Anyone using GFX cameras for film negative capture?

[badbluesman]

I am interested in testing the GFX-100 for film negative capture and was wondering if anyone else has been doing this. I have done an extensive amount of film capture with Sony A7r II and IV cameras, including one large museum exhibition from 1960s medium format B&W negatives. I have also captured many vintage Kodachrome and other slide films with the same cameras. Another camera that works very well for film negative capture is the Canon 50 MP 5Ds R, whose low pass filter can be disabled.

The number one issue I have always faced is megapixels and the paywall that the camera industry puts between us users and the megapixels we need. With a 42.5 MP camera you must shoot four to six overlapping captures, moving the film both horizontally and vertically, and then stitch them together in order to make files for large museum prints. Sometimes stitching the sections can be problematic. With a 61 MP camera, you can shoot three captures moving in just one direction, which eliminates most of the stitching distortion problems. With a 100 MP camera, you would be able to capture some negatives or slides in a single exposure. For greater enlargement, other negatives could be captured in three sections, moving the film in a single direction.

My methodology involves mounting the camera on a copy stand, aligning it carefully with bubble levels and test exposures at the widest aperture, to make sure the focal plane is perfectly parallel to the film. My lens of choice is the Canon 100 macro L version set at f/8. I use two different LED light panels, one for B&W and the other, a broad color spectrum model, for color. I had a machine shop build me a special stage of black anodized aluminum on which I can mount film negatives and then move them vertically and horizontally for multiple section captures. The stage elevates the film several inches above the LED light panels. I have both metal film carriers and glass for fluid mounting. Fluid mounting produces the best results but, of course, takes more time. Even with fluid mounting, multiple captures, processing and stitching, my method takes one quarter of the time required for a drum scan.

My tethered captures go into a Lightroom hot folder set with an action to automatically convert them to B&W and reverse them to positive images. I then make processing contrast decisions and export them as PSD files without any sharpening. The PSD exports are stitched together in photoshop and saved. The original RAW captures are then deleted.

One thing I would look for in testing the GFX-100 for film negative capture, is its optical sharpness compared with the Sony A7r IV, which does not have a low pass filter to counteract possible moire. The GFX-100 DOES have a low pass filter, so my concern is that it might diminish the optical sharpness of the capture. Has anyone out there tried film negative capture with the GFX cameras, yet?

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