[cobbu2]

Hello All,

In two weeks, I plan to take on a project to digitize my Mom’s 35mm slide collection, numbering in the neighborhood of 1,500 or so. With the limited time I have available, I was thinking of using a slide copier setup with my K5 and read elsewhere a 1:1 macro lens is needed. What lens would best match the K-5’s APS-C sensor for this application? Are any other components besides the lens and slide mounting fixture required? I do have a small light table for viewing transparencies to use as a light source if that’s appropriate.

From what I’ve seen so far, other forum threads only address partial aspects of my question, and I need to know the end to end solution starting with what I already have so I don’t miss anything. Thanks for the insights, I’m completely new at this!

Cheers, Allan

[Not a Number]

If you shoot at 1:1 magnification your images will be cropped since the APS-C sensor is smaller than the 35mm slide image.

How do you intend to shoot the slides? Do you have a bellows and slide copier attachment or a dedicated slide copier like the old Spiratone Dupliscope? Again the problem with using these was that they were designed for 35mm frames (Full-Frame). You can get the full image on to the APS-C sensor by using lesser magnification but this means moving the slide further away from the sensor. It can be done but often the rails are not long enough depending on the lens you are using.

If you have a copy stand or tripod you can shoot your slides on the light table. You should have some sort of tube or shroud from the lens to slide to cut out extraneous light. Aligning the tripod to get things parallel could be a pain.

See this thread on using the Pentax Bellows and slide copier:
Pentax Auto Bellows A with Slide Copier A - Question - PentaxForums.com

You could try a service like Costco which starts at $19.99 for the first 62 slide and 32 cents a slide additional. Might come out cheaper in the long run if you have to buy equipment. Of course you can use the equipment for other projects.

[Ronald Oakes]

I'm about in the same boat. However I have about 50 times the amount to copy......lol
Watching this thread.

[Dipsoid]

If you are using something like the Accura slide duplicator, seen here:

http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Accura_Variable_Magnification_Duplicator

A 35mm lens is perfect for APS-C. The 35mm limited might be just the ticket for a nice flat field of focus. My friend uses one with an old Fujinon 35mm m42 lens plus extension and it works great.

---

Last edited by Dipsoid; 03-10-2018 at 10:21 AM.

[cobbu2]

Wow, thanks for the info!

I’m pretty much starting from scratch; as of now, all I have are my K5 (and a K7) and the small light table. I also have an assortment of K- mount (or M42 plus a K Adapter) prime-focus lenses ranging from basically 28mm to 90mm (no macros yet unfortunately). I’d rather not use an outside service if at all possible, but I’m not ruling it out.

I have a 35mm lens, if I was able to get a hold of the Accura slide duplicator, what else do I need?

Thanks again everyone!

[Bob 256]

For that number of slides, you really need to have a nailed down setup where you can just pop one slide in and pop it out quickly, ready for the next and so on. You need a slide holder of some sort to do this and it should be "mounted" between your lens and a dependable light source (LEDs or a filtered flash behind a sheet of opal glass for example). All this needs to be on a fixed base or arrangement which holds everything in alignment. It would be brutal to hand hold anything and expect good or consistent results. Reverse your 35mm lens and see if it improves sharpness any (used 1:1 APS-C crop, it's a toss up). Use the histogram feature of your camera if it has one to get exposures where they belong (don't clip whites). Use a dust puffer before shooting each slide to make sure they are as dust free as possible.

[pentageek]

If you shoot at 1:1 magnification your images will be cropped since the APS-C sensor is smaller than the 35mm slide image.

Exactly - 1:1 lens won't work. Do you have bellows and slide copier? I use such set with M 50/4 Macro to copy slides on K-1, but can verify it with APS-C if you are interested. M 50/4 is not 'true' macro as it offers 1:2 magnification, what is potentially useful in '35mm -> APS-C' scenario.

[btnapa]

Thanks for the insights, I’m completely new at this!

Are the slides mounted in slide holders? If so, are they all the same (plastic or cardboard)? A light table will work as long as you have solid and consistent light behind the slide. You need to have the camera set at 90 degree angle to the slide. Either rig up the camera to look down or if the slide table is light flip it up and mount the camera on a tripod in front of it.

The best lens for this type of work is a macro lens as almost all macro lenses have a flat field and are ideal for slide duplication and to shoot flat items such as photographs. A longer focal length 90-100mm is better as it gives you more distance between the slide and the camera. A 50mm lens should be fine too. I am not sure about anything shorter as they might introduce lens distortion and end up bing too close to the slide.

You need to build a rig to drop the slides in and for them to be in register (same place every time). Otherwise you will be adjusting the camera or slide position and that would take much longer. You also need to block all the extraneous light outside of the area you are photographing. I am talking about pretty much the rest of the light box and the light coming from the rest of the light box. Use an opaque materias or black board to make sure the light does not hit the front element of the lens as it would degrade the image quality.

Shoot RAW so that you can make adjustments later. Last but not least be prepared to make exposure adjustments as the slides will have different exposures. The rule of shooting with slides in the old days was not to overexpose (slight under exposure was always preferred). The same rule applies to digital. Under expose by a 1/2 stop of so. Never over expose as you cannot recover the highlights.

