camera film scanning just got a lot easier -- Valoi Easy35 is a game changer
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- čas přidán 5. 08. 2024
- For 35mm film, this is the best solution. Easy, fast, and efficient .. the Valoi Easy35 unit is here.
SHOP 35mm film HERE: www.newclassicfilm.com/buyfilm
Valoi Easy35 link: www.valoi.co/easy35
Listen to my photography podcast! www.buzzsprout.com/1567152
0:00 INTRO
0:10 FLAT BED SCANNER people hate me
1:04 Valoi Easy35 is all in one!
1:51 quick demo
2:16 how to assemble the unit
2:59 i camera scan with a SONY FX30
4:23 this vs a copy stand
5:35 keep your film perfectly FLAT
6:33 color temperature adjustment
7:01 portability - scan on the go!
8:06 check out the Indiegogo
8:37 convert with negative lab pro
9:42 how much does Easy35 cost?
11:06 Valoi's competition - Věda a technologie
The real benefit of high end flat bed scanners is that they have an infra red component that allows them to detect dist and scratches, this makes them much better for scanning legacy collections of negatives that may not have been stored perfectly. You can scan positives with the same kit.
yea thats fair. prob the only thing of meaningful merit over camera scanning
Can you name the flat bed scanners with this feature? I know dedicated film scanners (e.g. Nikon Coolscanner series) but have no knowledge about flatbed scanners doing IR. But it is not as if I knew everything.
@@AdamGeorge-pb3fmI think that the Epson lineup has ICE built-in, although I’m not 100% sure.
@@AdamGeorge-pb3fm Epson V850, 750, 550. etc.
Not true. Dedicated 35mm scanners like the Plustek 3200 have that feature too. I used to have a Minolta 5400 with Digital ICE but gave the ghost a decade ago. Nikon Coolscan as well.
Presentation of this is becoming of a channel with 100x the subscribers. Great work.
i appreciate that! thanks
Wooow....! I 100% need this! 😃 Thank you Ribsy for awesome video, I was waiting for this video. It actually can speed up my scanning + make it more compact and practically trip friendly. I hope Valoi will make 120mm film scanner too so that all medium format films can be scanned right after film dries. Thank you Ribsy for demonstration! 👍
Yea I hope for 120 too
Glad to see something like this from Valoi. I picked up there previous solution and it worked well for the cost. The fact they keep the cost affordable is another plus. We all know flatbed scanning technology stopped progressing in the 90's. More emerging options on scanning is only going to benefit everyone.
yea their previous solution is great and i still use it for 120
Cool gizmo.
Back in the Sixties and Seventies, Honeywell and a couple of other manufacturers marketed slide duplicators with built-in light sources. This one is a bit more portable.
I used to use a Nikon PB IV bellows with the slide and film roll attachments which gave me the added benefit of being able to crop somewhat.
Nice!
The big issue when you are "scanning" with your digital camera, is the Bayern filter in front of your sensor. To undestand what's happening, you need to know the difference between a digital sensor and a scanner head.
A fladhed scanner is outdated when it comes to optical resolution. Even if a scanner like the epson V850 PHOTO promise 6400 DPI, then you "only" get approx 2000-2400 dpi out of it. It takes long time to scan because a flatbed scanner scan every line 4 times and here comes the most important thing.
The reason a scanner is scanning a line 3 or 4 times (depending on of you are using infrared cleaning), is that the scanner scan red, green and blue (and infrared). That mean that you get ful contrast and dynamic range for each color.
A digital cameras sensor is monochrome. To calculate the colors there is a Bayern filter in front of the sensor. The Bayern filter got a color pattern. But that mean that you dont calculate red, green and blue for the real resolution of the sensor. That's also why the red and the blue color are poor in contrast with a digital camera. it only use 2 out of 9 pixel for the contrast of red and blue and 5 for green.
A color film got 3 or 4 color layers. 3 with kodak and 4 with Fuji. That mean that the analog film capture full contrast for each color. You can't transfer all that data to a digital camera when the digital camera loose all those information with the Bayern filter. Yes the digital camera can capture a higher resolution but not the full contrast.
I got a Fuji Frontier SP500 professional lab scanner. That's actually build after the same princip as your digital camera there takes a photo af the filmstrip. But the frontier capture each frame 4 times just like the scanner does. The sensor in the Frontier is monochrome but it got 3 different light sources plus the infrared source so it can remove dust and scratches. That scanner can scan a whole roll of 35mm film with 36 frames in approx 5 minutes in full resolution (approx 20 megapixel for each color). The only scanner there can capture this way, is the professionel lab scanners from Fuji Frontier and Noritsu. Those scanners got a very high end optical system with autofocus so every frame always are razor sharp.
