. Now, there is the question of which service will do a quality job? Geez, it just goes on and on!

Ron


>Ron you have a few choices. You say you have lots of slides
>to copy, what number is lots as this is important? If you are
>talking thousands or even hundreds, you may just want to pay a
>service to copy them for you. As for using your d700, the 105
>mm is the wrong lens to get consistant results, although it
>could be done,you would have to set up a stage at the proper
>distance and make sure your camera is perfectly parallel to
>the slide. This could be accomplished with a copy stand. As
>you have found it is better to use a Nikkor 55 mm f/2.8 micro
>and an ES-1, or if you have one a PB-6 bellows with slide
>copying attachment. This assures the sensor plane and the film
>plane are in allignment and also keeps out stray light. You do
>not need any further extension tubes-that was needed when you
>used a DX camera. With the D700 you will get a 12 MP image in
>NEF format, but will need to make sure your slides are really
>clean as you will not have the advantage of Digital Ice to
>remove dust and scratches, which will require a lot of work in
>post. I have gotten excellent results this way; see my gallery
>for examples. The next option is to use a film scanner but
>this will cost you more than a 55 mm Micro Nikkor and when you
>are done copying your slides, it will essentially be useless,
>but you will get excellent results. The final method is to use
>a flatbed film scanner. Cheap flatbeds will give you awful
>results nowhere near what you will get from the above methods.
>The best results would come from pro scanners which are way to
>costly costing thousands. A good compromise would be the Epson
>V700 which can be had for about $500. It is designed to copy
>both film and photos and has two lenses that are selected
>automatically for the task at hand. The end result would give
>you around a 7 MP image that was cleaned with digital ice and
>you could copy about 6 slides at a time.

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Hi guys,

When I was going to digital storage a couple of years ago, I bought a Nikon scanner, and quickly realized I was utterly incapable of a task that repetitive without going insane, lol. I use it for scanning new chromes I shoot, that I like, and little else.

Any hero images that I really like, I had them drum scanned, and for the tens of thousands of chromes I had shot since the mid 60s, I started using www.scancafe.com. They are not quite the resolution of the Nikon, but they do clean up and are very viewable...PLUS you only pay for the scans you choose to keep. All their work is done by hand, and i have been very happy with the care they have shown my chromes.

Also, they are always offering deep discounts via email, they quote $0.29 per, but I have never paid that. Since I was in no great rush to do all these, I wait for a sale. I would say I probably have averaged less than $0.12 per chrome. First of all, it has made an onerous task much easier, and I really like not having to pay for scans I don't care about.

I probably have drum scanned about 30 images that I rediscovered through this method, and sold enough copies to make this process free. I still have many more boxes to go through, but I have about 10TB of storage for my work so far.

I like this method because it is cheaper than buying a scanner, and frankly if I like an image enough to work with it again, I am going to want a drum scan anyway.


Sincerely,

K. J. Doyle

I am very interested by this, have registered for their newsletter thanks. Is it possible to get NEF or TIF or is the only option jpg?

Best regards, SteveK

'A camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.' -- Dorothea Lange
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Thanks, I will also look into ScanCafe. cheers.

Which 55/f2.8 is required for the ES-1? The AIS version only goes to 1:2 unassisted, so I would guess that it still needs a tube. The AF version goes to 1:1 unassisted, but its manual focus feel is, well, not optimal.

I guess that the 105/f2.8 AFD or AFS need too much distance to the ES-1? Is it that much more than a 55/f2.8? I've never seen the ES-1 in person but it looks to me as if it threads onto the lens using the filter threads. Perhaps that's not correct?

As you might guess, I have lots of old slides - mostly of fairly low quality but of historical or sentimental value - and I also have both a 55/f2.8 AIS and a 105/f2.8 AFD, so figuring out how to use the inexpensive ES-1 seems like an attractive proposition. (Most of those old slides were shot on 126-format cameras with plastic lenses, an Exakta VX with a Zeiss lens but beginner technique, or with a Fujica SLR and Quantaray lenses. Some of them came from the FM2n with Nikkors, but that's a relatively small proportion.)

