EOS magazine article: Slide copying

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2023-01-26 02:00:21

Do you have a large legacy of 35mm transparencies which never see the light of day? We look at using the Ohnar zoom slide duplicator for converting your transparencies into digital images.

Back in 2010 we created digital files from a series of old 35mm transparencies, held in our archive picture library. We tried two methods to convert the images; using a flatbed scanner and copying with an EOS camera. Here's our experience using an EOS 7D with the Ohnar zoom slide duplicator.

These duplicator units have been around for many years – originally introduced for copying slides to film. In the age of digital photography these units have taken on a new lease of life for creating digital files from slides and negatives.

The original Ohnar slide duplicator gave a 1:1 reproduction. This means that when used with a 35m camera it copies the entire 35mm slide. The next model had a zoom feature from 1x to 2x, useful when you want to select only part of the slide for copying onto film. With the introduction of APS-C size sensors the 1:1 reproduction is less useful, as APS-C is smaller than 35mm. Now the zoom range runs from 0.6x to 1.6x so that the 35mm slide can be reduced to fit the APS-C sensor using a 0.6x zoom.

Do you need a zoom for digital copying? Most of the time we copy the full area of a slide and crop if required. However if you know that you only want a selected part of the image, zooming in when you copy will make better use of your camera resolution.