Kaiser FilmCopy Vario Kit

If, like me, you shot extensively on film before digital cameras ever appeared, then you'll have a collection of valued slides and negatives that you'd like to be able to archive in digital form. With dedicated film scanners becoming increasingly difficult to find, particularly those that can handle medium-format film, it's tempting to look for alternative ways of doing this. One relatively low-tech option is simply to photograph your slides and negatives on a lightbox using a macro lens.

This approach turns out to have some real advantages. For example, scanners can struggle with reproducing shadow detail from slide films that have very deep blacks, perhaps most notoriously Fujichrome Velvia, which was long a firm favourite of serious