Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The other type, and the one were looking at here, is a zoom
slide duplicator that attaches to an SLR by replacing the
interchangeable lens. There are various models available
including Soligor, Ohnar and Jessops. The one here is an old
style Jessops model, but they all work in the same way. You
have a tube that is around 6 to 8in long with a built-in lens
https://www.ephotozine.com/article/using-a-slide-duplicator-4813 Pagina 1 di 7
Using a Slide Duplicator 24/02/19, 18*47
that magnifies the slide to give a full frame copy. Some have
an adjustable barrel that lets you zoom in on a section of the
slide. This one goes from 1x life-size to 2.5x. Although there
are four zoom settings you can use any mid point giving you
infinitely variable control between the two extremes.
Unlike the pro duplicator the 50 zoom model is easy to use. You just attach
it to your camera using a T2 mount. These cost about 10 and are available
in all camera fittings, including autofocus. There are no automatic
connections on the mount so you need to use a camera with either an
aperture-priority or manual exposure mode.
You fit the slide into a carrier at the opposite end to the camera
and this can be moved up or down and left or right for selective
cropping. The duplicator has a fixed aperture of around f/16 so
its pretty dark to see through.
You can use any type of light source to make your slide copies, providing
you use the appropriate film or filters. The easiest is daylight but flash is a
good alternative providing you can control the output. If you decide on
daylight choose a bright day and point it at the sky. Use the cameras meter
and shoot, bracket the exposure on your first attempt by changing the
shutter speed manually or using the exposure compensation setting in
aperture-priority auto. Make a note of your settings so you can follow these
guides for perfect exposures in the future.
https://www.ephotozine.com/article/using-a-slide-duplicator-4813 Pagina 2 di 7
Using a Slide Duplicator 24/02/19, 18*47
Here a black & white negative was copied and once in the image editing
program inverted so that the tones became positive like the print you
would make. A slight tweak was required in Curves (you can use
brightness/ contrast too) to adjust the tones to the required range.
When using flash you need to take it off the camera using a necessary
coaxial cord connected to the cameras PC socket then point it back into the
duplicator. If your camera has TTL flash and you can afford the proper TTL
flash cords youll make the job much easier as the camera will control the
flash exposure almost perfectly. If not youll need to do tests to determine
the ideal distance of the flash. As a rough starting point place it about 25cm
from the camera, pointing back into the duplicator and take a shot, move
the flash 5cm further away and repeat. Continue in 5cm increments until
the flashs about 60cm away. It seems like a lot of wasted film and messing
about, but its worth it. When the results are processed, one shot should be
close to perfect use this distance for all future flash copying.
If you prefer to shoot indoors you can use tungsten light, but youll need an
80b blue filter to remove the yellow cast these lights create on normal
daylight film. An f/16 aperture means the shutter speed may be slow, but
https://www.ephotozine.com/article/using-a-slide-duplicator-4813 Pagina 3 di 7
Using a Slide Duplicator 24/02/19, 18*47
you dont have to worry about camera shake, because the slide position
doesnt change while youre making the exposure.
You can lighten or darken an original, give it more contrast, alter the
colour using filters or you use it to make copies to send off to competitions
or publishers, keeping your valuable originals safe.
I attached the duplicator to a Nikon fit Fuji FinePix S2pro. The camera has
to be set to manual as it wont work in aperture-priority with non AF lenses.
Then you have to guess the exposure. I found the shutter speed of 1/60sec
perfect for a bright winters day.
https://www.ephotozine.com/article/using-a-slide-duplicator-4813 Pagina 4 di 7
Using a Slide Duplicator 24/02/19, 18*47
One other thing to be aware of is that the digital SLRs CCD is smaller
than film so you dont get as much coverage. This makes it impossible to
copy a full frame and on the Fuji the effective magnification is 1.5x. The
shot on the left is a full frame scan and the one on the right is from the
largest area you can capture using the Fuji Finepix Pro.
Quality comparison
To give you an idea of how good a digital duplication is here's the original
scanned to PhotoCD by a professional lab, compared with the scan from a
HP flatbed scanner with a film attachment, a Microtek dedicated film
scanner and the slide duplicator.
https://www.ephotozine.com/article/using-a-slide-duplicator-4813 Pagina 5 di 7
Using a Slide Duplicator 24/02/19, 18*47
The 4000dpi scan from the Microtek film scanner had to be cropped more
to fit on this page but again shows a comparison size scan. It's the sharpest
option, but maybe too sharp as it's picking up every flaw on the film!
https://www.ephotozine.com/article/using-a-slide-duplicator-4813 Pagina 6 di 7
Using a Slide Duplicator 24/02/19, 18*47
Here the Jessops slide duplicator was used on the Fuji FinePix S2 Pro
giving an smooth toned image that can be sharpened further, if desired,
using your image editing program. It's certainly worth keeping your
duplicator if you own on and will at some stage buy a digital SLR. Also
worth picking up if you have a digital SLR and want a low cost way to make
digital files from your slides.
https://www.ephotozine.com/article/using-a-slide-duplicator-4813 Pagina 7 di 7