Film copy stand kit

[Jollybox]

Hi all, I have just bought a copy stand with a view to digitalisation of my films. Numerous questions but 1: primarily what would people with experience recommend as lens choice? In an ideal world I'd like to be able to zoom into formats from 35mm to 8x10 (most commonly I shoot 120 films) and all in between. I have an FE 28-70 at the moment (hardly ideal I feel). Body A7RII. 2. When I used to shoot Canon I could use proprietary software and tether the camera to my PC and control and shoot from my PC screen (focus control, exposure etc.) Is there such an equivalent in the Sony world? As popping the memory card in and out to do a simple check on focus etc. is a pain... as you can see form the attached OOF shot...
Many thanks in advance for any and all advice

 

[iamdlewis]

I know CaptureOne does it but I have never used it. Imaging Edge does it. Do these work with an Rii? Don't know.

For a lens I would think that something with a close focusing range would be ideal. Of the lenses I own I would probably go with the 50mm macro or the 90mm macro.

 

[Richard A]

Definitely a macro lens is best for copying film. As far as tethering goes, the one time I tried it I found it to be a pain in the a**e to be honest. Surely focus isn’t that much of an issue that you have to check it after every shot.

 

[Angus Cameron]

I'd suggest a 90 mm or above Macro lens, one that will give you about a 30cm subject to sensor separation. Manual exposure and focus (using focus peeking). Aperture setting f5.6 or above, zoom with the copy stand adjusted to fill the frame. Capture one or Sony software can be used. Capture one has the benefit of allowing you to take a test shot, apply adjustments to the white balance to suit the temperature of your back light. Additionally, adjust make further adjustments to the image you require, neg conversion clarity, ect,. these adjustments will then be automatically applied to all Captures you make with that tethered setup in your session. You can also save the adjustments as a style so you can apply this again when scanning the same film stock. If you have a decent amount of scanning to do you might want to consider something like the essential film holder link -> https://clifforth.co.uk/index.php

I use one of these, on a light panel. I use a little masking tape at the corners to keep it static on the light panel. After the initial setup, shooting tethered to Capture One i can shoot a film in a few minutes and get consistent results all with adjustment applied during the shoot.

Hope that is helpful.

 

[Jollybox]

Thanks Angus, exactly what I was looking for and the link to the EFH is perfect (just ordered one ) Funny as I had just fabricated a 'belt-n-Braces' mask with a bit of black foam mount board. This time around I had much better results... still aways to go.. like purchasing a macro lens (gulp)...

 

[Angus Cameron]

Hi Clive,

If you are not overly interested in macro outside your copy process you could save $'s if you were to go to a fully manual set up with an A mount to E mount adapter and pick up a decent second hand A mount macro from MPB for example, I put a couple of links below.
Focus peeking would still work.

Lens.

https://www.mpb.com/en-uk/product/-tamron-sp-af-90mm-f-2-8-macro-sony-a-fit

Adapter.

K&F Concept Sony A Mount Lenses to Sony NEX E-Mount Lens Adapter KF06.146 | eBay UK

(K&F Concept. Lens AdaptersLens Adapters. Made of high quality brass and aluminium. All Minolta A / Sony A Lenses. 4) These areORIGINALS, not grey imports or counterfeit. Warranty details are sent with the item.

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[Jollybox]

Hi Clive,

If you are not overly interested in macro outside your copy process you could save $'s if you were to go to a fully manual set up with an A mount to E mount adapter and pick up a decent second hand A mount macro from MPB for example, I put a couple of links below.
Focus peeking would still work.

Lens.

https://www.mpb.com/en-uk/product/-tamron-sp-af-90mm-f-2-8-macro-sony-a-fit

Adapter.

K&F Concept Sony A Mount Lenses to Sony NEX E-Mount Lens Adapter KF06.146 | eBay UK

(K&F Concept. Lens AdaptersLens Adapters. Made of high quality brass and aluminium. All Minolta A / Sony A Lenses. 4) These areORIGINALS, not grey imports or counterfeit. Warranty details are sent with the item.

www.ebay.co.uk

Perfect thanks for that solution - makes perfect sense and saves a shed load of cash

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Very interesting. Some day I might have a go at this!

Tethering: I don't know about the commercial packages. I seem to remember that the guy on youtube who does pro food-product shoots uses Capture-One. That's a high-pressure, everthing-has-to-just-work situation.

For free, darktable does tethering. But I have no current use for it so can't comment. But hey, it's a free trial, and it goes on being free for ever.