So yes you got sharper images "scanning" with your camera if you got a good macro setup but you loose the full contrast and a lot of the resolution for each color. Actually it's the same with your digital images. If you got a 60 megapixel sensor, you dont get 60 megapixel resolution for each color. You got a total resolution of 60 megapixel but calculated out from the Bayern filter, you only got 33 megapixel contrast for green and 13 megapixel for blue and red. If you compare that to my Frontier scanner fuji build from 2003 to 2022, I got 20 megapixel for red, green and blue. That's 7 megapixel more in contrast for blue and red but I loose 13 megapixel in green. But adjusting the colors, it's more important to get all the information to work with simply because you got more colors if you got more information.
If you watch a hollywood movie captured digital, it's actually captured with 3 sensors. One for each color. That mean lower noise in colors and full dynamic range and contrast for each color. When a motion picture is captured with film, it's digitized the same way as the stills are captured with a frontier scanner or a noritsu scanner. Those scanners are called a telecine.
Back to analog negatives.. If you want the highest resolution images with full dynamic range, you need to scan on a Hasselblad scanner. But yes it's slow because it scan each line 3 times. The optical resolution is very high. But it does not remove dust and scratches.
If you only shoot 35mm film, take a look at the Plustek Opticfilm 135i. It's a pretty good scanner for a budget. It scan every line 3 or 4 times. The sensor is 7200 dpi resolution but unfortunately the optical quality is lower so you only get approx 4-5000 dpi out of it for each color.
I hope this was useful for some of you guys (and girls) 🙂
Extremely useful insight - thank you!
Real cool unit, this will be very convenient for many people. Thanks for sharing.
Definitely
My feeling is, if it can't do 120, I still need something else, so, regrettably, it's not something I'll bother with.
Totally understood
Flatbeds are much better with 120. But they won’t give you the full resolution.
@@VariTimo Flatbeds aren't great for 35 though, and I don't have space for both two "things". 80MP shots from my em5mkiii do OK for 120, at least well enough for my purposes.
@@VariTimo do you use a drumscan? I’ve heard we mounting gives out much better results for 120 or is there not much difference in quality?
I had a drum scanner. I had a design studio and brought all prepress in house.
They’re amazing. Flatbed sucks for anything but paper.
I really don’t understand film users that scan film.
Planning on being crazy and taking my flatbed to scan with me on a 7 week trip this summer. I wish I knew about this earlier/that it came out in time for that trip. Looks so sick!
wow! good luck
Dedicated film scanners cost less than this setup...
I built something similar several years ago using cardboard tubes, although the light source was independent. I used it to digitize my old film photos. It is so much faster than using a flatbed scanner!
Nice!
I agree with you 100% I used an Epson V600 for years until a friend .. who is a professional museum curator laughed when he saw I was scanning. He introduced me to camera scanning and I consistently get better contrast and resolution in a fraction of the time. I scan every from 7.5mm to large format. My Epson was given to a thrift store.
amen!
So tell us, do you use this gadget?
I use a Sigma 105mm Macro lens on a copy stand and a good backlight source with film holders for 35mm 120 and a homemade slide holder and love the quality I get using my Sony A7III to copy the film! The only advantage to flatbed scans is the software that removes dust and scratches as far as I can see.
Yea any combination of tools for camera scanning will give you really good results!
I'd probably still do copy stand scanning if I had the time and space, but with my circumstances (2 toddlers and full time job) this is the only option I'm gonna get to self scan. I'm grateful they made it! That said I do wish we had a 120 option!
haha yes, this is good for speed and convenience. copy stand setup = many pieces for toddlers to get a hold of
@@ribsy and you know they'll go straight for the lens, too 😅
Makes me want to try my Nikon PB4 bellows with PS4 slide copying adapter and Fujifilm XT-2
@@johnrflinn it works well. That’s my setup except I use a Sony A7IV with an old Nikon macro lens and adapter
They copied the design directly from the BlackBox by Igor. But at least the finally admitted that their original design was horrible. The whole idea of using a copy stand and a film holder was ridiculously bad.
Idk much about this type of stuff, but I sure would buy this.
