Scanning Negatives and Tintypes with a 60 Megapixel Leica M11 and comparing it with high-end scans

8/29/2024 ISO 1200 Magazine 0 Comments

I love to scan with my Screen Cezanne scanner (click here for my review), but it takes forever to boot it up and to start a scan. And when I need to scan 35mm film, I have to do a lot of work to scan 36 frames. This is where my new scanning setup comes in handy. I used the Agfa Duoscan (click here for the review) for slides that is also easier to use, but lacks quality compared to my new setup with my Leica M11.

The Canon EOS 100mm Macro lens looks in combination with the K&F concept adapter looks crazy big on the tiny Leica M11. But it was the cheapest solution for scanning negatives in my case

My Leica M11 scanning setup with the Valoi 360 Advancer and my iPad with the Leica Fotos App

Scanning negatives from a Leica M2 with an M11? Thats the way to go if you are a Leica user 🙂

a street scene I shot with my Leica M2 and now digitised with my M11

When you watch the video and compare the images you will see, that the Screen scanner beats the digital camera easily, but at the cost of time. Otherwise the 60 megapixel “scans” of the digital camera are looking really great. I am sure these digital scans will be more than enough for 80% of my needs.

the left side shows the Screen Cezanne scan and on the right side the Leica M11 digital photo of the same negative. I could increase the resolution of the Screen scanner, but it didn’t make sense anymore for that scan.

In the video I go much more into the details of my setup and scanning. But there is one thing I forgot. If you want to use your Leica M11 tethered to your PC/Mac in combination with Lightroom, you need to turn off USB-C Charging on your Leica M11 to make this work. Otherwise you get funny errors.

This is my scanning setup for tintypes. For sure not the best setup you can imagine, but it is important for me to use the same setup I would use on the road. With the same equipment I have with me. If you have watched any of my videos (for example this one) where I travel with my Equipment, you will see there is no space left for any additional gear.

I use a 8mm Leica M to Leica M extension ring from K&F Concept to shoot closeups with my Leica Elmarit 90mm 2.8 of tintypes.

This is my typical on site setup to digitise tintypes, I normally lean my tintype on a drying rack. I don’t like to shoot directly from above, because any tiny little thing falling down can damage the plate. Thats why the camera is positioned in front of tintype. On the left you can see my Hensel light modifier with the diffusor on it. That makes the light softer and brings out more detail from the shiny tintype.

Also the “scans” of the tintypes look great. Much faster and portable 🙂 compared to my scanner.

But if you are all about the quality, the Screen Cezanne scanner is unbeatable.

Here you can see how the 150 megapixel scan of my Screen Cezanne scanner (on the left) compares to the 60 megapixel scan of the Leica M11.

I have done much bigger scans for my talks (like the one I did at the Ars Electronic Center) and prints with the Screen Cezanne. The biggest one so fare was one gigapixel and for sure I could do more, but that doesn’t make sense anymore for anything I would ever need. Honestly scans on the Screen Scanner cost a lot of time and are wearing of the light sources in the scanner which are no longer available right now. And thats the reason I want to “nurse” the scanner as much as possible.

In my video I explain everything in detail about my setup, cleaning my negatives and much more. You will find also links to all tools I used in the video description.

I am really happy to use the Leica M11 for digitising tintypes and film. It makes my life easier and more comfortable and still gives me great quality to work with. It would be interesting to know how you digits your film/plates. Do you use also digital cameras or do you prefer another method?

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About Markus Hofstaetter:

Professional photographer for wet plate, portrait, events and virtual tours. You can find more about my work on my website, my blog, on Facebook, on Instagram or on Youtube

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