_____
Brian... a bicoastal Nikonian and Team Member

My gallery is online. Comments and critique welcomed any time!

Yes, the ES-1 attaches to the front the lens, so you need 52mm filter threads there, or an adapter. You also need to get to 1:1 reproduction. I use a 55mm f/3.5 Mico-Nikkor with the PK-13 extension tube on a D700, and find that if I want to crop the slide any, I'll also have to use a PK-11. The ES-1 is somewhat of a pain to use with any precision, since its two parts slide for framing and cropping, and it tends to get out of alignment when you replace one slide with another. A good suggestion from a fellow Nikonian was to get it set up and use gaffers tape to keep everything aligned. This should help for production work and allow you to change slides without having to re-frame. I also find that using Camera Control Pro to preview and review the slides on the computer monitor is preferable to squinting through the viewfinder and trying to judge results via the LCD on the camera. During the day, I'll point the rig at a bright window, and at night I'll use an SB-800 on-camera and aim the whole mess at a white wall. Both give good results, but sometimes it's necessary to re-shoot a slide to get optimum exposure. And almost every shot can use some post-processing to look its best. Despite these drawbacks, this is a cheap, quick and effective way to get slides into digital format.

John

"One should photograph objects not only for what they are but for what else they are." -- Minor White

Hello John,

I see some conflicting advice here. One kind poster (see other comments) advised the PK-13 was NOT needed with the D700 FX camera. You are saying you had to have it and other extention tubes for the D700. I am confused!

Ron Wilson

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Ron, It depends on the lens more than the camera. If your macro lens will focus at a 1:1 ratio without extension tubes, you obviously don't need it. My lens (55 f/3.5 Micro) focuses only to 1/2 half size, so I need the tube to get it to focus close enough to dupe the slide, which with a D700 will be essentially the same size as the sensor -- a 1:1 ratio. To get closer than 1:1 in order to crop the slide, I have to add the shorter PK 11 tube.

John

"One should photograph objects not only for what they are but for what else they are." -- Minor White

Ron sorry for the confusion. Yes you need the PK-13 with the 55 mm Micro Nikkor to get to 1:1. Mine is the AIS version f/2.8 and it is very easy to focus. My comment was really related to the fact that if you use the ES-1, and a DX camera, you must add a spacer between the front of the lens and the back of the ES-1. You don't need to do that with a D700. Also if you use a PB-6 bellows,you do not need any tube between the camera and the bellows, even though Nikon says you do and you only have to attach the lens directly to the PS-6 slide copy attachment. An alternative is if you have a bellows, you can still screw the ES-1 onto the lens with no PK-13 on the back as the collapsed bellows has the same extension as the PK-13. As John says the ES-1 is a pain to use because it is just a sliding tube with a frosted plastic front and a slot for a slide, but it is easy to misalign, so that is why I gaffer tape it if I use it. I prefer the bellows because it is repeatable and quick and can change the area that you copy with a few knob twists. Finally like John, I have found that Camera Control 2 and Live View makes the task even easier. Like I said I have many slides and film negatives I have copied with this arrangement both with the D200 and now the D700. The D700 is better for this purpose. I then process the NEF in Capture NX2. I am happy with the results. As soon as I get a chance I will compare using this set up with my new V700 scanner to see how close they are. The scanner will let me copy 12 slides at a time,and apply Digital ICE or SilverFast, so it it is close, I will probably use that for most of my transfers.

Bob Baldassano
My Nikonians Gallery

"Nikonians membership - My most important photographic investment, after the
camera"

Retirement is a gift of time - Don't waste it!

> V700 scanner ... will let me copy 12 slides at a time

Are those mounted or unmounted?

