[RobA_Oz]

If you look closely at the construction, you will see why it's priced so much higher than the cheap eBay items. Most of the components are precision-machined so it should be extremely rigid and capable of smooth operation, although I'm surprised to see there's no lead-screws or rack for fine adjustment.

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Last edited by RobA_Oz; 04-16-2014 at 11:57 AM.

[Cambo]

I predict they'll sell two of them. That needs to be about $300.00...

Cheers,
Cameron

[Aristophanes]

$1200 with no optics, electronics, or software? Am I missing something? Was really looking forward to this. :/

It's a truly ridiculous price.

Clearly it costs nowhere near that to manufacture. Not even close.

Right now many Japanese products are seen to be obscene in price. Their auto sector is struggling to compete. Heavy industry is trying to levitate prices, and losing market share by doings so.

It's like they are trying to make up for 20 years of deflation

[thibs]

It's a truly ridiculous price.

Clearly it costs nowhere near that to manufacture. Not even close.

Right now many Japanese products are seen to be obscene in price. Their auto sector is struggling to compete. Heavy industry is trying to levitate prices, and losing market share by doings so.

It's like they are trying to make up for 20 years of deflation

And yet, I'd be VERY surprised Ricoh didn't make sure thay would not lose a yen on this product.
They'll slash the price if they need to (which is expected of course).

[boriscleto]

No one on this forum has ever priced out a first party 645 bellows?

Mamiya Auto Bellows NC401 for 645-Series Cameras 800-55900A B&H

Granted you can get one on evilBay for $300, but retail...

[raider]

I looked at the brochure thingy but I am still slightly confused...

So if I am shooting 35mm SLR film, can I use this film duplicator to convert the 35mm negative to digital...does that mean one need not use those flat bed scanner or drum scanner to scan negatives into digital now....

[raider]

Thanks for that explanation...I am now a lot clearer

[K David]

Any word yet on how they address the orange mask of C41 negatives?

Photoshop has some good processes for that. I just figured out some techniques for it a few weeks ago.

CTRL+ALT+B to do automatic color adjustment
CTRL+ALT+L for automatic tone adjustment. Sometimes these need to be switched, it depends on the predominant colors in the image.
Then there's typically very mild manual tuning in color balance. Using the midtone yellow-blue slider, add some yellow and the colors ought to look pretty slick.

[falconeye]

The Film Duplicator has been officially announced, too. It's available in late May for $1200. I can't find an English announcement, but here is a Japanese website for it.

??????????????PENTAX FILM DUPLICATOR?????RICOH IMAGING

The price depends on where you live or buy. The official Pentax store is now selling it for 119,500 yen, which is equivalent for $1200 in the current exchange rates.

The price is a joke, because it sells to a market where there already is the respected product from German Novoflex

-> https://www.novoflex.com/en/products/macro-accessories/focusing-racks/castel-cop-digi/

Selling for 109€ (rails sold separately for e.g., 139€ or 189€).
It does support medium format too.

[6BQ5]

I think K David and dcshooter touched on something very important here. The bellows are just one part of the solution, which the hardware. Software and the necessary post processing is the other half. $1200 for just the hardware is still pricey in my mind. That much money ought to give you a complete all-in-one package that includes Mac/PC software too. At the very least it ought to include a plug-in for Aperture and Lightroom for one-click (not three-click) operation.

Hardware quickly becomes a "cheap" commodity as has been seen by the falling prices of newly released gear. What did the K-3 go for when it was first released? What's it going for now? What will it drop down to during sales and Black Friday? The real value is in the knowledge/services/software I say.

[K David]

Even more accurate is doing an image inverse, then setting the black point and white point using the curves tool. This has the advantage of not being as lossy as the auto adjust and color balance tools. And either way, it only approximates what an analog development would look like.

I will try that with my next batch this weekend. I was able, using the process I described, to get the colors to show correctly; however, unless the negative was exposed 100% perfectly the process had some color noise (and with the redscale images I tried, for get it -- almost a lost cause.)

[q3photo]

The Film Duplicator has been officially announced, too. It's available in late May for $1200. I can't find an English announcement, but here is a Japanese website for it.

??????????????PENTAX FILM DUPLICATOR?????RICOH IMAGING

The price depends on where you live or buy. The official Pentax store is now selling it for 119,500 yen, which is equivalent for $1200 in the current exchange rates.

cheap alternative: use your dslr + 135mm lens and speedlight:
($25 ebay) 120/220 Transparency Holder for Epson Perfection 3170
($25 ebay) KENKO Mx-AF Uniplus Extension Tube 25mm
($72.95) Harbor Digital Design Black Box Lighting Kit

[q3photo]

cheap alternative: use your dslr + 135mm lens and speedlight:
($25 ebay) 120/220 Transparency Holder for Epson Perfection 3170
($25 ebay) KENKO Mx-AF Uniplus Extension Tube 25mm
($72.95) Harbor Digital Design Black Box Lighting Kit

[K David]

Here's a link to the copy stand I made from an old enlarger arm and some supplies from a hardware store:

Youtu.be

Youtu.be

It works great and disassembles to be stored in a closet. For duplication, I use a white acrylic sheet atop a couple light bulbs (focusing is easier with steady light than a flash). Here's my process for medium- and large-format digitization:

Youtu.be

Youtu.be

I've taken to using a negative carrier as it puts space between the negative and acrylic sheet. This eliminates interference waves that used to appear in some of my negatives when I digitized them.

A flash works, too, but has a narrow light spectrum. So for slides, I use either daylight or full-spectrum bulbs. That provides truer color. For black and white it's much less of an issue and I've used flashes and daylight, both with good results.