I’ve spent too many words rambling on about this already so here’s the last bit on this larger scale (to me) scanning project:

This project was a whole lot of work and much more physically demanding than I thought it was going to be. Had I known that I would have purchased a dedicated camera for scanning that had an external monitor output of some sort. I also would have sourced a more robust copy stand. I had considered all of this while I was preparing but I already had so much new equipment with the scanning hardware that I didn’t really want to throw a new camera system info the mix. At some point I needed to start or I’d never finish.

Having a good high-performance macro lens was a great decision and I’m glad I went ahead with that. In my case I was using a Fuji X mount camera and I bought a Fuji XF80mm Macro lens with image stabilization. It’s a beautiful lens. I’ve used it a ton and it’s never left my house; it still looks brand new.

What I discovered early in the process of doing this is that lighting was an important factor (of course I knew that) and achieving good lighting wasn’t easy (this surprised me given I only needed to light something the size of a negative). Light panels might look very even to the naked eye but upon inspection after shooting a short exposure they’re not even at all, or they flicker, or the color balance is inconsistent, especially as it heats up. I bought and returned 2 while preparing for this project because of these reasons.

The light panel I got wasn’t top of the line by any stretch of the imagination but the CRI was acceptable (and I was scanning mostly black and white). You might think you can shoot wide open since you taking a picture of a flat plane, but you need depth of field. These negative carriers market themselves as holding the film perfectly flat but don’t believe it. You have to futz around with the carrier all the time. The film wanders from side to side as you advance it. Anything that gives you more EV is worth it. More light, and/or an image stabilized lens are well worth it. Being able to stop down and maintain a relatively high shutter (>2x focal-length speed is really what you need. Some of these lighter duty copy stands can vibrate like a cymbal after you trip the shutter.

I hadn’t planned this out with the pandemic in mind but it ended up being a nearly perfect project to do while being stuck at home, and I don’t know if I would have been able to complete it without having the time in the early morning or late afternoon when I would have otherwise been commuting to work.

I wish I would have spent maybe another round or 2 organizing the negatives before scanning. Ideally by taking a break of several days before making the final couple of passes. Granted I was examining hundreds of sheets of negatives over a light table and trying to decipher poorly written notes on the top of every page but once I started scanning (and seeing the pictures as positives) I found some obvious out of order, or mis-dated sheets of negatives. In the end it doesn’t matter because I can find everything easily and the computer doesn’t care about what order things were entered into it.

I would have changed my file naming scheme a bit but it took hindsight to really see that and what I used works perfectly fine. I changed the naming scheme up a bit when I reset to only scanning new film at the start of 2021.

I was happy with Lightroom, the Fuji camera tethering utility and especially pleased with the Negative Lab Pro Lightroom plugin. Watching 10 rolls of images flip from negative to positive over the course of a minute or so (and look great on the first pass) wasn’t too far away from watching a print appear out of nothing in a tray of developer.

If you’re thinking about taking on something similar you should do it. But spend enough time beforehand planning it all out because it’s a ton of work and you want to get the most benefit out of it as possible.