_____
Brian... a bicoastal Nikonian and Team Member

My gallery is online. Comments and critique welcomed any time!

Those are mounted. There are also holders for 35 mm film strips and larger format film. See my post above or you can find the details on the Epson site.

Bob Baldassano
My Nikonians Gallery

"Nikonians membership - My most important photographic investment, after the
camera"

Retirement is a gift of time - Don't waste it!

Well I tried some simple film scanning with my Epson Perfection V700 Photo film scanner. Since I have never used a film scanner of any type before I am still in a learning process, but the few strips I did try came out close to what I was able to do with the D700 and a PB6 with PS6. One problem I ran into is with only 4 GB of RAM, there is a limit as to what I can scan into my computer and the time to scan even one strip of film is very long if you select high resolution and things like dust removal (more than 30 minutes, although it scans and stores each image in that time). I also have Silverfast SE and have not tried that yet, but I have looked at it and it appears similar to the Epson Scan Sw, but I am sure is more powerful. I need to try many more scans before I can say one way or another if I like this better than just copying the slide in my D700. Certainly one advantage of that approach is that it is very fast, while scanning is slow. I don't plan on upgrading my computer this year. I was going to upgrade the one I previously built with a new MB and more memory, but decided to wait untill next year and build a new one from the ground up and convert my old one to a Windows server. Until I do that it will be impossible for me to take advantage of 36 images on the scanner both because I will run out of memory and second it can take hours to do so with my current Dual Core setup.

Bob Baldassano
My Nikonians Gallery

"Nikonians membership - My most important photographic investment, after the
camera"

Retirement is a gift of time - Don't waste it!

Well I tried again and there must have been a glitch in my computer the other night as I am able to copy slides with the Epson Scan SW fairly easily. tonight I am experimenting with 20 images and it tells me it will take about 34 minutes to apply changes and remove dust (no Digital Ice used). I am having trouble figuring out how to get SilverFast Bundled SW to recognize the Epson film Frames, which work perfectly with Epson Scan, but so far I have not been able to make it work. It gives me a single image while Epson Scan makes separate images from the film holder.

Bob Baldassano
My Nikonians Gallery

"Nikonians membership - My most important photographic investment, after the
camera"

Retirement is a gift of time - Don't waste it!

Hi Bob

Can one use the ES-1 in order to convert 35 MM film strips (as opposed to slides)?
Based on your experience, what setup/equipment would you recommend for converting 35 MM film to digital?
How good is the Epson Perfection V700?
I look forward to your feedback.

'Since the mathematicians have invaded the theory of relativity, I do not understand it myself anymore'
- Albert Einstein
‘I did not invent chimping, I just perfected it.'

Leshec:

Yes you can convert film strips using the ES-1. There is a spring clip to hold film in place. Depending on what digital Camera you use, the setup and results will be different. I use a 55mm f/2.8 AIS Micro Nikkor. I have done it with a D200 and a D700 {edited to correct body from D300 to D700; I don't own a D300}. If you use the D200 or any other DX camera, you need a spacer between the lens and the ES-1. A BR2 and BR-3 sandwich worked for me, but any other tube that you could put between the lens and the ES-1 of the same thickness will work. Using an FX camera requires no spacer. A better set up would be a PB-6 Bellows with a PS-6 slide copy attachment and the 55 mm Nikkor. There are many images in my gallery that were made this way,

So far I find the Epson pretty good. Since you can batch a number of images set up corrections and then walk away it is efficient, it produce TIF and JPEG files,but it can produce 48 bit RAW files too I think, but have not tried it. I am in the very early stages of using it for film copies. Regular document scanning is very easy. The unit has 2 lenses, one for reflective sources and one for film, so for its price range it is probably the best, but won't match Pro scanners costing much more

Bob Baldassano
My Nikonians Gallery

"Nikonians membership - My most important photographic investment, after the
camera"

Retirement is a gift of time - Don't waste it!