This seems like it can become a fun hobby and then profitable in a short amount of learning time
def save money by scanning at home
Well done with the presentation. I looked into the camera film scanning concept, liked it, and thought perhaps someday. However, I do have my comfort zone as a grumpy ol' man that still likes his flatbed and the abilities to scan 35mm, 120, and 4X5.
haha flatbed works too. your choice!
I switched to DSLR scanning for 35mm, and the difference is night and day. The flatbed scanner I had was not very high end, and had no option for manually focusing or changing exposure. With the DSLR, I can now scan slides and have them come out very close to the original, plus the scans are far sharper. For medium format there isn't much of a difference, but I'm very happy with the new setup.
I think camera scanning can be a great option and this setup looks really interesting with the light source build in. Maybe a lens collar could work to work to mount it on a (table) tripod. For scanning oldish color film my preference is still a film/flatbed scanner with Ice. Getting clean or at least almost clean scans can easily save me 10-30 minutes editing time per image with film that has a lot of dust and scratches.
fair enough!
>Maybe a lens collar could work to work to mount it on a (table) tripod
Not recommended; can induce focus creep. The manual says so.
I used a Nikon 4000 Coolscan years ago. Worked well. Eventually developed the blue horizontal line through the scans. The Digital ICE is nice and something I didn't consider I may not have if i choose to do this next round of scanning with a setup like this Valoi or utilize the Epson 600 I have. Which also has ICE. I do like the speed of the Valoi setup though. My end use of the scanned images is for print. A book specifically. If I use the camera setup method I'd be using a Canon 5dmk4 with a Canon 100 2.8 L v2. Aside from the ICE issue, what else may be a determining factor to choose one method over the other?
Fast, practical & to the point. Thank you!
thanks
That is a cool solution :)
Keep+the good work
Thanks for watching
I bought a lanthar slide duplicator that has a build in lens and holds the film at the exact necessary distance from the sensor. It was $12 on eBay plus $10 for a T2>Nikon F adapter. No, extension tubes, no focusing. Awesome results.
yea ive heard a bit about these alternatives
This looks awesome and I love the simplicity of the set up but I shoot so many different formats and sizes (35mm half frame, 35mm full frame, 35mm pano) and I enjoy shooting a bit of the boarder of the film which this and a lot of holders seem to chop off to help keep it flat. Personally I use the lomo digitaliza 35 and 120 holders and yes the set up is a pain but it allows for flexibly in formats (120 645, 120 6x6, 120 6x7, & 120 6x9). I do also use a v850 but thats for 4x5 strictly because I find that camera scanning gives great results for 120 and especially 35mm.
makes sense!
I haven't used my flatbed since I got an Essential Film Holder. Cheap light source, easy to use, fast, and does multiple formats. This only does 35mm and costs about the same. Until I see a 35mm and 120 version with a scan comparison vs the EFH I'll stick with what I've got.
Have you had issues with film scratching in your EFH?
EFH is a great start and def helps get the job done
I have started the same process
May I ask
I have Vilteox L116T light
Which kelvin temperature do u use
5600 or less like 4300 kel
Thank you
I picked up a spare set of screws and some lock nuts and now I have don't have to swap out the holders for different film types. Made things a lot easier for me
@@dank5372 3350K matches ELH slide projector lamps. I use that for color and 4400K for B&W. But I’ve had som older films where I needed 5600 to correct the base color.
Finally!!!! Someone with a GREAT idea!
haha its not a brand new idea but its a good version of one
It seems to be an excellent product. And a great review.
yea it works quite well
Looks good, definitely better than the tripod/mirror setup I'm using at the moment which is kinda annoying to set up.
ahh yea i can image
If i didn't already have a DIY version of this gadget, id buy one. The speed and ease of copying with this type of gadget is unbelievable.
Nice! DIY is good!
This looks awesome!
Yea it’s pretty cool
I believe color bit depth is still a big deciding factor. Mirrorless SLR mostly shoots in 12 or 14-bit, however, flatbed or tray load scanner does 48-bit raw for higher color latitude. But I still think flatbed scanning has a lot of problem when it comes to negative warping with factory holder that needs to be address, thus tray-load usually provide a better solution on a flat film plane for an even focus scan.
Personally i havent gotten any more latitude out of the Film with a Scanner vs a Mirorelless camera for scanning.
Color and B&W negs are usually scanned within the range of 12-bit sensors. I don’t miss 48-bit flatbeds at all. Just work in raw, process in Negative Lab Pro and Lightroom Classic, and you’ll be happy!
Agreed!
