They are asking $600! I’m not paying that. No way. Scanning film at home is a solution for maintaining a high level of quality while reducing costs. I’m not paying $600. Hell, not even $200!

Each year that passes finds me with more and more film in my archives. Up until now I was sending all my rolls and sheets off to various labs for developing and scanning. For the most part I have good, and in some instances great, results to report. I have been happy with the labs I use. Great service, good scanning technicians and consistent results.

The only downside is what most people are facing, the high costs of having all your film developed and scanned by a lab.

Everyone has a budget or threshold of how much money they can afford or are willing to spend into these services. I had started reaching my limit.

By the second half of 2022 I started rethinking the 3 categories that have the most impact in terms of expenses.

Film scanning
Film developing
Film choice

The list is numbered in order of priority for me. I wanted to tackle film scanning first, as this is the most important and most costly to me. Keep in mind that in all three categories I am aiming to maintain a high level of quality. I don’t want cheap looking scans, badly developed film or settling for cheaper film stocks only to reduce costs. If I choose to shoot Kodak Colorplus, I want this choice to be artistically driven not financially.

The last few years we have seen great progress being made in dslr scanning with many products coming out, in contrast with the declining market of conventional flatbed or other dedicated film scanners.

I am not going to elaborate here on the various options but I will link down bellow a few products/companies worth mentioning along with reviews of these.

I opted for the EFH as a film holder, the Viltrox 116T as the light source and the NLP for the negative conversion. And all that paired with my Canon 6D and the Canon 100mm Macro USM lens.

The last piece of the puzzle was some sort of a stand to attach the camera. I could use my tripod but this would take too long to setup and align each time. I didn’t want scanning film to feel like a chore.

A copy stand seemed like the most logical solution. A permanent setup where I could start each scanning session in seconds.

After a quick look online I found out that sturdy copy stands that are capable of holding DSLR sized setups are quite expensive. Starting from at least $200 and going all the way up to $600. I wasn’t prepared to spend that amount of money for something that seemed relatively simple to me. So back down to the web I went, reading through blogs, Reddit posts and YouTube videos. After a while I stumbled upon a comment on a Reddit post where someone claimed to have the solution. A simple construction costing around $100 and assembled in seconds, utilising three easy to find items.

A flange, a pipe and a piece of plywood

Simple yet brilliant. All I needed where the following:

-1 inch flange

-1 inch pipe 70cm tall (about 27 inches)

-25mm thick (about 1 inch) hardwood plywood

measuring 45x45cm (about 1.5ft each side)

-5.0x25mm Screws

-Manfrotto Super Clamp

-Stud

- Tripod head

These were the absolute essentials.

Of course if you are planning on doing something similar, measure according to your needs and equipment.

Costs

Now, I already had a few super clamps laying around so for the rest of the items plus shipping it cost me £78.38 (or $95.87).

Of course this is something that will vary depending on the place you live etc. If you have the time and access to a large hardware store (that’s for you there in the States, i’m jealous of your ridiculously large hardware stores and pick up trucks) then you can avoid shipping fees and get it done even cheaper.

Also keep in mind that I already had a super clamp, if you don’t then that will set you back around £40 ($49) with the stud if you buy new.

Assembly

Before I went on with the assembly I thought since I’m going to place the copy stand permanently in my room I should probably bother to make it look a bit nicer.

I painted the plywood using a black stain and then sprayed it with a matte varnish to keep it protected. From then on it was straight forward, I fastened the flange onto the plywood, screwed the pipe and attached the super clamp with the tripod head. The camera sits securely and the whole design feels solid.

I should mention that initially I used 3/4” flange and pipe that was 50cm tall. The construction felt solid but the height was slightly limiting. I would have to place the camera at the peak in order to scan 6x4.5 negatives and I wouldn’t be able to scan larger formats. So since I decided to order a longer pipe I thought I should go for a thicker one as well just to make the whole design future proof. I might want to attach a heavier camera or lens in the long run so I figured it doesn’t hurt to have something sturdier. That being said, the 3/4” size for pipe and flange is definitely strong enough for most camera setups and if you only plan on scanning 35mm negatives with a 100mm macro lens then a 50cm tall pipe is sufficient.

Final Thoughts

At the end, I am very happy with how it came together. I think it looks clean on top of the white furniture I placed it and I have enjoyed using it so far. It makes scanning quick and easy without hassle, it almost feels automated. I like that I still have room to go higher and the design is solid enough that I would comfortably attach a heavier camera.

If you have any questions or thoughts to share or if you created something similar feel free to comment down bellow. I’m curious to see how other people’s camera rigs look like.

Resources

Note: Some of the following are affiliate links. Using them comes at no extra cost to you, but it helps support me with a small commission on qualifying purchases.