General Brand Digital Slide Duplicator

Comments about General Brand Digital Slide Duplicator:

Not the best quality piece of plastic, but does the job with 55mm lens. Faster then scanning the slides for me at the moment.

Comments about General Brand Digital Slide Duplicator:

I have not put a lot of slides through it as of yet but I am disappointed with how every time I put slides into the holder the end tube falls off. It snaps into place instead of screwing and falls off with not much of a touch on the slide bracket. Mine will not screw onto a macro lens without the included close up lens attached as some other reviewers have stated. I do not feel this item is worth the price. Why could they not put threads on the end tube that would keep it on the unit and allow direct threading onto a good macro lens? This would be a useful tool if they put that much more quality into it.

Comments about General Brand Digital Slide Duplicator:

Still working with duplicator to see if there is some way to get acceptable results. Started by using my Pentax 50-200 lens which gives an approx. 1:1 image at about 60mm. Problem is the edges are out of focus even at high f:stops. Will try my 18-55 lens to see if I get better results with a smaller image, and then adust size during the photo editing process. Stay tuned!

Comments about General Brand Digital Slide Duplicator:

A number of years ago I purchased a high end scanner to transition my beloved slide images into the digital age. It was slow, had an incomprehensible manual and confounded my best intentions. Recently I took a chance and purchased this comparatively primitive short cut solution. Although it initially disappointed me and arrived sans instructions, with practice my skills at using it have improved to the point that I relish venturing back into my archives. I attach the duplicator to my Canon EOS 5D Mark II using an EF 100 mm macro lens and set the rig up facing my old slide light box. By tinkering with white balance and closing down the aperture to deal with depth of field challenges from any buckling of the slides reasonable images CAN be produced. As a fine art photographer I was surprised by the intriguing results. Rather than producing consistently sharp color balanced results, this tool has a potential for transforming old images into an altogether new creative medium...in the manner of lensbabies or lomography. With a sense of play and knowing one's in camera capabilities it's become an enjoyable means to expand one's creative vision.

Comments about General Brand Digital Slide Duplicator:

a bit pricy for what you get IMO. 3 slide tray is difficult to use, does not move smoothly.

Comments about General Brand Digital Slide Duplicator:

must use a zoom with 50mm. and a steping ring adapter according with te lens filter screw.
Process is very fast, all other is editing.
Does not include support for negatives.

Comments about General Brand Digital Slide Duplicator:

Based on other reviews on the B&H website, I suggested, and was given, the slide duplicator as a birthday gift. With vacationing and other higher priority life activities, it was a number of weeks before I sat down and ernestly began my slide duplicating project.The camera I used with the duplicator was my Nikon D80 (mounted on a tripod) with a Nikkor AF 50mm 1:1.4D lens. Its 52mm thread mount is directly compatible with the duplicator.I followed to the letter the instructions that were included with the duplicator. Unfortunately, no matter what I did, the results were extremely disappointing, as nothing was acceptably in focus. I made numerous attempts, both in auto and manual focus modes. It just didn't work, and there are no adjustments in that regard to be made on the duplicator itself. (As a side note, I am very technologically inclined and literate. [...]

Comments about General Brand Digital Slide Duplicator:

Satisfied for the price. I got this because my scanner is very slow. This is much quicker, but gives barely acceptable performance with the included magnifier (required except with macro lenses). Copy I got was labeled "Bower" but looks just like picture. Comments below on performance with Nikon lenses I tried with D200, all tested at f/8.

60 f/2.8 AF-D Micro NO MAGNIFIER just covers slide, slide covers perhaps 90% of DX sensor, gives good results - just unthread the included magnifier - 52mm thread on open tube fits 62-52 step-down.

WITH INCLUDED MAGNIFIER - required for non-macros - and appropriate step-down rings if needed to maintain alignment- 4 x 6 prints will be fair at best in center, awful at corners, with strong blue-red fringes and very poor corner resolution. Rated if printed 4x6 - larger is hopeless.
18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-S at 55 mm - best of all magnifier tests, best corner resolution, but poor compared to micro with no magnifier, strong edge fringes. Just covers slide. This lens rotates with focus, so slide holder may need to be rotated slightly with each photo.
50mm f/1.4 AF-S - acceptable 4x6 prints at center, but edges are worse than 18-55 - fuzzy with strong blue/red fringes. Uses perhaps 60% of sensor area.
60 f/2.8 AF-D Micro - Worse at edges than 50 1.4, uses about 80% of sensor area.
18-70 f/3.5-4.5 AF-S Worst performance of all, not recommended. Horrible pincushion distortion at 56mm to cover about 75% of sensor area, details unrecognizable at corners, even fringing is fuzzy. At 25mm to eliminate distortion, uses about 15% of sensor area, poor sharpness across entire frame because of low resolution.

Comments about General Brand Digital Slide Duplicator:

simply screw this on to a 50mm fixed and you are ready to go

Comments about General Brand Digital Slide Duplicator:

I'm a professional photographer with a lot of old 35mm slides. This is an inexpensive and easy way to digitize slides. I use with a Nikon D300 and it is simple and straightforward to use.

Comments about General Brand Digital Slide Duplicator:

The center of the slides were in sharp focus BUT...there was very poor edge definition. Edges were out of focus regardless of focusing method or aperture used.

I suggest that users unscrew the lens and attach it to a good macro lens for some very good closeups.

Comments about General Brand Digital Slide Duplicator:

I mounted this on the front of my 20D with 50mm lens, put a remote shutter release on the camera, mounted it on a tripod in the kitchen. I put a lamp on the counter and aimed the camera at the lamp. Put a slide in one side and slide it in front of the lens. Snap the shutter. Put a slide in the other side and slide it back. snap the lens. I did over a hundred slides in a matter of a couple of hours. That was with slideing the lamp closer or farther to get the light right in the slides. By watching the picture review on the lcd display of the camera I could tell if it needed more light or less. It is SO much easier and faster than scanning, with better light control for exposure. I love it.

Comments about General Brand Digital Slide Duplicator:

Great way to get those slides into digital format for editing.Need to use 60mm or 85mm lens to do copying or you will need to crop later in editing.

Comments about General Brand Digital Slide Duplicator:

This product is all it proposes. For people that have to digitalize large amounts of slides there is no more need to have an expensive scanner and wait, wait, wait for the scanning process. Just screw the duplicator at a 52mm filter thread at your digital camera and go putting slides and clicking. Resolution depends only on your camera. No need for special lighting, as camera has all modes of white balance. You can do it freehand, but is faster and you get best results with a tripod. Saved me an incredible amount of time.

Comments about General Brand Digital Slide Duplicator:

Saves tons of time as compared to a Slide scanner