paleonet Another digital camera use

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All,
If you are like me, you have hundreds of slides and old black and white
negatives laying around, just waiting for that day when you decide to
take them to the photo shop and have them converted to digital images.  

.......wait no longer.

In the firm belief that most people haven't already heard of this or
figured it out for themselves, I wanted to share a nifty new (to me at
least) idea for copying color slides and black / white negatives.

I have found that I can make digital images of a slide or B/W negative
(color negatives aren't quite as easy)... I'm using a Sony Mavica FD-88
camera and hand-holding the slide/negative in front of a light source
(sunlight reflecting off a light colored surface works nicely for color
balance).

The camera is able to focus on the film image surprisingly well. I'm
sure that if you devised a way to firmly mount both the camera and the
negative, you could achieve even better quality.. I'm still learning,
including how to mount B/W negatives so they don't curl.

Anyway, I've posted some of the results on the net:

A black and white image (1982) of the Xiphactinus audax 'Fish in a Fish'
specimen at the old Sternberg Museum in Hays, KS.  The 35mm negative was
poorly developed at K-Mart and is pretty low contrast. The "Negative
Image" function in Paint Shop Pro converts it to a positive.

< http://www.oceansofkansas.com/images2/test1.jpg >

Next, a 35mm color slide of Castle Rock (in Kansas) from about 1985:

< http://www.oceansofkansas.com/images2/test2.jpg >

Finally, a 35 mm color negative of a mosasaur front limb (1979) in the
Smoky Hill Chalk... I have not yet figured out how to convert the color
negative to true color but the amount of detail is surprising.
   
< http://www.oceansofkansas.com/images2/test3.jpg >

Give it a try.... there's lots of room for improvement... It is a great,
low-cost way of converting old images to digital.

Best wishes for the holidays from Oceans of Kansas Paleontology,

Mike Everhart
Adjunct Curator of Paleontology
Sternberg Museum of Natural History
Fort Hay State University, Hays, KS