topic Re: Can you invert negitive film in camera with settings using D5 Mark IV? in EOS DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

Can you invert negitive film in camera with settings using D5 Mark IV?

wkwells4072 — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 00:35:52 GMT

I have a lot of B & W negitives and want to digitize them using my EOS D5 Mark IV.

Can I preview the negitive image with my camera by inverting the image to positive.

So two main questions......

Is there an invert or negitive setting in camera?

Can I preview the image in the ESO Utility as a positive?

Thank you for any info or help.

Re: Can you invert negitive film in camera with settings using D5 Mark IV?

Waddizzle — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 01:08:06 GMT

@wkwells4072 wrote:
I have a lot of B & W negitives and want to digitize them using my EOS D5 Mark IV.

Can I preview the negitive image with my camera by inverting the image to positive.

So two main questions......
Is there an invert or negitive setting in camera?
Can I preview the image in the ESO Utility as a positive?

Thank you for any info or help.

Photoshop, or some other image editing software can do it. Camera’s are designed to create image files, not so much to edit them.

Re: Can you invert negitive film in camera with settings using D5 Mark IV?

wkwells4072 — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 01:21:38 GMT

Thanks for the reply.

I don't want to edit the negitive film images but want to preview the positive image before I snap the picture.

Before I bought my camera I researched this topic. It's been a while but I seem to remember seeing a loadable preset that would invert negitive images just like presets inside some cell phone camera's.

Re: Can you invert negitive film in camera with settings using D5 Mark IV?

RobertTheFat — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 02:11:38 GMT

@wkwells4072 wrote:
Thanks for the reply.

I don't want to edit the negitive film images but want to preview the positive image before I snap the picture.

Before I bought my camera I researched this topic. It's been a while but I seem to remember seeing a loadable preset that would invert negitive images just like presets inside some cell phone camera's.

You seem to be suggesting that you're planning to photograph the negative with your 5D4 as a way of digitizing it. I don't pretend to be an expert in such things, but that doesn't sound like the best way to do it. I believe the customary method is to digitize the negative using a high-resolution flatbed scanner, then reverse it with a photo editor.

Re: Can you invert negitive film in camera with settings using D5 Mark IV?

wkwells4072 — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 03:27:54 GMT

Yes that's what I'm doing.

It's a long process but from everything I've read using the DSLR with my macro lens give better results.

I'm going through about a thousand 35mm slides like this right now. Over half way done photographing them into jpeg and raw files. It's been a fun process so far. Lol

With the negitives... I'm missing some developed photos. These are B&W negatives.

I would like to see them in a preview of the positive side so I can figure which ones I need to snap a pic of.

Re: Can you invert negitive film in camera with settings using D5 Mark IV?

kvbarkley — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 14:01:43 GMT

The answer is no, there is no way to see th positive in the camera.

Re: Can you invert negitive film in camera with settings using D5 Mark IV?

ebiggs1 — Tue, 03 Oct 2017 14:40:25 GMT

"The answer is no, there is no way to see th positive in the camera."

The answer is a scanner. Some are pretty inexpensive and some are darn expensive. However, a person that buys a 5D Mk IV is not scared off by a few thousand dollars. My scanner scans 10 slides at a time. It scans color negatives and converts them correctly to color positives. It scans B&W negatives into PS where I do the conversion I want. It is the way to go.

Re: Can you invert negitive film in camera with settings using D5 Mark IV?

Tim — Thu, 21 Dec 2017 23:45:47 GMT

Hello wkwells4072,

As others have suggested, the EOS 5D Mark IV doesn't have a setting for which to invert a negative to a positive in camera.

There are plenty of adapters that you can use to capture 35mm positives and negatives with an SLR, as I'm sure you're aware, but these are primarily used to strictly provide the means for capture. For editing (to include color correction and inversion of negative to positive) you'd have to use a computer.