Thanks for the feedback Bob; much appreciated.
I look forward to obtaining more feedack from you as and when you put the Epson through it's paces.

'Since the mathematicians have invaded the theory of relativity, I do not understand it myself anymore'
- Albert Einstein
‘I did not invent chimping, I just perfected it.'

With the 105/f2.8 AFD Micro-Nikkor, I have 52mm threads and 1:1. It sounds as if I can't really use this combo since the ES-1 threads on the front of the lens and the 105 can't focus closely enough to get the slide in focus?

I have the PK-13, so it sounds as if I can just mount the PK-13 onto the back of my 55/2.8 AIS, thread the ES-1 onto the front and then as long as I'm intending to duplicate the entire frame, I can just tape the parts in alignment and run a variety of slides through it? I would think that manual exposure would be the most appropriate method, unless the original slide is badly exposed to begin with. (Unfortunately many of them are.)

_____
Brian... a bicoastal Nikonian and Team Member

My gallery is online. Comments and critique welcomed any time!

Brian I just put my SB-800 in front and shoot Aperture Priority with center weighted metering. Works fine.

Bob Baldassano
My Nikonians Gallery

"Nikonians membership - My most important photographic investment, after the
camera"

Retirement is a gift of time - Don't waste it!

Brian,
Like Bob, I use auto exposure (either center-weighted or matrix) and auto white balance. These new digital cameras have taken all the fun out of slide duping. Remember what a hassle it was with film -- filters for correct color temperature, increased contrast unless you used a special duplicating film, etc.? Well, all that's gone away now. Once you get the ES-1 and lens set up and focused, just start shooting. Problem slides may need some exposure or WB compensation, but you'll know immediately and can either re-shoot, or if you use RAW, adjust in PP.

Try it -- you'll like it.

John
"One should photograph objects not only for what they are but for what else they are." -- Minor White

Brian you can add an extension between your 105 and the ES-1. When I used my D200, I put a Br-2 and Br-3 together and that was enough to let me copy slides without cropping. Just mount your 105 and put the slide on a stage and see how much space you need between the slide and the lens and cobble together what you need with extension rings, even old ones will work as they are not being attached to the camera. You just need threads on both ends.

Bob Baldassano
My Nikonians Gallery

"Nikonians membership - My most important photographic investment, after the
camera"

Retirement is a gift of time - Don't waste it!

Bob,

Using the 105 and ES-1 with a D700 is attractive. Sounds like the Br-2 is needed on the front of the 105 lens for proper attachment, but spacers between the lens to the ES-1 other than Br-3 would be needed with a FF D700. My logic is probably reversed, but on the D700 less distance would seem to be needed; would the ES-1 perhaps have enough adjustment room without an extension ring?

Thank you,

Bob Pierce
Potomac Falls, VA

Bob I think you would need more. Think of it this way, you needed the BR-2 and the BR-3 to get the space for a DX camera which gave the 55 mm a FOV od a 82.mm lens. The 105 mm FOV is even less so you need more space to see the full frame. That is why the 105 is really not an ideal choice, but it could be made to work because you are using the Full Frame D700. With a DX camera, you never fill the entire frame with the image, unless you are cropping it. It will always have some part of the iamge being a black band, so less pixels are on image in that situation.

Bob Baldassano
My Nikonians Gallery

"Nikonians membership - My most important photographic investment, after the
camera"

Retirement is a gift of time - Don't waste it!

Would suggest, without investment of a great deal of time and/or money to log onto www.scancafe.com. Have been very pleased with their service and the cost is minimal. Good luck!

Dick as I said in my first response, a service, especially a cheap good one, makes sense if you have a lot of slides to copy, but you lose control of the image and the ability to tweak. What you gain is sanity. Trying to copy all your slides is a monumental task, especially if you have to spot each image after capture.

Bob Baldassano
My Nikonians Gallery

"Nikonians membership - My most important photographic investment, after the
camera"

Retirement is a gift of time - Don't waste it!

