My have the bulk of my family's photographic history - more simply, I have a box of old slides. One of my long procrastinated goals is to have them all scanned a sorted so I can then share them with the family. Over the years I have looked at scanning services but was never thrilled with the high cost and low resolution. When digital came along I dabbled with some ideas of how to capture the images digitally but soon realised that I didn't have all the necessary equipment (bellows, slide mount, macro lens, etc.) to do so. Then, a couple years ago I bought a 3D printer and began printing and designing all sorts of things for my various other hobbies. As well, along the way I had picked up some more photographic equipment (specifically, a PK-13 extension tube) that could get me closer to my goal, but I still lacked the slide mount and rail unit.
I finally sat down and had a go at seeing if what I had, equipment-wise, along with what I could design and 3D print would do the trick. A bit of trial and error later I had discovered that my D200 mounted with a 50mm lens with the PK-13 mounted between would give me 100% slide coverage at a focal distance of about 200mm. I then designed and 3D printed a slide mount for use on extruded aluminum T-slot rail, ordered a piece of 20x60 rail, and some hardware and waited.
The result is seen below.
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From front to rear... Nikon D200, Nikon PK-13 extension tube, Nikkor 50mm f1.4 lens, 3D printed slide mount, some multipurpose paper to act as a diffuser, SB-800 with diffuser (attached via AC-17 cable). A bit if fiddling with the exposure and I am getting some pretty good results - considering the exposure and condition of the original slides. The slide mount has a slot for a negative strip. Also, I 3D printed a mount plate (using PLA - an ABS like plastic) and an insert pad (using TPU - a softer material).
I have shot about 150 of what I estimate to be close to 1200 slides so far. Finished image size is about 3200 x 2200. The largest amount of work is going to be preparing and sorting all the images for sharing. I am thinking I will put them on a Google Drive and share them with my family contacts.
Regards,
Peter