Yea agree - that one metric is overshadowed by the plague of other issue
The 48 bit sounds like marketing? Just like how 8 bit monitors are 48 bit (8 bit RGB+Alpha) 48 bit is essentially 16 bit RGB. There's no true 48 bit (per channel) file.
The differences between 14 or 16 bit files are kinda negligible in practical use.
Dang this looks like a super cool piece of kit!
It is man! Very intriguing and intuitive
great video! I think the time it takes to just snap a photo is the most compelling argument.
yea hard to beat
Wow awesome. This has so much potential. Imagine they put a sensor inside it so you didn't even need to attach the camera. And maybe make it bigger so you can scan multiple imagine at once, and medium format. Maybe some sort of lid for easy access. I'm all in. These guys are on to something!! 🙌
All jokes aside. It's a neat bit of kit. I can see it working well for some folk
😐
@@ribsy 😁 sorry!
I'm definitely getting the final product. 💯
yea its a no-brainer for 35mm
i dont know I love the dslr scanning but I also love flatbed especially for medium format, its nice having a dedicated film scanner and also not having Digital ICE would drive me crazy. manually cleaning dust off negatives sucks one of the biggest drawbacks to that scanning setup for me.
yea thats totally fair. i just clean up the dust in photoshop
Flatbed scanners do work reasonably well depending on the model. Software can allow auto scans in batches, like say 24 frames at once. Handy. Not taking anything away from this setup. ☺️
totally. i don't hate on people using it - it just aint for me
Thanks for this, one of the main things that’s prevented me from learning self development of film is I could never find an optimal scanning method that was better than what my local lab could do
This method could def help
Very good video. Thank you.
very cool ! hope they make a 120 version. in their FAQ, it says-
" The same way of attaching a scanning device to a camera could be used for 120, however, the additional size and weight of that setup requires additional support to take stress off the lens and filter thread mount. Therefore, while we might do something like it in the future, it will not be as easy and compact in use as the VALOI easy35." if they update you please let us know !
yup!
IS THAT YOU ERIC??? Congrats on the CZcams my dude
yoooo carty whats good! yes it me 😅
seems legit. would love to see some side by side comparisons with the other scanners
That’s more about the camera and lens, as opposed to this film holder/light
This looks interesting. I presently use an Epson V800 flatbed for my 120 and 35 negative scans (more so 120 than 35) with SilverFast 8 software but will probably take a look at this once its available.
yea should be a good alternative
Got an old Minolta macro bellows with a slide / film duplicator and a macro lens. Does basically the same thing as the Valoi, and in fact used to be the way camera shops had duplicated negatives, or converted negatives to slides, or slides to negatives, for generations. The chief limitations I've found are that moire patterns can be an issue (I shot a corrugated steel grain silo, and while the negative was perfect, the digitized neg was not so), and the slide holder can sometimes cause vigneting on the captured negative.
One note regarding the bellows: there's not any guesswork with extension tubes, you simply extend the bellows and adjust the slide holder, both on the same rail.
yea there is some fine-tuning that could def help to avoid moire and vignetting -- appropriate shutter speed and aperture should handle that
I did a few BW negatives a few years ago, setup was a Canon 5DII with the Nikon PB4 and attachment
cool!
The key word is workflow. Time is money. If it is good enough for the intended purpose, and it takes less time to operate, it is a win.
exactly - i prefer this workflow
I got in on the crowd funding early. Can’t wait to get mine
Nice! You will like it
Used a Pentax DSLR , macro lens , extension tube , tripod stand and light board for scanning 35mm negatives and the results I found exceptional
yup! preach!
After spending the morning at a copy stand, this sounds VERY appealing.
haha yea. copy stand workflow can be annoying depending on the tools you have
I was lucky enough to be one of the first backers, so in theory I will receive it on Jully. Really looking forwardt to it!
good luck!
There’ll always be snobby whiners complaining that it’s not as good as flatbed or the darkroom. I truly don’t see how it can be inferior to a flatbed. If you have a good lens and light setup it’s going to win against a flatbed in terms of convenience with as good or better image quality. Plus the film prep for dust removal is even less compared to a flatbed. I’m still gonna keep mine for medium format film but this is hands down the way I’m doing 35mm scans from now on.
Assuming you've already bought a macro lens you could get a light panel and 120 film holder such as the Lomography Digitaliza, both pretty cheap, and away you go. Or, as he said, they might bring out a 120 version.
