Rigged for Success: The Art and Science of Assembling Your Scanning Rig

Vertical and horizontal setups refer to the orientation of your scanning rig when digitizing film.

• Vertical Setup: In this arrangement, the camera is mounted facing downward with the film positioned beneath it, usually on a light source. This setup has the advantage of gravity assisting you to keep the film holder in place. However, it's essential to ensure that your camera and film plane are parallel to avoid focus discrepancies across the frame.

• Horizontal Setup: In a horizontal setup, the camera faces the film that is positioned upright, typically against a light source. This arrangement might be easier to operate as it resembles regular photography. However, maintaining perfect alignment of the film can be slightly more challenging since there's no natural vector against which to verify the alignment of the film and camera.

In both scenarios, aligning the film and the camera sensor is crucial to ensure sharp and well-focused digitization. The choice between a vertical and horizontal setup largely depends on personal preference, space constraints, and the equipment you have at hand.

The quality of light source significantly impacts the final image quality. A LED light panel or other light source with a high CRI (Color Rendering Index) and a high frequency to avoid flickering is preferred. It should provide diffused, uniform light with adjustable level of blue (420 nm) component.

For Vertical setup, a sturdy copy stand is ideal for camera support. It should keep the camera steady and lens' optical axes aligned perpendicularly to the original  film plane.

For Horizontal setup, the long sturdy CNC machined rail is used to align camera and film holder. Macro focusing rail is typically employed to fine tune the focus. Lens coral is recommended to better balance the camera agains support.

Precise alignment is vital for sharp, distortion-free images. While bubble levels can offer a general guide, for more accuracy, you might consider using a mirror trick or a focusing target to fine-tune the alignment. More on that read here.

Absolutely, the stability and precision of alignment in your rig can significantly impact image quality. Any vibrations can result in blurry images, and misalignment can introduce uneven focus or distortion.

Pre-assembled scanning rigs are available, but many photographers prefer to assemble their own to customize the setup according to their specific needs and budget. Besides folks use different camera with different mounts and different lenses with different focal lengths,  so one-size-fit-all setup is not possible.

The basic setup remains consistent for both slides and negatives. However, different film formats might necessitate specific film holders. When scanning slides, you should take into account the variations in slide mount thickness. If the slide is held in place by flat springs during scanning, extra care should be taken to ensure that the additional force used when extracting the slide does not disturb the rig. 

Using a robust support system and a remote shutter release or your camera's self-timer feature can help minimize vibrations. Note that while an electronic shutter can reduce vibrations, it can make camera susceptible to flicker from some LED light sources.

While flatbed scanners can digitize film, they're not typically part of a camera scanning rig. However, some photographers repurpose a scanner's film holder for their camera scanning setup, adding a glass cover for extra stability and to keep dust out.