Ever since Nikon released its overpriced ES-2 slide mount holder in 2017 (for which you also need to buy separate film holders) that lets you “scan” your slides and negatives with a DSLR, I’ve seen more and more of these popping up from the 3D printing community.
This time around it’s the turn of Rotislav Persion who’s designed his version of a slide scanner for DSLRs and mirrorless cameras that should work pretty easily with just about any macro lens (or a regular lens with extension tubes). Rotislav’s is a nice design, that includes a foam-lined shim to prevent damaging your lens, too.
Rotislav’s design is well thought out and needs to be printed in multiple parts that require assembly. And yes, you’ll need super glue for some of that. Printing in multiple parts and then assembling might seem like a pain, but it’s going to get you the best quality print results because you don’t need to deal with overhangs, supports or bridging. You can also print each part in the ideal orientation for maximum strength (important for those spring clips that hold your slide in place).
It also means you can get a nice foam-lined protective ring to wrap around your lens and slide the adapter onto so that it doesn’t scratch up your lens or pull the rubber loose on the focusing ring. Once you’ve got the adapter on your lens, though, it’s simply a case of backlighting it, dialling in the appropriate exposure settings, popping your slide in and hitting the shutter.
It’s not quite as quick as some slide and film scanning solutions we’ve shown in the past, but it is quite an elegant solution to the problem. I think I’d probably go with black on the end bit, though, just to minimise the chances of colour casts being introduced to your images when shining a light from the behind it.
You can find the complete project and download the STL files over on Rotislav’s website.
[via Hackaday]
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