Pentax’s New Film Duplicator Makes Digitizing Large Format Film a Breeze
If you have a bunch of 35mm, 120, and even large format negatives lying around in your attic, slowly succumbing to the ravages of time, Ricoh has a solution for you. It’s their newest “film duplicator,” and it’ll let you digitize all that film using your DSLR or digital medium format camera.
The Film Duplicator 4×5 works by lining up your DSLR, a macro lens, and a dedicated flash unit with a bellows, 2 sheets of anti-glare glass, and a film holder that can hold two sheets of 4×5 film next to each other.
Just line up the film, set your focus, and snap the photo; voila: digital file.
If you’re trying to squeeze every ounce of resolution out of those beautiful large format photos you’ve captured, this isn’t your solution. A drum scanner is going to beat the Film Duplicator every time. But what the duplicator loses in resolution it makes up for in speed.
Digitizing two 4×5 sheets in a single photograph means getting through a big archive in hours instead of days.
No price has been announced for this niche accessory just yet, but expect the Film Duplicator to run close to $1,250, since the original one (which maxes out with 120 film) costs £800, or about $1,175 USD. Find out more about this curious gadget here.
Image credits: Untitled by Patrick Merritt.