Scanning film is great for archival purposes as well as sharing said photos digitally. However, if you’re scanning 120 film, aka medium format, it can be expensive to get the requisite hardware. 35mm scanners are comparatively more common, so [Christian Chapman] decided to modify one to suit medium film instead.
The hack is for the Plustek 8100, and requires modifying the scanner in two ways. Firstly, the driver has to be scanned to sweep a longer range to take into account the bigger film. Secondly, a part of the film carriage has to be replaced so it doesn’t show up in the scanners field of view.
The former is achieved by using the sane-genesys scanner software backend, which can be easily modified to adjust the scan length values appropriately. The latter is achieved via 3D printing replacement components that fit without blocking the requisite area.
It’s a tidy hack and one that allows [Christian] to both scan medium format film as well as overscan 35mm film to capture details from the sprocket hole area. We’ve seen fully custom film scanner builds before, too. If you’ve built your own scanner, be sure to drop us a line!
For stuff like this 3D printers do magic. Great hack!
wish I had seen this before I dropped USD$50 on an old 120-format scanner that may or may not be Linux compatible…
It might be easier to just rig up a high quality digital camera facing an enlarger head or light box, with high quality zoomable lens you should be able to cover from 8mm minox to 8×12 inch large format photo.
This setup lacks bit depth as the camera expects a higher contrast to sample
I was so quick to recommend an anti-backlash spring, but there it is.
I just use a flatbed scanner. Scan any size you want.