As far as lens options, you can also use reverse mounting of your existing lenses to achieve macro capability.

You need to streamline the process. Otherwise, it might take a long time to get this done. Build the rig and experiment. Once you get a hang of it, the process would get much easier. Good luck. Hope I was able to help and did not confuse the situation.

[brightseal]

Is it best to use a macro lens or scanner?

[BrianR]

Exactly - 1:1 lens won't work. Do you have bellows and slide copier? I use such set with M 50/4 Macro to copy slides on K-1, but can verify it with APS-C if you are interested. M 50/4 is not 'true' macro as it offers 1:2 magnification, what is potentially useful in '35mm -> APS-C' scenario.

You don't have to shoot a 1:1 macro lens at 1:1, and a 1:2 macro will require cropping unless on a bellows or tubes (assuming an aps-c dslr copying a 35mm slide).

The slide copiers/bellows attachments can be tough on aps-c. Most combinations don't put the slide far enough away to let you capture the whole slide. If you have a combo that works on aps-c I'd be interested to know.

[runswithsizzers]

[snip] ... The rule of shooting with slides in the old days was not to overexpose (slight under exposure was always preferred). The same rule applies to digital. Under expose by a 1/2 stop of so. Never over expose as you cannot recover the highlights.

It's true, you don't want to overexpose - but when shooting RAW, the definition of "overexpose" gets a bit tricky. Some RAW shooters routinely add one or two stops to the camera expoure which results in washed-out looking JPGs and right-heavy camera histograms - but also wider dynamic range in the raw files. Which means more shadow detail without clipped highlights. Research "ETTR" - which means Expose To The Right.

With a properly exposed RAW file you *can* recover some of the highlights which appear to be blown out in the JPG version of the file. And because the camera's histogram is for the JPG and not for the RAW file, the histogram can be misleading about what highlight detail may be be available in the RAW. Deliberate underexposure is probably unnecessary for most slides. If the highlights are blown in the slide, obviously, taking an underexposed photo of the slide is not going to bring them back. And if the slide was underexposed, the shadows are going to be quite dense. In my experience, it's a real challenge to try to recover shadow detail from underexposed slides without introducing a lot of digital noise - and if you deliberately underexpose when digitizing the slide, that problem is just going to get worse.

Fortunately, the dynamic range of your camera sensor almost certainly is greater than the dynamic range of the slides, so even if your camera exposure is off a little, the RAW file should still be able to record the full range of values on the slide.

Try to set up your lighting so you can use your camera's base ISO (it may be 100 or 200, I don't know for your camera) at your desired f-stop.

At the required magnification you will have very little depth of field - maybe a couple of millimeters - which has several implications:

• Because the slide film is usually somewhat curved in it's mount, you are going to need a small f-stop to maximize depth-of-field; but as your f-stop gets smaller, defraction increases which hurts sharpness.
• The plane of your sensor must be parallel to the plane of the slide with millimeter accuracy.
• The lens should have a flat plane of focus. Macro lenses generally do; others may not.

No matter how you digitize the slides, they are probably going to need some cleanup in Photoshop (or whatever). Cloning out dust specks is very tedious, so try to get rid of the dust up front. I suggest you photograph a few, then complete your post processing on those before photographing the rest. You don't want find out that the left edge of all 1,500 slides is slightly out of focus because your set up was off.

[pentageek]

If you have a combo that works on aps-c I'd be interested to know

Thanks BrianR, you inspired me to experiment a little bit Here are my findings:

- F100/2.8 (1:1 macro) - works at 1:1.5 magnification without any add-ons
- M50/4 (1:2 macro) works with 34mm extension tube

By 'it works' I mean sharp picture and coverage of whole 35mm slide using APS-C camera. Unfortunately I was unable to build working configuration using bellows and slide copier - minimal extension of my Novoflex is 48mm what makes coverage of whole frame impossible (with lens I have at my disposal). However, other configurations may work: for instance 35mm macro, or reversed lens, but it requires some experimentation. I wonder if forum members have any experience with it, ability to digitize slides with APS-C camera, bellows, and slide copier could be useful.

[Not a Number]

From the thread linked in the link I posted above: @JimJohnson and Votesh reports using a Promaster 28-70mm zoom or Pentax F 35-70mm @70mm as usable on the Pentax bellows and slide copier:

how to - auto bellows slide copier K & dSLR - PentaxForums.com

By my rough figuring using the Minolta tables the Minolta MD 85mm prime would work on my Minolta Auto Bellows III and slide copier with K-mount adapter.

[pathdoc]

I use the 35/2.8 Limited Macro with a couple of filters in front of it to stand the slide holder off and let the entire frame definitely be captured (the minimum focal distance is not the limiting issue here; the field of view is - barely). My slide holder is one of the old M42-era Asahi Pentax models, but the 49mm filter thread makes direct mounting a breeze.

A tripod is essential for maximum steadiness, and a remote release is handy. Make sure you match your white balance very carefully to the colour cast of the light source in-camera, and try to match that to daylight in the first place so you have as little work to do in post-production as possible.

[Not a Number]

You could always find a good used Nikon Coolscan with auto slide feeder. I think it handles 50 slides at a time.