Camera Body

Just about any semi-modern, interchangeable-lens digital camera will work great for camera scanning. There are many mirrorless or DSLR options to choose from with large lens catalogs, tethered capture capability, and excellent image quality. Some high end cameras can even use pixel stitching to deliver extremely high levels of resolution.

Macro Lens

For camera scanning, the one real requirement is that your lens focuses close enough to capture the entire frame. For full frame cameras and capturing 35mm film, the term “1:1” designates a lens that will reproduce the 35mm frame exactly onto the full frame digital sensor. With crop-sensor bodies, 1:1 lenses focus even closer. Outside of reproduction factor (1:1), also look out for lenses that are sharp, have good color reproduction, limit internal reflections (modern coatings), and have very little vignetting. Finally, it’s generally best to use your macro lens stopped down 2-3 stops from wide open, as this gives a good combination of depth of field and sharpness.

Software for Negative Conversion

There are a few plugins and standalone programs for converting captured negatives into positive images. Some older and some newer, all of them try to harness the color science based in darkroom paper to various degrees. After all, even a professional lab scanner is essentially a digital camera and a light source. Most of the options presented here allow you to download a demo version to try before you buy and determine which one best suits your workflow.