field notes

Scanning 35mm negatives with a mirrorless camera

September 14, 2026

A macro lens, a cheap light panel and a film holder get you surprisingly close to a dedicated scanner. Keep the light panel bright, the aperture around f/8, and turn off everything clever in the camera.

Inverting colour negatives is the fiddly part; doing it on the linear raw file instead of a JPEG saves a lot of pain with orange masks.