We probably will Deep in the digital age, film photography has never disappeared. Just as records live on through tapes, CDs and now digital music, film lives on. However, although you can develop your own film quite easily, printing with an enlarger is still a cumbersome process that requires its own space. The more economical alternative is to scan your film and print it digitally.
Professional scanning is expensive, and professional scanners are expensive (not as expensive as enlarging your house to make room for a darkroom, but still not cheap). A common solution is to photograph the negatives with a high-resolution digital camera. The resulting RAW file can then be edited, sharpened, and printed just like any other digital file.
And finally, take a photo of your image still not as easy as you think. That’s where Valoi’s Easy35 film scanner comes in. It’s everything you need to “scan” your 35mm film in one easy-to-use kit. It’s easy to set up, scans fast, and produces great results.
A series of tubes
Scanning film by photographing it is a difficult job. You need a good light source, you need to keep the film absolutely flat, and you have to line up the camera and lens with the film so there is no distortion.
Film photographers have been building scanning rigs for years and there’s a lot of great advice out there Reddit And other placesbut if you want an off-the-shelf solution that eliminates the learning curve, the Valoi Easy35 film scanner is the best option I’ve found.
Photo: Scott Gilbertson
The Easy35 includes a light box, with brightness and temperature controls for the backlight, and slots on each side to feed your film through. Inside there is a film holder that helps your film slide through and line up. A series of tubes form a light-tight tunnel between the film you’re capturing and the sensor in your digital camera.
The result is that you’ll always get excellent digital images for your movies with minimal effort.
However, there are some notes. It’s important that this feature only works with 35mm film. If you are shooting medium format or larger, this feature will not work. It’s a shame, because 120 film and larger is where you still have the resolution advantage over digital. I’d love to see Valoi make a 120 scanner, but for now it’s 35mm and smaller (there’s a 110 adapter if you shoot 110 cartridges).
The next thing to keep in mind is that you should probably get a camera with interchangeable lenses. It doesn’t have to be the best camera, but the quality of your results will depend on both the quality of the camera and the lens you’re using. A 100 megapixel Fujifilm GFX camera will usually give you better results than a micro4/3s camera.
Photo: Scott Gilbertson
