Skier Pro System CS700 Foldable Copy Stand

Transparency Copy Table Using Skier SC-700 Copy Stand for Camera Support and Alignment

I have years worth of slides and negatives - even some of my father's from before I was born. For more than 30 years I did all of my own Black and White processing. Almost all of those negatives are still pristine. I've been taking digital photographs since 2007. I have little desire to go back to "analog" photography, but I have a granddaughter who does. My granddaughter processes her own black and white and color negatives, but needs a negative scanner to print her pictures. I have been making digital copies of my own Black and White negatives and color slides for about a dozen years. My original setup was pretty crude, but I got good results. In 2025 I decided it was time to update my setup. I needed a strong, stiff camera support and chose the Skier CS700 Foldable Copy Stand. I removed the feet and bolted the support bar to a low wooden copy table I designed. The wooden base is about 2 1/2 inches tall and contains a 5X7 Kodak Light Box. The surface of the light box is about 1 inch below the top deck of the table, so the transparencies being copied do not touch the light box and the surface of the box is outside of the depth of field for the lens. I use 6 rechargeable AA batteries in the light box to avoid messy wiring. I've found that lithium batteries last longer and are somewhat brighter than NiCad batteries. I sit the copy table on a coffee table when I use it. I'm using a Sony Alpha 65 camera with a Minolta 100mm f2.8 Autofocus Macro Lens The telescoping Skier "Mast" is adjustable enough for me to fill the Sony APS-C Sensor with a 35mm Negative (or Slide) and 120 or 620 Negatives. I can slightly zoom into 35mm negatives and significantly zoom into 120 negatives. I shoot camara Raws (Sony .Arws) and do all of my processing with basic Photoshop tools. I DO NOT USE LIGHTROOM! My final screenshots and prints (color or black and white) are far better than the pictures I used to get from photo processors. The Minolta Macro Lens is completely free of chromatic aberrations. My digital copies of 35mm, 127, and 620 negatives are 4000 X 6000 dpi. My 120 Copies are 4000 X 4000 dpi, but I have made 6000 X 6000 copies by blending two exposures. Not knowing their real names, I gave the Skier parts and the table parts nautical names (see the photographs). One of my requirements for a camera support is to have no structural parts made of plastic - especially 3-D printed plastic. I do use 3-D plastic negative carriers and slide carriers. for 35mm negatives I use a negative carrier from an old flatbed scanner. I may use some more sophisticated negative carriers in the future. The CS-700 Copy Stand is not inexpensive, but the price is comparable to other Stands that appear to be able to handle the weight of similar cameras. I am not using all of the parts that came with the stand. If I had a spare support bar, I could keep it in the nice case that came with the stand, and remove the "mast" to use the Stand away from home. I would like to have spares of some of the smaller parts. The Mast is plenty strong, but a slightly springy with the camera and the large macro lens up high. I use autofocus - especially with color negatives. I set the camera timer to ten seconds and easily damp any vibration before the shutter opens. When I adjust the height of the Mast, the camera has a tendency to rotate about the mast. I have to be careful to verify that the camera stays pointed at the center of the Light Well. It doesn't have to be perfectly pointed. Normally I only have to adjust the camera height at the beginning of session unless I see a need to zoom into a negative, or switch between negative sizes. I also made a second copy table incorporating a CS-700 Copy Stand for my granddaughter who is working on an advanced degree in Art History. As well as processing her own photographs, she will probably have to make prints from the school's archival negatives. As you can see, I have already purchased two CS-700 Copy Stands.