Slide Copier Attachment

[Tim Spencer]

Has anyone used this sort of set-up for copying slides? Interested in pros and cons if you have - thanks.

Opteka HD2 Slide Copier/Duplicator for 58mm Camera NEW | eBay

[arlon]

I have done a lot of slide copying with my camera. My first copier was something similar to that I found on ebay for $35 and I found it to be totally useless. It was very difficult to try and focus as it just slides and has a thumb screw to lock it down. I made several attempts and ended up just throwing it in the trash because I didn't want anyone else to have to suffer the same misery.

I salvaged a slide holder (made first slide holder from cardboard) and made my own copier with a piece of 1x4 and some PVC pipe (cardboard would have worked fine). Later I got a real bellows with slide/film copy attachement that used a 50mm f2.8 nikkor enlarger lens. This didn't work nearly as well as the 1x4 thing. Still later I ran across a bargain Nikon pb-4 bellows with ps-4 slide attachement. That's the best so far using the same old 55mm micro lens but now with a full frame D700.

Lot of examples from the first attempt HERE

Samples from the last setup HERE

First PVC copier (worked way better than the cheap thing from ebay):


Second which was the worse of the three:


Latest and greatest:

[Tim Spencer]

Arlon: great info - thanks! And I admire your ingenuity. A couple of questions:

Where did you get the slide holder for the PVC set-up? I could go that route.
For the bellows/ps-4 slide attachment - do you know of anything similar for Canon? I just did a google/ebay search and did not find much.
What do you use for a light-source behind the slides?

Thx and loved your work - my Dad was in Korea also - in 1960-1961.

[arlon]

I found the slide holder at a camera store in a box of used junk. I had made something similar with a few pieces of cardboard that worked well but just a little slower to get the slides in and out of, used a piece of milk carton for a diffuser.

I use a compact flourescent light and just set a custom white balance on the camera to that light. Shutter speeds are slow but it doesn't matter since the whole thing is one piece.

I had some very badly faded to red ektachromes, I did a custom WB on the ektachrome by just using infinity focus to blurr the slide until the camera accepted it. I then shot the faded slides with new "faded slide WB" and 95% of the red was gone and some color was back. Enough to be easily delt with in PS.

Now days, I'd just send them to someone like scancafe to do them. At less than $0.25 each, you can do a lot of slides for not too much money. I started doing this before there were cost effective commercial options. If I were starting today, I'd save a ton of time and money and let someone else do them, just send a few samples to see how they look first..

[Hill Country Hack]

My wife bought something very similar to this..VuPoint FC-C520-VP-BX2 USB 2.0 Negative Film & Slide Digital Converter

She has downloaded several hundred slides and they are now on the comp. It seems quick and easy. I've yet to try to do any PP on them since they are all very old, poorly lit, yellowed etc. I have to work myself up to that.

[Tim Spencer]

Thank you both - appreciate!