Hasta La Gadget!

Photographer Claus Thiim has come up with a virtually free way to scan hundreds of old negatives and slides. Best of all, it is easy and fast to make and use.

Even if you never touched a film camera, you probably have a few paper pouches of old negatives lying around, inherited from somebody like me, who has boxes and boxes full of the things. Apart from the odd drunken nostalgic night where I may go through a few boxes, they’re destined to remain unseen.

Thiim’s method eschews slow, bulky scanners and doesn’t even think about mail-in scanning services. He uses the fastest scanner he has: his DSLR. Onto the front are mounted an old manual focus (90mm) lens, an extension tube (which moves the lens forward and allows closer macro focusing). Then things get creative, with a couple of toilet-paper tubes taped to an old filter with the glass removed, along with a plastic 35mm slide-mount on the end. The mount is opened at the sides to let the film slide through.

To scan, you just move the film through and snap a frame. If your camera has live-view, you can even check framing and focus from the comfort of the rear screen.

What I like most is the speed and convenience (and of course the price). It may be a huge pain to go through tens of thousands of frames, but for smaller project this is ideal. And for people who still like to shoot film from time to time, this DIY project is made for you: shooting and developing your own B&W film is easy and requires no darkroom. Combined with this and you can shoot pricey film at almost no cost.

Thiim’s Flicker set shows the details of the setup, but it’s so flexible you can probably bend any kit you have to work. Check it out:

DIY 35mm negative duplicator [Claus Thiim / Flickr via DIY Photography]

See Also:

• No-Sweat Way to Copy Slides, Negatives
• First Look: VuPoint Slide/Film Scanner

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