How to Turn Your Old 35mm SLR into a New 21 Megapixel Digital SLR

If you have a 35mm film SLR camera laying around you may have some options that you have never considered.  What if I told you that you could take your old film camera and turn it into a 21 Megapixel Digital SLR for a fraction of the cost of a new DSLR? Well, as you may have guessed, that is exactly what I am going to discuss.  I have to say up front this article is not intended to spark any debate or comment about film vs. digital as this is a useless and silly debate.  There is no comparison between film and digital.  My intention is to give 35mm SLR owners some new options they may not have previously considered.  The latest technology is not always the solution to all things in life or business.

Current 35mm Digital SLR Market

Let’s first take a look at the current options in the DSLR arena before moving forward.  If you are a Nikon type of person then your only choice in the 20+ MP range is their top of the line D3X Digital Masterpiece.  This camera sells for about $8,000 and has 24.5 Megapixels.  You may be asking yourself, why focus in on the 20+ megapixel range?  If you read the full article this will make sense to you, but the short of it is that when 35mm film is scanned it is approximately equal to a 20 to 25 megapixel image.  If you like Canon equipment then you would need their flagship camera the EOS-1DS Mark III which retails for about $7,000 and has 21.1 Megapixels.  The Canon 5D Mark II packs the same number of pixels as the 1DS for about $2,500.  The Sony a900 has about 24.6 Megapixels.

Used 35mm Market

All you have to do is go on eBay or Craigslist and you will have your pick of 35mm film cameras, many less than $100.  Over the summer I bought a Nikon F100 that was like new for about $140 and recently a top of the line professional Nikon F5 in the $300 range.  The F5 sold new for thousands of dollars back in the late 90′s and early 2000′s as Nikon’s top professional camera.  Even if you own a Canon, Nikon or Sony DSLR, since you already have the lenses you may want to pick up a 35mm SLR and experiment with the techniques I discuss in this article.

Math and Pixels

In order to get at the heart of the matter “How to Turn Your 35mm SLR into a 21 Megapixel DSLR” we are going to have to do some math.  Since a 35mm SLR camera records on film, which is analog, we will need to digitize the image via a scanner.  A Digital SLR or DSLR bypasses this step and records the image in digital format natively.

Before discussing scanning we need to do the math first.  A piece of 35 mm film has an image area of 24mm x 36mm or .95 inches x 1.42 inches.  In order to calculate resolution or pixels we need to multiply our scan resolution by the size of our film.

Scanning in at 4000 dpi is very common for 35mm film and this is why I elected to go with this resolution.  If we simply multiply 4000 dpi by the .95 inches and 1.42 inches we get 3800 pixels by 5680 pixels for a total resolution of 21.6 Megapixels.

In effect you basically end up with the same image resolution with the 35mm film after scanning as you do with the current top of the line DSLR systems.  A lot of people, including photographers don’t realize that film actually holds much more information than an image created by their digital camera cousins.  When you start talking about detail, shadows, highlights and tonal range film is far superior in all of those categories.

Scanning

The topic of scanning film and slides can be very complex and borderline religious to some so my intent is to not go that deep here today.  You will basically need a modern scanner that can be purchased for less than $150 brand new from a variety of vendors.  I personally use the top of the line Epson V750 Pro scanner because I do a lot of large format work and need the abilities this scanner offers.

The Future & Advantages to Film

There are several advantages to shooting film for your photography over capturing with a digital sensor.  The biggest advantages that jump out at me come from the common sense department.  When you capture a digital image today you are forever locked into that technology.  As you may already know each vendor (e.g., Nikon, Canon, Sony, etc) has their own format for their cameras and this even varies between cameras.  When is the last time you played your favorite 8-track or cassette tapes?  Let me guess, you haven’t heard those words in the same sentence in years.  It is the same thing with digital photography.  Clearly you can take beautiful photographs with digital cameras, but there are some things to consider along the way.

When you photograph with film you have your original image that doesn’t need a specific computer or RAW converter to be able to view it or make a print.  As you may already know digital RAW files are really not the original image they are raw digital data that was recorded before it was recorded on the camera sensor.

Film is the ultimate backup and archival strategy.  There are no hard drive crashes to worry about.  If you photograph slides then you don’t even need a computer to view and enjoy your images.  Just hold them up to the light and enjoy them.  Slides/transparencies in my opinion are the single best medium for long-term usability and archiving.  Have you ever looked at a medium or large format slide on a light table?  If not, this is something that you really need to do in order to fully appreciate the differences I talk about between film and digital files.

With a digital file you can’t get more resolution down the road if you need it.  With film, you decide which resolution you want at the time of scanning it.  As scanning technology improves over time so will your options for digitizing your images.  Think of it this way.  Do you think the filmmakers back in the 20′s and 30′s knew anything about digital HD, 720P or 1080P?  No…. of course they didn’t.  They recorded their movies on film and because of that the next generation with their improved technology was able to scan in their film and use it with the current medium like DVD or BlueRay.  When most people compare film and digital they are actually comparing a scanned file of the film against the digital image.  If you look at the actual piece of film, the details are clearly superior over what is captured via digital cameras.

When you photograph with film correctly you have the option of getting more data out of it down the road.  With digital files captured with your DSLR your options are limited to that point in time.  Five, ten or even fifty years down the road you can scan in your negatives and slides with the latest and greatest scanning technology if that is what you choose to do.  With film you have the ultimate original source.

I recently read a statistic that less than 1% of all digital photographs taken ever get printed.

I have no idea of what the future holds in digital photography, but I am very clear on how film works.  If you want long-term access to your photographs and images then film is the medium of choice.  If you want superior quality then film is your choice.  If you are too lazy to learn the craft and skill required to photograph with film then there is always the next digital camera that your local retailer will gladly sell you again and again and again.

You can read more articles on large format photography by clicking here or on medium format here.

Tim Layton

© Tim Layton – All Rights Reserved – 2011. You may not republish or use any information or media of any format, in part or in whole, without my written permission. For permission and more information you can contact Tim Layton on the web at blog.timlaytonphotography.com or via email at tim@timlaytonphotography.com or via the telephone at 314-972-4900. Visit Tim’s portfolio online.