Does it work with sheet film? 😮
lol i hate the "why scan, you are supposed to darkroom print" people 😂
I’ve used a Nikon es-2 to do the same thing. I bought it to go with my Nikon D850, but it will work on any camera with a macro lens. Same principle but you need to supply the light source. I set it up with a Nikon D600 and copied most of my 35mm archive including color transparencies and color and b&w negatives. I have a rather nice nikon coolscan film scanner, but I found using a 24 megapixel camera and the es-2 is lightning fast and produces better scans. Another benefit using this method, is you can capture raw files which have quite a bit more latitude for editing your captures
yup - sounds like a good setup
This is an excellent concept ... If this is not too expensive, Ill pick one up...
Yea it’s a good idea
In the late 1990s I bought an HP scanner that would feed in slides, prints, or negatives. It had three sizes of openings that changed with the push of a button. Very compact, but it eventually failed. It wasn't as good as my current flatbed scanner, but it sure was convenient. I wish they had made an updated USB version.
Sounds useful
have not tried the Valoi Easy35 but struggled using my DSLR on 120 and 135 film so I bought a Epson v600 and absolutely love it. I don't hate people that use the DSLR to scan that's crazy. I would have really liked my dslr which is a canon 5d mark 4 to have worked much better than my scanner but I was having issues with getting it completely level and flat so I had corners on the film that was out of focus so I looked at the price of the copy stand that would hold the camera and that's when I decided to buy the Epson v600 so I'm Not Looking Back. but I may buy the Valoi Easy35 to see how it works. I am open to any technology that does the job good and works good. by the way I use negative lab Pro with the v600 but have used the scanner software also with good results but prefer negative lab Pro. it all gets Lightroom classic adjustments anyway
yea flatbed def does a good job - i used to own one. but i just really don't enjoy the physical workflow
I like to use a digital camera scan for B&W negatives or color slides. I really struggle with color negative films because I'm color blind, and have a really hard time correcting for the base color of the film. The flatbed does a really good job with that for me. For 120, my flatbed gives me about 25 Megapixel images which is about the same that I would get with Digital scans.
im colorblind too. try to use negative lab pro? it'll do all that for you. its worth the price in gold. and im kinda at the point where i just make it look good to my eye. i never feel 100% confident when color correcting but if i can get to least 95% i'm ok lol
yea flatbed is good for some
Negative Lab Pro for lightroom, already color corrects for the colour of the base.
@@ribsy It's better for virtually everybody except the most casual of person. And, honestly, if you're that casual, then you might as well just have the lab developing the photos do the conversion for you. 16-bits, 2x the horizontal and vertical resolution and IR dust removal make a massive difference over what you're going to get with this sort of rig.
Personally, I'd rather just use technology that's intended for this rather than deal with adapting technology that's for a completely different purpose for this. By the time you plunk down all the money for what they're selling, you could easily have purchased a much better flattop scanner and been done with it. A scanner will last many, many years if cared for properly.
Ribsy hope all good enjoyed your visit to IOW with the Boss...Only cause I use my close up Micro Nikor..I can scan larger negs on an LED tablet.. from my Super 3*2
Nice!
Great video I'm new to photography I have a Canon 1300D and I've just bought my first 35mm camera and would like to scan my own negatives. At the moment I can't afford a dedicated macro lens, I've been doing some macro photography using macro tubes and good Canon lenses. These lenses only go down to f3.5 would this system work for me, please?
I prefer camera scanning over flatbed scanning for the speed and conveniance. I supported the Valoi and I look forward to receiving it. Maybe if scanner companies kept actively developing scanners but right now I don't think so.
Yea agree - would be very interesting if the scanner manufacturers came out with something that addressed the flaws
All I use film scanning for is culling (by 80%) what I have printed photographically. Quality isn't (way) important because I'm not trying to create anything of value on digital, just using it to make an analog selection process easier. This looks perfect for that.
If it works for you it works for you - I've been Pro for 45+yrs- I've seen a few technical developments in those years!!
to each their own!
I already signed up for mine a while back, with the rising costs of film, taking charge of your own developing and scanning is the only way of cutting costs.
For sure! Well said
Dedicated film scanners trump camera scanning for the medium and large formats.
When it comes to 35mm film or half frame film, there is so little resolution in your average film stock. So you might as well scan it using a dslr or mirrorless camera.
you can do a pano scan and make up any perceived resolution loss
Works great with my canon 100m macro but struggled with my Fuji 60mm macro, which tried to move the whole unit to focus and needed to shut camera down each time.
Have done this kind of work professionally 10 years ago. With a canon 550 and a 100 mm macro.