If all you need is a bit more extension somewhere, either between the lens thread and the ES-1, or between the lens and body, if using threaded extension tubes, another way to get there is to use filter rings. If you have some 52mm filters you no longer use, you can pop out the retaining spring and remove the glass, stacking them for incremental extension while keeping everything parallel and light-tight.

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A good tip al

Bob Baldassano
My Nikonians Gallery

"Nikonians membership - My most important photographic investment, after the
camera"

Retirement is a gift of time - Don't waste it!

I have a D600 and a 105mm VR, and I want to use the ES-1. Near as I can figure with a 1ft minimum focus distance on the 105, I will need about 5-6" of threaded extension tube (lens is 4.6" long and ES-1 extends to about 2.5"). The VR will go to 1:1, so I'm thinking this will work.

My problem is finding the extensions. All I can find are 43mm threaded tubes. Anyone know where I can get 52mm or 62mm with threads on both sides? Stacking 5-6" of filters with the glass removed means a lot of filters, so I'd rather not do that.

Note, I've seen the services, but I don't have thousands of slide to do. Plus, I kind of want to experiment a little. Will I be wasting my time and money?

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Actually, I found a very inexpensive solution a few years ago. I had around 10 thousand slides from my late father's collection that had been hanging around for almost 50 years and had to digitize them before they degraded. I used an Opteka slide copier tht I purchased on Amazon for around $50. This product worked great. I have a dedicated slide scanner (Minolta DiMage Scan Dual 4). The Minolta works great but would have taken ages since I have a so many images to scan. I used the Opteka with a 50mm 1.8 prime lens. The filter thread size on this lens is 52mm like the Opteka. At f9 it works great. It works best with daylight, but do not point it directly towards a bright sun because the image will look very grainy. Possibly due to the matte translucent backing on the unit. The image fills about 70% of the screen with a DX sensor. I ordered a 62-52mm stepdown ring to use it with my 60mm 2.8 Nikor Macro, it did a better job of filling the screen and the picture quality was a little sharper. I'm pretty happy with the speed that I was able to do this and the color is great. NEF should give you even more control of the results. If you have a spare DSLR that you don't mind putting those extra thousands of clicks on, this is a great way to go. I completed this task in a very short time.

Brent

D700, D300, D70, SB-900, SB-910, Nikkor 24-70 2.8, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II AF-S, Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G AF, Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D AF, Nikkor 85mm f/1.8G AF-S, Nikkor 70-300mm f/4-5.6G AF, Nikkor 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5D IF-ED AF, Rokinon 8mm Fisheye

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This is a very old thread. I now use my V700 with SilverFast archive suite 8 and get better results with no hastle. Silverfast creates high resolution files that include an IR layer and 3 16 bit color layers. The IR layer does dust and scratches better than Digital ice. I have redone slides I had done with the D700 and slide copier and the V700 SilverFast result was way better. SilverFast can also do a multi scan of the image for better dynamic range, and it has an auto batch process that applies all your individual edits so you set up and walk away. Examples are in my gallery. Here is one example

Bob Baldassano
My Nikonians Gallery

"Nikonians membership - My most important photographic investment, after the
camera"

Retirement is a gift of time - Don't waste it!

Hi, I tested out an old slide duplicator I had around (Hama I think), which I was hoping could offer a quick way of digitizing the wast amount of film I have around.
I compared to my Coolscan 5000 (or LS-50 which it is called in Europe)

I have publish my findings in an Norwegian discussion thread, but the photos are important:
http://www.diskusjon.no/index.php?showtopic=1480666&view=findpost&p=20044269

As you can see, the duplicator has optics inside, so you don't need a lens, but the corner sharpness was not very good...
Also, the scanner has very effective dust removal, so you don't need any post processing. I did not touch or clean the slide first, to see the difference.
So a professional scanner is way better, but takes time...

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