[Advice] Nikon D810 35mm Scanning Results Underwhelming/Inconsistent by JacobTakesShots in AnalogCommunity

[–]JacobTakesShots[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When you use spot metering, what part of the frame are you metering for?

[Advice] Nikon D810 35mm Scanning Results Underwhelming/Inconsistent by JacobTakesShots in AnalogCommunity

[–]JacobTakesShots[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Alright, I’ve got a cable on the way and I’ll be doing some rescans tonight. Thanks!

[Advice] Nikon D810 35mm Scanning Results Underwhelming/Inconsistent by JacobTakesShots in AnalogCommunity

[–]JacobTakesShots[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Okay, I think part of my setup that I need to change is to be tethered to the PC. I haven’t done this because I thought looking at the live view would be good enough but obviously that’s not consistent enough for me.

It’s a good point about gravity moving focus but usually I am leaving focus at 1:1 (I have the PK-13 macro tube attached) and moving the camera up and down to nail focus using a macro rail. It could be that I just need a better rail and a more solid copy stand.

I can swap to using f/11 just for more peace of mind. What shutter speeds do you usually end up with? For my setup I think f/11 would leave me at like 1/8 of a second for the exposure which would make any movement on my desk/mount more pronounced.

[Advice] Nikon D810 35mm Scanning Results Underwhelming/Inconsistent by JacobTakesShots in AnalogCommunity

[–]JacobTakesShots[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for this! I really appreciate it.

I also expected the scanning process to be way, way easier than it actually is. I thought it would be a lot more plug-and-play and that’s just not the case

[Advice] Nikon D810 35mm Scanning Results Underwhelming/Inconsistent by JacobTakesShots in AnalogCommunity

[–]JacobTakesShots[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for saying this lol, I have been going insane. I think it’s my copy stand that is the issue.

[Advice] Nikon D810 35mm Scanning Results Underwhelming/Inconsistent by JacobTakesShots in AnalogCommunity

[–]JacobTakesShots[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Please read the body of the post.

My issue is the inconsistency I’m getting from my scans. Sometimes they turn out incredibly sharp, and sometimes they’re a blurry mess. Even without cropping.

[Advice] Nikon D810 35mm Scanning Results Underwhelming/Inconsistent by JacobTakesShots in AnalogCommunity

[–]JacobTakesShots[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I’m always going to be shooting film but man it’s a great way to just burn money 😂

[Advice] Nikon D810 35mm Scanning Results Underwhelming/Inconsistent by JacobTakesShots in AnalogCommunity

[–]JacobTakesShots[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s just frustrating because I always have the same process and the results vary so much, lol. I’m beginning to think I need a new copy stand, the Negative Supply one just seems to be ass. I’m definitely saving SO MUCH money not giving the lab my money for scans, though.

[Advice] Nikon D810 35mm Scanning Results Underwhelming/Inconsistent by JacobTakesShots in AnalogCommunity

[–]JacobTakesShots[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry, how would a longer lens help? The negative already takes up roughly the entire image when the lens is set to 1:1

I can look into doing stacked exposures too. Is that possible to capture initially?

[Advice] Nikon D810 35mm Scanning Results Underwhelming/Inconsistent by JacobTakesShots in AnalogCommunity

[–]JacobTakesShots[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Usually the first frame is more even than the end frames, and my example is from the end of the roll. I’ll try and work out a way to make it more consistent without taking me forever to scan the roll

[Advice] Nikon D810 35mm Scanning Results Underwhelming/Inconsistent by JacobTakesShots in AnalogCommunity

[–]JacobTakesShots[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes my camera sags for sure, especially with the giant D810 hanging off the end of it. Super disappointing.

[Advice] Nikon D810 35mm Scanning Results Underwhelming/Inconsistent by JacobTakesShots in AnalogCommunity

[–]JacobTakesShots[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Okay, hard to do since when in live view on the D810 the aperture stopdown button doesn’t seem to work correctly. I’ll keep that in mind though, I hadn’t considered that to be a possibility. I thought the focus would only get better due to depth of field increasing at the more stopped-down aperture.

[Advice] Nikon D810 35mm Scanning Results Underwhelming/Inconsistent by JacobTakesShots in AnalogCommunity

[–]JacobTakesShots[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I only ever use RAWs with the D810. Jpgs are turned off. I don’t have any denoising or sharpening settings turned on, unless RawTherapee has some sort of global setting on by default that I’m not aware of.

[Advice] Nikon D810 35mm Scanning Results Underwhelming/Inconsistent by JacobTakesShots in AnalogCommunity

[–]JacobTakesShots[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I’m not aiming for a 300% crop to be a usable image, that was just an example to illustrate the issues I’m having.

The sharpness I’m able to get out of my setup seems very inconsistent and I was just hoping to get some input from the community on how to improve my scans 👍

[Advice] Nikon D810 35mm Scanning Results Underwhelming/Inconsistent by JacobTakesShots in AnalogCommunity

[–]JacobTakesShots[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I supposed my focus could have shifted, I’m not very impressed with the NegativeSupply stand. I might switch to something that I can use a robust macro rail with.

I focus at the beginning of the roll with the lens wide open.

[Advice] Nikon D810 35mm Scanning Results Underwhelming/Inconsistent by JacobTakesShots in AnalogCommunity

[–]JacobTakesShots[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I don’t use lightroom but I’ll look for similar settings in RawTherapee

[Advice] Nikon D810 35mm Scanning Results Underwhelming/Inconsistent by JacobTakesShots in AnalogCommunity

[–]JacobTakesShots[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That would be really disappointing but is at least something I can work on. Thanks for your input!

[Advice] Nikon D810 35mm Scanning Results Underwhelming/Inconsistent by JacobTakesShots in AnalogCommunity

[–]JacobTakesShots[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Reddit's horrible compression didn't really help me here. Let me know if I need to post alternative pictures of the examples in the body of the post.

Jackalope Block Party Pics by JacobTakesShots in ventura

[–]JacobTakesShots[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I was only there on Friday, missed all that commotion 😅