There has been quite a response to a comment made by Clive Wright on a previous post about digitizing 35mm slides. Here’s what Clive said:
Having recently purchased a new camera, a Fuji Finepix S8000fd with 8Mpixels & a SuperMacro facility focusing down to 1cm (0.4″). I placed a slide on a small lightbox and held the camera approximately this distance in front of the lens and produced a fair digitized copy. Even the facial detection system works in this copy mode!
To eliminated camera shake and make the copying easier I then designed and manufactured a simple rig to attach the camera to and position the slide to be copied at the correct distance cover the entire film area, negating any need to crop the digitized image as the camera has a 3:2 quality setting. I have used this rig with both a lightbox and with a white diffuser positioned behind the slide using either the sun or a 60watt lamp as the light source.
The beauty of this rig is that it doesn’t require a steady hand (older people again) or the use of a tripod.
Clive has kindly given me permission to publish his design here, along with some pictures. Thanks Clive!
On the left here you can see the rig with a camera attached and a slide in place. Note that the design is specific to this model of camera and lens. For other models, the length of the rig may need to be different to take into account the width of the camera and the minimum focusing distance of the lens.
On the right is the rig on its own, with the camera fixing mount (screw thread) visible.
Below is the design in PDF format.
Comments
3 responses to “Clive Wright’s 35mm slide rig”
I’m one of those’older people’ referred to by Clive… I don’t think I’m clever enough to make the mount but I do have an A4 light box and will experiment with my simple compact digital (fuji finepix F50 fd). Thanks for the idea – the alternatives to DIY are very expensive. I have a huge collection of slides dating from 1961 – 2001. Some of the Kodachrome ones my Dad took in the 60s (East Africa)are remarkably good. Luckily, I still have a projector…
I too have a large collection of color slides, as well as many 2-1/4 inch square B&W negatives which I am digitizing. I created a rig similar to Clive’s lighbox, but my back ached from contorting my body to peer through the viewfinder in order to check the histogram, etc. I wanted to be able to sit comfortably at a table and do the work. Those of us who are old enough to have slides may also have an old enlarger or two in the basement or attic, and we’re probably never going to use it again. I cannibalized my old enlarger to create an adjustable lightbox (see photo here http://tinyurl.com/ktecqc). That’s a 25 watt CFL jammed into the opening where the enlarger lens used to be (just a little filing and the fit was perfect!), and a piece of translucent white glass in the negative tray. The light housing and bellows have obviously been removed. I place my “enlarger” on a table and adjust the height to eye level, then mount the camera a few inches away on another stand (not shown). I can go for hours without tiring. Anyway, it shows there is a use for old enlargers, even in the digital age!
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