Quickly Browse Through Your Film Negatives Using Only Your iPad

Have you ever scanned film negatives on your own? If so, you know it can be a time-consuming process. To help make sure you don’t waste time scanning unwanted negatives, YouTuber Adam of Ekenstam has shared a clever way to preview your negatives using an iPad.

All you need to preview your photos is a light source and an iPad (or any other tablet) model with a camera attached. Simply back-light the negative using your light source, be it a window or light table, and use your iPad’s camera to quickly browse through your negatives.

Since tablet screens are large in comparison to even medium format negatives, it’s easy to see which frames are worth scanning in high resolution and which ones you can pass on.

This, of course, shouldn’t be used to replace a proper scanner, but for a quick browse it’s an easy and clever use of a gadget you probably have sitting on your desk or in a drawer.

Update: As pointed out by DIYP commenter Bruce Johnson, there’s a $0.99 iOS app called Light Box Loupe that will automatically invert the negatives and organize your negatives better than using your tablet’s native camera app. 

[via The Phoblographer]