Slide to Digital Conversion

[Wingman]

For those who were eagerly awaiting the results of the Opteka SlideCopier, following is acomparisons between an image taken with my Optio 550 in super macro mode and those taken with the DL and the Opteka. I used the Sigma 70-300mm APO DG at 70mm. Overall the device is solidly built and serves it's purpose. Capturing images one at a time is a bit cumbersome though.

So the winner is...well...I notice a marginal improvement in sharpness, but that's about it! Let me know what you think.

Baseline taken with the Optio 555 and a light box



Same image taken with the Opteka Slide copier (mounted on the Sigma 70-300mm)

[Corpsy]

I've never used slide film (except for one photography class I took a long time ago) so I'm not in the market for a slide scanner, but I was somewhat interested anyway. How old is that photo? It looks like it's held up very well over time.

It's difficult to see if one is better than the other. The colors in the first one look a bit more natural to me. Sharpness is difficult to compare at this resolution. Did the first image have an unsharp mask filter applied? It seems like there's a lot more sharpness and contrast in details like the grass and especially the speckled coat.

[bilybianca]

I think pic quality is clearly better in #2. On the other hand that one is cropped on the left side. Did you do the cropping after copying, or is it a limitation of the Opteka?

Thanks for providing this comparison.

Kjell

[jachol]

bilybianca wrote:

I think pic quality is clearly better in #2. On the other hand that one is cropped on the left side. Did you do the cropping after copying, or is it a limitation of the Opteka?

Thanks for providing this comparison.

Kjell

Hi Kjell,
I have a Panagor slide copier M42 screwfit, that was meant for 35mm copying on a film camera ... when used on a digital camera it does noticably crop pics, presumably due to the sensor size. Whereas my home brew unit built with cut and try methods produces a full frame image. ... Jack

[Wingman]

Corpsy wrote:

How old is that photo? It looks like it's held up very well over time.

Did the first image have an unsharp mask filter applied? It seems like there's a lot more sharpness and contrast in details like the grass and especially the speckled coat.

Corpsy: The slides are almost 50 years old..the older child in the picture is 51 this year! The Kodak Ektachorome slides have indeed held up very well.

Re. unsharp mask, yes, the first picture did have sharpening applied. I need to tweak some of the pictures in order to optimize the image. With over 1000 slides to convert this could be a tedious process. But on the other hand, anything worth doing, is worth doing well!!

Overall, the biggest difference I noticed (not evident in this sample) is that there is no linear distortion due to the use of a longer focal length.This weekend I want to switch lenses to the PEntax 50-200mm to see if there is more clarity. I was using teh Sigma 70-200 APO DG at 70mm in order to preserve the largerst image size. I'll report back soon.

Jay

[Wingman]

bilybianca wrote:

I think pic quality is clearly better in #2. On the other hand that one is cropped on the left side. Did you do the cropping after copying, or is it a limitation of the Opteka?

Thanks for providing this comparison.

Kjell

Kjell,

The Opteka causes some natural cropping due to the sensor size. This can be adjusted via the focal length of the lens in use. As Jachol said, the difference in the sensor size causes this issue. As I mentioned in the reply above, I'll be changing lenses and will report back on if the results are significantly different.

Jay

[silversurfer]

Hi Jack, sorry to butt in on this thread, butI have just picked up a Jessops zoom slide copier 2.5 to 1;1 range, off ebay to hopefully copy the 1,000+ slide I have (actually probably 3,000+! when I think about it). My daughter has just got her Samsung g10 so we want to try it out. BUT.... we need a K mount, (it came with an olympus OM one) no luck at local or UK ebayers so probably need to find one in USA/hong kong dealers, with expensive postage rates!

Thats an aside. From what I read here it seems we will loose some of the edges of the slides because of the smaller sensor? will not the zoom overcome this?

Do I understand correctly that jelpee used a tele zoom lens at macro to do his copies? with the slides lit from a light box? or in some sort of fixed holder in front of the lens?

The zoom copier needs no lens, it is direct to the camera body, I presumed this was the way to go, as the quickest effective method to copy many slides. Two years ago I did splash out and buy a Nikon 1V scanner but the time to copy just one slide and the learning curve defeated me and it has sat dormant until Iget enough time and enthusiasm to tackle it again. any tips on using the zoom copier, when we get a mount, would be appreciated. Such as do we need to make some special setting on the camera as it is purely a mechanical link,? what happens to all the electrical contacts, does the camera just sense the correct exposure? thanks, silversurfer

[Wingman]

silversurfer wrote:

Thats an aside. From what I read here it seems we will loose some of the edges of the slides because of the smaller sensor? will not the zoom overcome this?

Do I understand correctly that jelpee used a tele zoom lens at macro to do his copies? with the slides lit from a light box? or in some sort of fixed holder in front of the lens?

Let me respond to the above two items:

1. Yes, the zoom will overcome the loss of the edges. However, it is not that precise. I set the zoom to capture more than the required image (i.e. include a sliver of the slide frame) and then crop down. It also allows me to striaghten horizons and generally crop the image to improve composition.

2. The first image show was captured using a P&S Pentax Optio with the lens set at Super macro and the slides mounted on a light box. The comparison image (#2) was taken using my DL and the Opteka slide copier which mounts at the end of a tele-zoom lens (mounts to the filter thread).

As I've made more copies I am noticing a lot of noise. I am shooting at f/11 (recommended by Opteka) with the device pointed to bright outdoor lighting. The camera is mounted on a tripod and triggered using a wired remote shutter release.Overall, I was expectingimages to be as clear as the transparency itself;while they are decent, they are not as clear and clean as the original transparency. Perhaps I am expecting too much!

BTW, I have over 1000 slides to convert as well:shock:

Jay

[jachol]

Hello OE,
Seems to me there are 2 types of slide copier in this discussion .. The Opteka would appear to be mounted on the lens filter thread, so in this case lens zoom can adjust image size. ( Jelpee has confirmed this) The Panagor that I have, and I suspect perhaps the Jessops model mount directly to the camera body, in place of the lens, so you have no zoom adjustment apart from on the device itself. In the picture of mine below you can see there are 2 adjustments
1. The length controls the size of the image.
2. the zoom adjustment on the barrel sets focus at the amount of zoom you require, if I could shorten the Panagor more I could probably get and focus a full frame image of the slide. as it stands this isn't possible. Yours may differ OE.
Re. the k mount adaptor you require OE, I'm not sure such a thing exists, unless it's a special for the Jessops unit. I'll have a look in their catalogue if I can find it.
Hope these comments help. ... Jack.

Edit ... OE. I've looked in the Jessops catalogue I have. Not a recent one. ... There's no slide copier listed, on their website I can only find a copier for Nikon fit, yours is probably an older model.

Edit 2. ... Apologies I've somehow been confusing Old engineer and Silversurfer for some reason. ... A senior moment I guess. LOL