We have mostly done slides. And I have build a n automatic feeder Machine for slides. Has worked for some 100.000 slides.
Awesome
I don’t have a DSLR so this would be a huge investment for me. On the other hand I got my Nikon dedicated film scanner for $50 and I’ve been using with great success for about 10 years now 😊
Fair enough
I've ordered one despite already doing digitization using my camera and copy stand. The main attraction is that this unit seems so portable and I want to do digitization of negatives belonging to family members.
Yea it’s super portable
Camera scanning has issues but when done right can produce amazing results. Flatbed scanners are great for odd film sizes and film stocks such as 116. And for happy medium is to get a pro scanner like a Noritu and get the best of both worlds.
Agreed!
will this work with slides or medium format negatives?
I've been using a flatbed scanner for years and it's good enough but I get scan line artefacts in the picture, also I shoot and home process vintage expired film and get overdeveloped from time to time resulting in excessive grain. I am wondering with this film scanning product say you can make the backlight super intense over a near opaque grossly overdeveloped film and light it up enough, will you get a decent looking image with decent contrast and not too much grain? Also scanning 400 iso films that are grainy when scanned with a flatbed, will they be less grainy on this film scan system?
A good scan (via any method) will pick up all of the grain. This is a good thing
From my experiences having something like this, a copy stand and a scanner just makes the whole film process much easier. Like this technology is not really knew as much as it's a huge improvement over stuff from the film world. That is duplicating slides.
Like I mean a copy stand and other film holders can achieve the same thing as this and honestly will do it better. It's a station. That you don't have to assemble anything. At least for me I gave up one digital camera and it sits there as a copy camera. Because that is what the tool is made for. I will always have the same setup and everything is hooked together with one power strip even the camera. So turn it on it connects to my computer and you can start copying negatives.
This however is a tool that revolutionizes our instant world. If you haven't thought about it think about it this way man. You can shoot one roll is 35 mm, do a quick development in a dark bag and once the film is developed you can take a digital camera and take that device that's already set up for scanning film and pop it on like a lens and scan your film and if your camera has Wi-Fi you can then take the raw images and send it straight to your smartphone or tablet or computer. Like I mean if you're on location you can go to a coffee shop and order food and have a workflow and get people interested in your work and you'll get copy on the internet as fast as typing up a blog post at home.
Now the biggest downsides. First to this is the light source. It's not a big worry you can edit for it or accept it. Next is you have to become the scanner. Like honestly I'd the juice is worth the squeeze you'll do it. From moving the film, settings, light source, exporting... It's up to y'all what you wanna do.
Now back to the flatbed it a toaster y'all. You want good toast? Put it on that setting, load your bread (film) and forget it. Unless you have a more technical workflow then you know y'all need a toaster and not blowtorch (this camera attachment)
What do you y'all think about that idea flow right there? Honestly I'd buy it to do the coffee shop but I said and get more business.
yup
This seems like the most hassle-free way to scan with a digital camera! I'd love to try it out on my A7III
Hassle free indeed!
Wow, do things go around and around! There used to be a lot of devices like that called "slide duplicators".
Yup! I mention them at the end of the video
Damn, i like that setup! The only thing scary is if someone in my house thinks it is the sous vide and puts it in a pot of water.
Haha true that!
I have done both flatbed scanning with Epson 550V and dedicated 35mm scanning with a Plustek scanner, and they dont deliver the same quality as scanning with my camera and a macro lens !! Well the Plustek comes close - but the process takes forever compared to the camera scanning.
I use a reprostand to hook my camera up to, a lightboard to put the negatives on, which are held in a Digitaliza negative holder from Lomography. This works with both 35mm film and 120 film.
If this device would be usable for both 35mm and 120 film, it would be a no-brainer !!
yea camera scanning speed is huge
I think this way of scanning is super cool! I have no beef with anyone who scans this way. However, there are some distinct advantages to a good flatbed scanner. Part of my job is scanning thousands of originals. For the most part, I don't get to scan from a roll. I get all kinds of supplied originals that are pre-cut. I get 35mm slides, 4x5 transparencies, 8x10, and all kinds of reflective art. I don't see how this system could scan these types of originals. Another thing is batch scanning. My scanner has large holders that allow you to scan something like 30-40 originals at a time automatically. You just load them all up in the holder and hit GO. And then there's the software that drives the scanner. It allows you to make changes to color before you actually scan which I'm sure you already knew. But as I said, I probably would have bought one of these years ago if I had known about it. It's a great option - especially for the price.
