Posted: 2010-05-20 19:28:09 UTC+02, Updated 2010-05-22 00:32:25 UTC+02.

The first problem is to mount the filmstrip in a plane perpendicular to the lens at the right distance. Film strips has a tendency to bend so they must be pressed flat give a sharp image. The film must be kept at a fixed distance perpendicular to the lens.

Nikon has a slide copier extension tube, ES-1, designed for mounted slides, but it does not hold unmounted film. Wayne Fulton at Scantips wrote about scanning slides with the Nikon ES-1 extension, but he does not cover how to copy film strips. The slide holder has two metal clamps to hold the slide in place and leaves suficent room to insert other filters, like Cokin skylight filters (P230). So, the film strip can be placed between two filters and then placed in the slide holder.

The ES-1 was designed for the Nikon 55mm macro lens, but this is nolonger produced and today Nikon offers a 60mm macro lens with a 62mm filter diameter. To use the ES-1 slide holder a 62-52mm step-down ring is needed, such as Nikon BR-5, but I found one from Kenko much cheaper.

To compensate for the orange mask, colour temperature conversion gels are needed. These are available with different grades of conversion that can be combined. I found some Bogen gels, FP214, these comes in sheets of 12"x12" so there si plenty to cut up and attach to the slide adapter.

So my equipment list is:

• Nikon FX body
• Nikon 60mm 2.8D macro
• Kenko 62-52 step-down ring
• Nikon ES-1 slide adapter
• 2 Cokin P230 skylight filters
• Bogen FP214 conversion gel filters

Discarding the price of the camerabody and lens, the above setup totalled 10 EUR for the step down ring and 93,19 USD + shipping 56,25 USD for the rest: 126,13 EUR.

If you do not have an FX body or a 60mm macro, not all hope is lost, with a DX body or a different macro lens you need some extension tube to get the film strip a the right distance, but otherwise it's the same. The lenght of the tube depends on your setup.