Re: Can you invert negitive film in camera with settings using D5 Mark IV?

ergas — Mon, 18 Jan 2021 14:32:00 GMT

I have the same wish. I have a lot of 35mm negatives. I would like to make quick preview with my Canon 80D. I already use my 80D with EF-S 60mm macro and Photo Magnifier to scan and convert my negatives to positives. But, I can't preview a picture until I convert it to positive in some software on my PC. I would like to make negative thumnbail-shoots and view them as positive straight in my camera. To decide which negative to scan and convert.

I suppose, it would be very easy for Canon to enable this feature by removing limitation in Picture Stlye Editor. It is very easy to create negative, by inverting a Tone Curve. A problem is, Picture style editor does not allow to create falling Tone curve. I can only make it flat, thus loosing a picuture.

It would be nice if Canon makes an upgrade to PSE 1.19.10.0 and enable us to invert Tone curve. It would be very nice and pretty exclusive feature of Canon cameras. To crate custom "Negative" picture style. Shooting positive thumbnails of 35mm negative film. Preview positive directly in camera, by applying custom picutre style. Great feature with one, I suppose simple, Picture Style Editor upgrade.

Re: Can you invert negitive film in camera with settings using D5 Mark IV?

kvbarkley — Mon, 18 Jan 2021 15:32:29 GMT

Since you are referring to a topic from 4 years ago, you can see that there is not much call for this feature.

Re: Can you invert negitive film in camera with settings using D5 Mark IV?

ergas — Mon, 18 Jan 2021 15:48:32 GMT

That's because the answer was very clear by @Waddizzle: "Camera’s are designed to create image files, not so much to edit them."

But, there is no need to build such feature it into a camera. Custom picutre style can do a trick. But only after removing limitation from Picture Style editor.

Re: Can you invert negitive film in camera with settings using D5 Mark IV?

ebiggs1 — Mon, 18 Jan 2021 15:52:37 GMT

"I would like to make quick preview with my Canon 80D."

The problem here is you people are trying to use the wrong equipment to do a very simple operation. Get a scanner. Some do 10 or 12 negs or slides at a time. Usually less slide as they are bigger. You can pick and choose which photo(s) you want.

Re: Can you invert negitive film in camera with settings using D5 Mark IV?

ergas — Mon, 18 Jan 2021 17:16:43 GMT

Why using a scanner? It is not free. I have a photo magnifier from a 35mm film era, I had a photo lab for B&W photography at that time. Scanner is not free, and form me a photo magnifier is free.

To use a photo magnifier for scanning negatives, it is necessary to remove an objective, so a camera is focusing on a backlighted film. Behind a film is a condensing lense for even light distribution. It works great, and is kinda having digital photo lab. After remote-photographing a negative from EOS Utility, I convert it to negative and adjust RGB levels to get real colours (for colour negative). It's so much like working in a photo lab, only without chemistry. Great feeling.

Why do I like to have a "Negative" custom style in Picture Style Editor? Because, at 35mm era, it was usual to make contact copies and develop them to check photos before magnification. For this part of a process I would like to use my digital EOS.

The only thing that makes it impossible is a limitation in Picture Style Editor to invert a Tone curve. One simple SW upgrade will fix it, and ALL Canon digital DSLRs would be able to produce positive view of 35mm negatives.

Wouldn't it be a great feature? Advantage for Canon?

Re: Can you invert negitive film in camera with settings using D5 Mark IV?

kvbarkley — Mon, 18 Jan 2021 17:23:35 GMT

You would probably have better luck getting Magic Lantern to support it.

Re: Can you invert negitive film in camera with settings using D5 Mark IV?

ebiggs1 — Mon, 18 Jan 2021 17:53:34 GMT

"Wouldn't it be a great feature? Advantage for Canon?"

Not to rain on your parade but in my 60 years of photogrpahy I have never wanted or seen a need for it. In those same decades I have never had anyone express a desire for that feature. I suspect Canon takes that in to account to what features they put in cameras.

I still think you are trying to use the wrong gear for the task at hand. Do you happen to have a printer? Most now days have a scanner built in. That is not the best way (best scanner I mean) but if you already have a printer it if is free to use also. Another point is I think you will get quicker results than asking and/or waiting for Canon to make it a feature in their cameras.