Yea def - this system isn’t for all film types. What is your job btw??
@@ribsy I'm a prepress operator and I work with a lot of archival photos that come to me for scanning. Usually these photos are used in books, which I work on quite often. My scanner sits for months at a time doing nothing but then a big project will happen and all of a sudden I'm working with the scanner for weeks. That's where a good flatbed and software really shine. My scanner has special glass that prevents newton rings so I don't have to worry about the film not being flat. I've used those scanners and it's their biggest shortcoming - those lousy film holders.
@@rustysena2638 very cool job. anti newton ring glass is a game changer. all scanners should have that
Awesome!
Yea it’s cool!
In a perfect world, I’d prefer flatbed transparency scanning. BUT - our options for that keep getting fewer and fewer. After my last scanner died (Canon) I found Epson was about the only choice. I like Epson scanners. I just don’t like paying nearly $1K for it. Especially since I had all the various pieces for camera scanning already at my disposal. But, if this would handle 120…well, I’d certainly consider it. Thanks for the video!
yea makes sense!
I think this is quite neat. If you just post pictures on Instagram or whatever, it's a quick and easy way to scan your film.
def good for that, but also more
This looks incredible. I’ve only one question.
How much film border are you able to include in scans using this product? Obviously a longer extension tube would allow you to include more of the 35mm frame, but does the Easy35 itself mask off the border? I currently scan with the EFH which allows you to scan with a bit of border.
It’s totally up to you. You can control that with how tight of a macro shot to choose
interesting. I made a slide scanner to be worked into a kodak carousel projector, and I used a Ulanzi 49 LED as the backlight... and this appears to use another Ulanzi lamp with the same formfactor. :D
oh sounds interesting
Could you take a picture without a negative in order to assess homogeneous brightness distribution across the light source? Also, does it accept slides, meaning framed reversal film?
framed film will not work in this
awsome!
flatbed scanners are great when making copies of paper for the IRS. I actually use it for scanning 120 film. I have a dedicated scanner for 35mm. but this tiny scanner looks quite doable.
haha the IRS loves flatbed scanners
Very nice! Do you have any full-resolution sample scans we could look at, from a variety of different film stocks?
i don't have much yet. but also the camera/lens will matter significantly more than this product
my filter diameter is 62 mm how do I find the correct fit
I'm a flatbed guy. I use Silverfast scanning software to tweak the image and while I'm waiting for the scanner to do it's thing .I am using Photoshop Elements to get rid of dust / crop etc. I don't use Lightroom or Photoshop and Silverfast gives me enough options to tweak my B+W photos. My only digital camera is X100V so no point in buying a digital camera to save on scanning. The time saved with this system seems to be taken up with all the Post processing required. It really depends what gear you already own whether it is value or not. Whatever works..
the post processing is done via batch processing and the controls are more intuitive imo. it really is faster overall especially since you can do the post work from the comfort of your couch
I bought a scanner some years ago to do my slides and film. I stopped after realizing how hard and time consuming it was.
Now, I am looking for a good camera scanner that will well with my 60mm (120 efective) Olympus macro lens.
camera scanning is your friend!
To be honest, flatbed scanners are horrible for 35mm, but film scanners like the Nikon Coolscan are great, especially for colour film. I use a Coolscan IV-ED (just 2800dpi, way less than 4000 of the higher end scanners) and it still beats my Sony A7III with a Nikon AI macro lens. I like that camera scanning is fast, but it isn’t as fast as just pressing the shutter. The copy stand set up takes pretty long to set up every time I take my camera off.
This Valoi Easy35 looks like it solves that problem and it looks to work great, but camera scanning also takes a lot of time correcting the images, even if you use a plug-in like Negative Lab Pro you still need to clean up the images, especially when you scan older rolls. This could be a time consuming process and I hate doing it. Digital ICE is one of the reasons flatbed and scanners are populair. If you use something that can batch scan its also less work intensive (although it could take longer). Load up the roll and press scan, after 15 minutes and they’re done, no conversion, no cleaning up the image, not pressing the shutter and importing images, hoping they are perfectly aligned every time and you didn’t mess up the focussing. If you did mess up anything you need to do it over again (I’m pretty clumsy so this wouldn’t effect every one) so there is much more room for human errors.
My problem with using a mid-range film scanner was that I always used slides and I undexposed them very often to avoid white clipping. So these are very dense and the scanner could not deal well with that. Also, it took a LOT of time.
