Scanning Film with Lens Adapters ands Bellows

Back in college, I shot way more film than I do now. It helps that the price of film was lower back then (and that I had easy access to Chicago's very own Central Camera). Though with no access to an enlarger, my best way to archive them now is to scan them. My colleague Sean does have a flatbed film scanner, but I was inspired by vintage slide duplicators I'd seen online, and wondered if I could accomplish something similar, but with film strips instead.

Semi-unrelated to this endeavor, I found a set of Nikon PB-4 macro bellows for a good price, so I had to pick it up. It's a robust piece of equipment; solid build quality and easy to adjust. Now one accessory for the bellows that seems enticing for this project would be the PS-4 slide duplicator attachment:

To be fair, the PS-4 attachment is more geared towards reproducing mounted slides, so if I were to go this route, it wouldn't be practical to mount every negative, so this was certainly not the best way to approach the problem.

Still, I was determined to make it work.

Goals and Challenges

Resolution and Ratio: Because we're scanning 35mm film negatives, a full-frame camera, would be most ideal, and the camera we have with the highest resolution is our 42MP A7rII. As far as lenses go, a dedicated macro lens (especially if it can reproduce a 1:1 ratio) would let us maximize that large megapixel count. Even if our lens isn't specifically a macro lens, we do have a myriad of adapters and macro accessories that can help bridge that gap. Getting the PB-4 bellows on the Sony is as easy as using any of our Nikon to Sony E adapters.

Lighting: Film scanning requires uniform light, which shouldn't be a problem since we have plenty of LED lighting. An LED light with a diffused panel (like the FlapJack or P-series) would fit the bill best, so that's easy enough. I went with the FlapJack 200L since it's about the right form factor for a film strip.

Keeping the film flat: If the film isn't flat, we can basically count out any chance of sharpness across the entire image. Negative holders would help prevent the film strip from bulging out as they normally would, but I was able to make it work with a sheet of acrylic.

Now, the film stays flat by sandwiching the film strip between the acrylic and our light:

Copy stands are also recommended for film scanning, as it lets the user easily adjust the working distance. I didn't have one readily available, so I made my own with a SlideCam and some miscellaneous grip that we had in the studio.

I ended up choosing a Hasselblad 80mm f/2.8 Planar CF T* as my lens for the setup. It's a sharp lens that has a working distance that synergizes well with the bellows. When the bellows are as compact as they can be (taking up the shortest distance possible), I worried it would be too much for the 80mm, but I definitely felt like there was room to spare.

Between my makeshift copy stand and the bellows, there were so many ways to adjust the setup that I felt pretty confident this would be pretty workable.

Here are some sample scans, straight out of the camera. As my first time trying this method of scanning, I would definitely recommend shooting in raw, since it'll by most forgiving as far as exposure goes. But also don't be afraid to bracket and take your time. The negatives aren't going anywhere, and nothing about the film process has historically been about going as fast as possible.