Hasselblad as a Scanner

[mikaelo67]

Hi,

I just bought myself a Negative Supply scanning kit and thought I would use it with either my 907x or my X2D to scan 6x6 negatives from my analog Hassys. Since the tethered live view don't work yet on the X2D I plan to use it with my 907x to start with.

I have never done "DSLR" scanning before and always used my Epson scanner to do this. Results have been good, but the time it takes is longer than I wish. After looking at some youtube videos I thought I would give this a try.

Has anyone here any experience from this? I have mounted my 907x and the 120 zoom. The distance between the slide holder and the lens is sufficient to get focus.
But can anyone give me some tips on aperture, ISO and shutter speed. What is really the best practice here? Should I scan directly in to Lightroom or should I go by Phocus?

I have seen that most people are using Negative Labs Pro software to tweak and finish the scans. I have always only used Lightroom and PS. I mostly shoot B/W, but also some color here and there. But before I invest in a 35mm and 4x5 holder as well, I thought I would give this a go on my 6x6's.

All and any tips on How To and best practices work flows are greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance. // Mikael

[tenmangu81]

I am also interested, as I bought a Negative supply device for "scanning" my 135 negatives and slides, that I intend to use with my X1D II. For my 6x6 films, my Epson scanner is not that bad, a little bit slow, though.

[MGrayson]

The Negative Supply stuff is good .. except for their stands. Much too flimsy for anything heavier than a Sony mirrorless. Something heavy enough, e.g., Kaiser, will be over $400 for the stand alone. I've been getting by with a heavy tripod and using the mirror trick to get the camera perpendicular to the film.

[fh29]

I use a Negative Supply setup and its 5x7 light source to scan MF and LF films with mirrorless bodies.
If shooting with the X bodies my preferred lens is the HC 120 mkii. Work at base ISO, pick your aperture (f8-f11 would be a sweet spot) and make some tests. You can use the electronic shutter if you want to minimize vibrations, but I'm not sure you get the max bit depth with it ?

Negative Lab Pro does a very good job and is pretty fast IMHO. I tried to scan with Phocus too and didn't notice huge differences. It's certainly easier to tweak your scans for a certain print look with NLP.

[fh29]

The Negative Supply stuff is good .. except for their stands. Much too flimsy for anything heavier than a Sony mirrorless. Something heavy enough, e.g., Kaiser, will be over $400 for the stand alone. I've been getting by with a heavy tripod and using the mirror trick to get the camera perpendicular to the film.

Indeed, a Kaiser stand or similar for H cameras makes more sense.
The Pro riser stand is not that bad though, provided you don't have to fiddle with the camera once you have everything set up.

[MGrayson]

The Negative Supply stuff is good .. except for their stands. Much too flimsy for anything heavier than a Sony mirrorless. Something heavy enough, e.g., Kaiser, will be over $400 for the stand alone. I've been getting by with a heavy tripod and using the mirror trick to get the camera perpendicular to the film.

Indeed, a Kaiser stand or similar for H cameras makes more sense.
The Pro riser stand is not that bad though, provided you don't have to fiddle with the camera once you have everything set up.

I like the idea of a finely adjustable height, so I use a Hejnar macro rail. But then you have a lot of weight hanging vertically. Compromises everywhere, I guess.

[mikaelo67]

Thanks for the tips. Aperture 8 or 11. Is there Anything else I need to think about?

The copy stand I got from Negative Supply is the Basic Riser Mk2. Solid aluminum and It feels pretty sturdy to me. But I have never seen a Kaiser stand. So I dont really have anything to compare with. On the Mk2 they also added 3 inches in height. I dont know if they added or remade something to make it sturdier.

I made some quick scans yesterday without fine adjust anything. Just to get a feel for it. I was a little tricky to get the film in thru the opening of the holder and all my negatives are cut in 3's since I always used my Epson before. But the results are pretty good. I will download the Negative Labs Pro software and make some more testing. As far as I understand it should produce better results than my Epson scanner. At least in theory.

[JCM-Photos]

Médium Format is not at his best for film scans, FF is more convenient as the it works with a lower macro rate.
MF is best for documents, paintings etc...

[MGrayson]

Médium Format is not at his best for film scans, FF is more convenient as the it works with a lower macro rate.
MF is best for documents, paintings etc...

Agreed. If I had a high resolution FF system (say, Leica SL2) I'd use it over the X2D or S3.

[fh29]

Thanks for the tips. Aperture 8 or 11. Is there Anything else I need to think about?

The copy stand I got from Negative Supply is the Basic Riser Mk2. Solid aluminum and It feels pretty sturdy to me. But I have never seen a Kaiser stand. So I dont really have anything to compare with. On the Mk2 they also added 3 inches in height. I dont know if they added or remade something to make it sturdier.

I made some quick scans yesterday without fine adjust anything. Just to get a feel for it. I was a little tricky to get the film in thru the opening of the holder and all my negatives are cut in 3's since I always used my Epson before. But the results are pretty good. I will download the Negative Labs Pro software and make some more testing. As far as I understand it should produce better results than my Epson scanner. At least in theory.

If you're working in a bright environment your shutter speeds might not be able to kill ambient light. I've seen people building some sort of lens shades with black paper, they extend between the lens and the film holder.

As you have noticed already uncut films are more convenient if you use the NS holder, it helps with positioning and maintaining flatness.

Grab the NLP plugin and run some colour negs through it, it lets you perform a dozen free conversions if I recall correctly.

[mikaelo67]

I dont know if anyone is interested. This is as I said before not my expertise in any way.

I did a quick comparison between a scan with my 907x with the XCD 120mm and a scan with my Epson V850Pro . Neither picture is edited in any way. I used Negative Labs pro for the 907x scan. And Epson for the epson scan.

But its very interesting to see a difference.