@@mcbohdo Good to know! I try to expose my slides pretty natural, and my negatives a little over to be able to pull back the highlights and not crushing the lows, so I've never encored any problems with that. But yes, they're slow, but using a batch scanner it doesn't take to much working time and the clean up is way faster if you can use Digital ICE. But for some people, underexposing their film it might not be the best option I guess? Any idea how those simple lights hold up using a macro lens?
Coolscan 9000 here... I've tried camera scanning but found it fiddly - requires a really consistent setup and ideally a 1:1 macro and 100% perfect alignment to prevent distortion and a really even and high CRI lighting. I prefer to use my coolscan any day.
flatbed or camera scan, you will likely mess with the images in post. so i rather save the upfront time and go camera scan
@@jameschho @ribsy My Coolscan 4000 died many years ago. Loved that thing. Eventually developed the horizontal blue line through all the scans. I'm trying to figure out the best method for this next round of re-scans I need to do. Preparing images for a book. Everything is pretty much cut and sleeved already. I have a Epson 600 i've barely used. Been considering maybe one of those Plustek film scanners too. I'm not rescanning everything I have, just certain images from a certain strips but there will be a lot of them. The biggest negative factor I see is lack of ICE. Is there a substitute software that can do it? I know PS has a "remove dust and scratches" menu item once you have a image up on screen for editing. Is that the same? Is there a problem with image quality (for print) vs. one over the other? Negative scanner vs. flatbed vs. camera capture. Thanks in advance for any replies.
I really like my film scanner… I’ve done both and still get better quality with flatbed or machine for film scanner. I don’t think it’s worth getting mad over tho lol
exactly! haha
How flexible is the scanning area? Can you get the whole negative including the sprocket holes? or are you restricted to a tighter crop?. Thanks, FW
My prototype wasn’t full sprockets but I think you can do so with a different mask
this is dope.
yup!
Hi, that looks great for negatives in 35 mm, I have been looking at a mountain of kadachrome transparancies and have not had good results on my flat bed scanner so gave up. Question is does it do mounted cardboard & plastic slides?
Mounted slides will not fit
Great video.
I have a few issues with this, though.
I have all kind of formatsfrom 110, 18x24, 4,5x6, 6x6, 6x9.
My Epson flatbed with transparent ability can do these formats.
Another thing is dpi.
I get up to 12800dpi.
How much will this device give?
this device is not a scanner. it is simply a film holder/light
A nice approach that should be done a long time ago, I like the built-in LED backlight, and I wish there is a cable connection to the camera that can enable bracket (backlight changes according to the EV bracketing). How about bellow In stead of the extension tubes?!
Extension tubes keep everything rigid without the need for additional structure
Once again, great video. If I tried my hand at scanning with a DSLR, what specs in the digital camera should I look for? I.e. megapixels?
honestly any good digital camera will do. an old sony a7 camera or canon eos r would do just fine. or even old high end DSLR
Interesting. I have old film that is quite "curled" which makes it necessary to have extra glass to press the film "flat". Can this device keep the film 100% straight?
Yes
As far as image area does this only project a single 35mm frame at a time? I shoot a lot of panoramic with my widelux and those frames are about 1.5x the size of standard 35mm.
standard 35mm frame only - you'll have to stitch two images together
About one year ago, i got a device like this one, made by jjc, and really love how easy is to scan with it...
Nice. Yea mention the jjc one in my video
would you still recommend the jjc one?
the color negative at 8:45 would make a great image in and of itself.
😄
Very interesting :)
definitely!
Hi Risby- For years I have used the Nikon ES-1 with my Canon Macro lens and the appropriate number of extension tubes to fill the distance between the lens and film holder. It has worked just fine to copy my negatives and slides. The big advantage I see with the Valoi Easy35 is the built-in light source. One less thing that I would have to deal with. I did not hear you mention whether or not the Valoi unit can handle slides. If not, then the Nikon ES-1 is better in that way. A couple of years ago, I did a CZcams video on my setup. Here is the link- czcams.com/video/1uwv3oYotnk/video.html. Sorry for the lousy audio. I was still learning how to deal with sound recording while shooting video. ~Earl
your setup sound very useful! and yes, the valoi can do slides - doesn't really matter positive/negative because the camera will be photographing it
@@ribsy Maybe this is obvious, but, does the valoi accept mounted slides one at a time? Rather than in a strip as is typically the case with negatives?
I've got a 28mm macro lens.... is it possible to scan or would it distort alot? Thanks man!
Possible but not recommended I don’t think