Scan a Roll of 35mm Film Automatically with This DIY Rig

Seckin Sinan Isik made his scanner using an Arduino Nano and Python-based computer vision.

Jeremy Cook
4 years agoPhotos & Video
The open source automatic film scanner. (📷: Seckin Sinan Isik)

While “snapping a picture” today largely means pulling out your phone, or perhaps a dedicated digital camera, at one time physical film was the only method available. Some still take photos with film for various reasons, and between historical documents and modern art, there’s a need to digitize the resulting negatives.

Using a flatbed scanner for the process works, but takes a long time, as does setting up a digital camera on a tripod with a film carrier and adjusting it to fit the frame. To help solve this problem, photographer turned hardware hacker Seckin Sinan Isik decided to automate the process.

What he came up with uses an Arduino Nano and stepper motor to position film on a carrier, augmenting the adjustment shaft that’s normally turned with a manual knob with a stepper motor. A timing belt links the two, and in manual mode the user presses buttons to advance and retract the film as needed. A USB video capture card is employed to tell if the film is in alignment on a computer screen, and images are captured with a shutter release button on the breadboard controller setup.

The setup can also utilize a Python-based computer vision routine to process the video capture output. With this implemented, it can move the film, and capture the proper negative image when in position automatically. The downside here is that the process is somewhat slower, but you could theoretically work on other tasks while it's cranking away.

Finally, if you don’t have a film carrier handy, Isik has come up with a cardboard version, and maybe something could even be 3D-printed if you have the ability! Code is available on GitHub, and more info can be found in Isik's blog post.

Jeremy Cook
Engineer, maker of random contraptions, love learning about tech. Write for various publications, including Hackster!
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