Digitizing Minox negatives

I have been digitizing my black and white negatives with my flatbed scanner (Medion 42666) which is rated 2400 x 4800. Since most manufactures seem to overstate the maximum resolution (effective resolution can be 10-50% lower see http://www.filmscanner.info/Filmscanner.html)  I'm sure that I actually get a lot less.

After trying all sorts of options I settled for scanning at 4800 in 24bit colour and then using GIMP (http://www.gimp.org/about/ ) to make the best of it.

The results were ok, nothing special but ok for my purpose.

In my quest to push the boundaries, I tried to use additional tools like DCenhancer ( http://www.mediachance.com/digicam/enhancer.htm ) but at the end of the day, they're all trade off's.

Minimal adjustments can be made, but missing pixels can't be replaced with the ones that should have been there in the first place.

The bottle neck in my process is digitizing. Sure, it can easily be solved by using a proper film scanner. The truth is that I have other budgetary priorities.

So I tried to take a picture through the Minox negative magnifying glass with my digital camera. Originally I wasn't to serious but the initial result was so promising that I continued.

Here are 3 pictures of the same negative. The first one scanned, the second one taken with my digital camera (3 mega pixels) through the Minox magnifier and the third one is the second picture sharpened with DCenhancer.

Minox EC, the film is Ilford PanF 50, developed in a Minox tank with stock ID-11
1 & 2 were converted to positive, cropped, resized and B&W level  adjusted with the GIMP.

The picture from the camera provided me with a negative that is  894x637 pixels. This means 2064x2022dpi.

Since the previous picture was heavily cropped (only 56% was used) I like to show you another negative, 864x627 (1995dpi x1990dpi)

the best I can do with my scanner and GIMP...

and with my camera, GIMP and DCenhancer...

Note 1: Due to the round corners of the magnifying glass mask, one has to crop the pictures a bit more..
Note 2: My digital camera has a cylinder (lens protector) that can be screwed on and allows to add extras via a 55mm tread. Since day one, I had a UV filter screwed on to it to protect the zoom mechanism and lens. I can easily hold the Minox magnifier with its plastic rim against this UV filter. This might not be possible with other digital camera's. With mine, the whole process is actually faster than scanning.

Because of  the promising results, I build a permanent set up.

The permanent set up

• wooden stand
• downpipe converter square to round, with a cut out for mask and reflector then sprayed matt black
• plastic water pipe connection, for fine distance adjustment.
• Raynox super macro conversion lens
• my old digital camera

Details of  the "barrel"

Mask in detail: old clear film has been used to create the holder.

The horizontal strip is the rail where the film rests on, the 2 legs of the A are keeping the film in place.

Just in case you wonder about the ugly glue lines... in the end I was simply happy to have found a glue that works.

and the result...

Relevant links:

Scan the Negative, or a Print?: http://www.slonet.org/~mhd/2photo/digital/which.htm
How do you deal with digitizing Minox negatives?: http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00ACJT
Minox negative scanning: http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00BQlV
Scan 8x11 negative: http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=008IuX
Troubleshooting Photomicrography Errors: http://www.olympusmicro.com/primer/photomicrography/errors.html
Lars-Eric from Finland, digitizes his negatives by photographing them with a digital camera on a light table: some examples as posted to the Minox group can be found at http://tech.ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/Minox-FAQ/photos/browse/1d79 and http://tech.ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/Minox-FAQ/photos/browse/642f

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