Copying slides, negatives and prints

There is various equipment that can be used for copying slides, negatives and prints but it all depends on how much one is going to do. For instance, slide copiers made by Nikon, Minolta and others can be very costly. For the once in a while job, the equipment in the illustration may be more suited.

I use a Macro Lens and a slide duplicator attachment. When the two are screwed together the slide is held in the slide holder, so all you have to do is aim the unit toward a light source.

A light box is good for this purpose. The good thing about this setup is that any motion of the camera does not affect the sharpness of the picture taken because it is all held together as a single unit.

The light box can be a simple unit that also serves as a viewer for the slides that you want to select for your project. One good thing about this arrangement is that all you need is to set your camera for the color balance for the light source being used and then just fire away at each shot. You can copy each slide only slowed down by the speed with which you can take out and insert the next slide into the slide holder.

Negatives on the other hand require a different approach. You need a dedicated negative scanner or you can use a flat bed scanner. A flat bed scanner can be used to copy negatives and slides with the proper attachment or copy pictures up to what ever size the scanner will allow. Negative copying is much slower that the method described above for slides. Each negative gets scanned depending on the DPI you set and it takes much longer to reproduce the image. To get the equivalent result that you got with a 12 megapixel camera you have to set the scanner to about 2400 x 2400 and the resulting scan takes about three to four minutes. By the way, dedicated slide scanners take just about the same time. The camera copy is the fastest way to do this job.

The flat bed scanner has two light sources. One is in the top cover and the other one is on the carrier that holds the sensor that copies the picture. When you are copying slides the top one is selected and the lower light does not turn on. The light lights the back of the slide or negative so that the sensor can then copy the image recorded on the media. Note that there is a holder to hold the slide or the negative. The one in the illustration is set to copy some negatives. When it is turned 180 degrees then the slide holder side is set under the light. When we want to copy pictures there is a cover that slides into the top cover and has a white side to it. Pictures are place print side down facing the copying sensor and the light then comes from the sensor side. This is called reflective copying. You have to decide what size do you want for the final image to be and then scan that size accordingly. I usually scan for a large size and that way I have leeway for a large print or I can reduce the image for smaller print needs. The large file size does fill you hard drive quicker but it does give you flexibility and it is worth the space used. Part of the satisfaction of doing the copy work yourself is that you can control the composition and exposure. Out side firms can do this kind of work cheaply but you will get exactly that, cheap reproductions. The work can be tedious, especially the negative copying but the end result is usually well worth it and you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you can be proud of a job well done.

Douglas John Vergara