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.

Film Holders

Summary of various options (if you have time only for one video go for this summary most popular options available)

EFH - Essential Film Holder: https://clifforth.co.uk/

EFH Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqSvTJ0s5MM

Valoi: https://www.valoi.co/

Valroi Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LholQAalez0

Negative Supply: https://www.negative.supply/shop

Negative Supply Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7UNCAsSTBA

Light Sources

Importance of CRI (Color Rendition Index): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMTVt3hD5bo

Viltrox 116T: https://amzn.to/4bXz7oK

Raleno: https://amzn.to/4bXA1l8

Negative Supply 99 CRI: https://www.negative.supply/shop-all/light-source-caxw2

ADDITIONAL

Starting with the one that I have been asked the most times - you are welcome :)

3D Printed Holder for the Viltrox L116T (design) - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5200165

And some of the gear that I am using on this copy stand:

Manfrotto Super Clamp - https://amzn.to/458OrfW

Manfrotto Stud/Spigot - https://amzn.to/3KrH35U

Manfrotto Tripod Head - https://amzn.to/3yJG26G

Cutting Mat - https://amzn.to/3Xa6bWA

Tethering Cable (USB—C to 2.0 Mini) - https://amzn.to/3VsK8cd

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens - https://amzn.to/4c6MbYX

Negative Conversion:

Negative Lab Pro - https://www.negativelabpro.com

October 25, 2025

Trying Kodak’s New Films - Vision3 AHU

After 8 years of research Kodak has upgraded their Vision3 lineup of motion picture film stocks. They managed to remove the remjet layer and replace it with an Anti Halation Undercoat (hence the designation AHU). Among several improvements aimed to filmmakers, there was an unplanned benefit for still photographers, the films can now be easily processed together with other colour negative films in a more streamlined fashion. Wether you prefer ECN-2 or C41, now you can process the Vision3 films together with your Portra and Gold. Recently I had the opportunity to shoot them and see how they perform. To begin with, I was interested in comparing the new films against the old structure with the remjet layer. I loaded my Canon EOS 5 with the AHU variant and my EOS 50E with the remjet version of 250D. I used the same lenses on all images swapping them between the two cameras. Most of them were taken with either the Canon 24-105 f/4 L or the Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 Planar with the exception of one image taken on the Canon 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro lens. After finishing the rolls I processed both in ECN-2 and digitised them with my usual setup. There are some interesting results to be observed from this test and you can see some high-res image samples in this blog post. After finishing this comparison, I shot the rest of the rolls in a more casual manner over the course of a few weeks. I shot a roll of 50D, one 250D and one 500T with my M2 and the Voigtländer 35mm f/2.5 Color-Skopar and processed them in C41.

May 4, 2025

Does film developer expire? Tips on preservation and best practices

With an excuse to test out both my new Mamiya RZ67 and my 4 year old film developer I set out to do a test shoot to help me compare my old Ilfotec HC to a fresh one, as well as to check on the condition of both film backs. I set up a still life shoot and loaded both backs with Ilford Delta 100. I lit the scene with a single 500w Profoto strobe light with a reflector and a grid attached, firing behind a large sheet of diffusion. I also used a white card to fill in some of the shadows. I took duplicate images and proceeded to develop one roll with the expired chemistry and one with the fresh developer. After comparing the images I piled up a few tips and best practices to help you preserve your chemistry for longer as well as examples on how you can test your chemicals.

July 14, 2024

ECN-2 vs C41 Part II: Darkroom Printing

Using the two rolls of Kodak Vision3 500T motion picture film that I shot in the previous video, I went ahead and made a few RA4 darkroom handprints to further compare how the chemistry affects the end result.

May 6, 2023

ECN-2 vs C41 Development Comparison on Kodak Vision3 500T

With quotes claiming that the ECN-2 process yields far better results when developing cinema film and that C41 degrades the colour and contrast rendition, it got me interested to do a direct comparison of the two processes using Kodak Vision3 500T, developed in ECN-2 and C41 chemistry.

February 25, 2023

400ft to 100ft - Bulk Loading Kodak Vision3 500T Cinema Film

How do I cut a 400ft roll down to 100ft to use it with my bulk loader? The main focus of this article is the respooling of 400ft rolls of 35mm film to 100ft.

Building a copy stand to scan film for $100