Scanning Film with the Pentax K-1
Lucky Box entry 1.2: how I scan medium format film at home
I recently replaced my Epson Perfection v750 Pro flatbed scanner with a DSLR scanning setup. Without tremendous setup effort, the new setup produces better results than the flatbed with a faster and more pleasant workflow.
Take a digital picture of this film picture
Isn’t that just digital photography with extra steps?
There are lots of reasons to shoot film in 2023 – and not just for romanticism, often invoked to justify the use of older or “obsolete” technology. This is the subject of a future post, likely multiple future posts, maybe even a post in my other blog. And let’s put convenience aside – no denying that digital photography is more convenient, faster, less is left up to chance, the advantages are manifold and largely self-evident. I prefer shooting events on digital, especially low light, indoors. For this brief discussion I’m considering only image quality.
I’ll just offer for now that film photography is a mature technology – nearly two centuries old depending on how you’re counting – while digital photography is still a young medium that is just now beginning to approach and exceed the performance of photographic film. This 2023 article on pro/prosumer cinema cameras still takes film as its reference point for dynamic range, a key performance metric of any photographic medium:
Cinema cameras are designed to capture video with a dynamic range that, at least, matches that of film: around 13 stops.
Maybe in a decade or so, even consumer photographic equipment will meet or exceed the performance of film by any relevant measure. I’ll be watching, and shooting film in the meantime.
Okay, but why are you digitizing it with a camera on a copy stand?
Do-it-yourself DSLR scanning setups are gaining popularity because they leverage modern mass market technology that is seeing active investment from large firms – consumer digital cameras – to serve a market – film photographers – that is too small and niche to see any such investment.
The best dedicated film scanners in 2023 were introduced in the ‘90s, and they were industrial grade, built for labs, often integrated with entire film processing machines. One is integrated with a whole desk, computer, and custom keyboard. They are no longer in production, go for over $10,000 used, and are slowly deteriorating with repair parts hard to come by.
The advancements in digital technology that would have made dedicated film scanners cheaper and smaller – and thus made high-quality consumer film scanners possible – were the same advancements that enabled high performance consumer digital cameras, which drove down consumer use of film and thus killed the market for consumer film scanners.
So we never got tight, high performance film scanners for consumer use. In 2023, we have build-your-own scanners like mine, and a hodgepodge of consumer film scanners ranging from the KODAK Slide N SCAN (looks like a toy, never used) to the Plustek (never used, heard good things) and Pacific Image (I use mine regularly, temperamental but capable of great results) scanners for 35mm, and flatbeds like the Epson Perfection v850 Plus (capable, but frustrating to use and dog slow, and far too expensive) for 120.
Maybe if the film market continues to grow – if Pentax really releases new film cameras, if Leica’s re-release of the M6 is a leading indicator and not just fan service or a cash grab – then we will see some real prosumer film scanners. I’ll be watching out for that, too.
My film scanning setup
This post is mostly for photographers already intent on shooting film, and ones who aren’t holding their breath for a possible prosumer film scanner future, so let’s dive into my scanning setup.
The DSLR is a Pentax K-1 (2016) that I picked up used (near-mint, ~20,000 shutter count) for just under $800 in November 2022. This is a screaming deal for a modern full-frame camera with a 36 megapixel sensor. Prices are higher now, in March 2023 – and prices are lower in Japan, where I was lucky enough to pick up this camera on a recent trip – but the K-1 can be found for ~$1000 on eBay, which is still a great deal. Plus, the K-1 has a pixel shift resolution system, a killer feature for film scanning in particular, which can overcome the limitations of the sensor’s Bayer filter to produce an image with 3x the color information of a regular exposure (when the camera is stationary). One of the biggest advantages of a dedicated flatbed scanner over a DSLR is the color – each color channel gets its own sensor. So flatbed scanners, properly tuned, will often have better micro-contrast and color rendition than DSLRs – but a DSLR with pixel shift should match a flatbed scanner along these axes.
The lens is a Super-Macro-Takumar 50mm f/4 – the newer version that doesn’t go to full 1:1 macro – from my aunt, who gifted me a beautiful collection of Takumars and M42 Pentax bodies from her photojournalist days once it was clear that I would put them to use. This lens is razor sharp at f/8-f/11 and I’ve found it to be a great medium format scanning lens with a K-mount adapter and a short extension tube. It also regularly goes for $100-200 on eBay.
The light source is the CineStill CS-LITE, which I believe is a rebranded/repackaged VALOI product. Unfortunately this is out of stock, at least on the CineStill website, which makes sense given that it was a very bright 4x5 95+ CRI light source selling for only $35. I haven’t used any other light sources so I have nothing else to recommend here.
The copy stand and film holder are the Basic Riser Mini – $150 – and Basic Film Carrier 120 – also $150 – from Negative Supply. The mini riser was definitely not designed to hold a 2 lb 3 oz camera, but it’s been a champ.
I also use an L bracket – this one – between the camera and the riser for two reasons:
I mostly shoot 645, and rotating the camera 90 degrees lets me match the long edge of a 645 frame to the long edge of the sensor, which means I can get the sensor a little closer and get more pixels per frame in each scan.
It’s much easier to remove and replace the camera from the L bracket versus from the riser itself. Since my K-1 is not a dedicated scanner – I also shoot with it – this is pretty important to me.
This setup is my minimum viable film scanner. There is a lot of room for improvement:
A proper mount for the film holder onto the light source – they were not designed to mate with each other
A better system for matching level between the film holder and the body – for now the bubble levels are adequate
A better lens? I have recently overcome some shortcomings of the lens with the flat-field correction feature of Lightroom Classic – look for a future post on this – and I’ve been quite happy with the performance of the lens
Easier and more repeatable height adjustment – I just try to keep the riser at a fixed height since it provides no counterbalancing for small and repeatable height adjustments. If I were regularly alternating between different film formats and lenses, I would probably upgrade the riser.
A shroud between the film holder and the lens to block environmental light, something like this? I have never had problems with flares, reflections, or contrast, so this has been low priority
But for now I’m satisfied with the results from this setup. A recent scan of a frame of CineStill 400D (Kodak VISION3 250D emulsion on a still photography film base, you’re not fooling anybody CineStill):
Thanks for reading!
Big shoutout to Negative Supply for supporting homebrew film scanning by manufacturing and selling high quality equipment and generally fostering community in the analog world.
Photos in my posts are usually available in my online print store.
Feel free to drop into the comments – would love reflections or suggested improvements to my setup, your own insights into home film scanning, anything really.