Ease of Sharing  and Access: Digitizing film allows you to store and access your images on various digital devices, making it easier to share with friends and family or integrate into digital projects.

Creative Control: Digital copies enable you to utilize photo editing software to enhance or modify the images, adjusting color, contrast, and applying various effects, something more challenging with physical film.

Integration into Modern Technology: Many contemporary devices and services are oriented towards digital media. Digitizing your film collection allows you to print copies, create online galleries, or use the images in digital presentations and social media, seamlessly integrating your treasured memories into today's technology-driven world.

Preservation of Quality: Film negatives and slides require specific conditions to prevent deterioration. Optimal temperature is around 68°F (20°C), relative humidity of 30-40%, and the air should be dust and chemicals free. Every time the film is extracted from a climate-controlled storage, there's a chance that humidity will set in, causing potential damage. Digitizing them ensures that the images are preserved in their original quality, eliminating the risks associated with maintaining these demanding storage conditions.

Space Saving: Film negatives and slides require significant physical storage space, climate-controlled atmosphere and meticulous organization. Converting them to digital format allows you to store thousands of images on a single hard drive or cloud service, thereby decluttering your workspace. The originals may be stored off-site. 

The slides (aka transparencies) are much more easier to digitize than negatives. When you capture slide image with a camera, you can see the result immediately and can make easy adjustments. When digitizing negatives, it takes from couple minutes to hours before you see the resulting image which should go through so called inversion process with photo editing software. Start your journey with digitizing slides - it will help you understand the process and tools better. See Scanning Slides  page. 

Your old film photos are precious memories trapped on a fragile medium. Digitizing them not only protects them from the ravages of time, but also allows you to share and enjoy them in a new way.

To start, you need a digital camera with a good macro lens, a film holder, and a light source. As you get more invested, you might consider a dedicated camera scanning rig. More details can be found below in "What equipment do I need to start digitizing? Can you itemize?" section. 

Absolutely! With some patience and the right equipment, you can turn your home into your own personal scanning lab. You will also save lot of money compared to lab scans. You can have you photographs digitized and shared with the world in a matter of couple minutes once your film is completely dry after processing.

Generally, yes. The same process applies to both. The well exposed color slides are easiest to deal with, black and white negatives are relatively easy to process as well, color negative film is the most complex to process unless you use specialized software like Negative Lab Pro or similar.  

It depends on your setup and the level of quality you're aiming for. Initially, expect to spend 3-5 minutes per image. As you get the hang of it, you'll get much faster. 

To start, you need a digital camera with a good macro lens, a film holder, and a light source. As you get more invested, you might consider a dedicated camera scanning rig. Here is some details: 

1. Digital Camera: 24 MP or better DSLR or mirrorless camera is key for capturing pretty much every bit of useful info on the the 35 mm film negatives or slides. Both APS-C and full frame cameras will do.

2. True Macro Lens: A true macro lens, one that provides a 1:1 magnification ratio, is crucial for focusing closely enough to fill the frame with a 35mm film frame. This kind of lens allows you to capture the most detail from your film. See Recommended lenses 

3. Light Source: You will need a uniform, bright light source to backlight your film negatives or slides. LED light panels, often used in art tracing or medical imaging, can serve this purpose well.

4. Film Holder and Copy Stand: A setup to hold your film flat and steady is necessary. A film holder or carrier will keep the film flat, while a copy stand can hold your camera at the correct distance and angle, ensuring consistent framing and focus. See Film Holders for Camera Scanning  

5. Test Target: A test target, such as a resolution chart or a focus target, is not strictly necessary but highly recommended. It can help you align your setup and check for focus and sharpness, ensuring you get the best possible results. See How-to use Vlads Test Targets 

6. Software: Lastly, you'll need software to process the images you've captured. This includes inverting the negatives into positives and color correction for color negatives. There are several free software options available for this purpose. GIMP, a free and open-source image editor, has the capability to invert colors, as well as RawTherape or DigiKam . See Software tools: Celluloid to Digital 

This is a fundamental setup and should get you started with camera digitizing. As you progress and determine your specific needs and desired results, you may choose to upgrade or add to your equipment.

The key to maintaining quality is proper alignment, even lighting, and sharp focus. Good software helps, but being skilled in basic image correction  helps a lot. 

Yes, clean and carefully prepare your film to get the best possible scans. Use a soft brush or air blower to remove dust. Wear thin knitted cotton gloves. Handle your film by the edges to avoid fingerprints. It’s far easier to remove dust physically now than digitally later on! Use PEC12 and lint-free paper pads to remove fresh fingerprints or smudges. Never use any water-based cleaning solutions on film. Small scratches on base (shiny) side may be "healed" with nose grease (nasal sebum)  - but be really careful with that. 

Store your digital images on a hard drive, and consider cloud storage for an extra layer of protection. Professionals go with 2+1 rule: two copies on premises, one copy off premises. Decide in advance if you are going to store the initial scans or keep the  processed and cleaned-up files only. 16 bit TIFF with LZW will make it easy to re-edit file if needed. Don't forget to organize images in a way that makes a good sense to you! There are certain books around  (like https://thedambook.com/ )  solely devoted to proper image organization.

The actual resolution (size in pixel) will be set once camera trigger is pressed. The aim of all subsequent steps is to avoid deterioration of image quality. Generally speaking, use a good lens, ensure your film is flat during scanning, and digitize at the highest resolution your camera can handle. Post-processing software can further enhance the perception of the images, but not the resolution. 

It's all about careful editing. Don't overdo it. Aim to preserve the original contrast, colors, and grain. The goal is to emulate the film, not erase it. Play with different film simulation modes in software (say in Nik plugins) to learn what makes "film look".  But keep in mind that "film look" may mean different things to different people. You will need decide for yourself what look you want. Typically film grain and subtle tonal ranges in highlights are hallmarks of film.