MF slides

[Zou]

Is there such a thing as medium format slide projectors? I've never seen one or heard of one, but then I wasn't particularly looking. If not, are home viewing options limited to light box/loupe on the one hand and scanning/digital viewing on the other?

[beejaybee]

Is there such a thing as medium format slide projectors?

Yup. Somewhat rare beasts these days, but they do exist.

[Roger_Provins]

Here is one

[zx9]

Here is one

And showing in stock! I don't remember when I last saw one of them, didn't Hasselblad do one like a giant Kodak Carousel or have I made that one up?

[Damien_Demolder]

There used to be quite a few of them, but they were always very expensive. Now of course they are hard to find, and even expensive second hand.

If you want to buy one try Mr Cad. He's unlikely to be cheap, but he'll probably have one.

[Hwntws]

Robert White sell Gotschmann medium format projectors they start at around £2,000 for push - pull and around £4,000 for automatic. I'd love one of these for my 6x7 slides but I could never justify it to SWMBO. And besides, she has a marble rolling pin,
Regards
Ray

[nimbus]

For 6x6 and 645 transparencies, apart from the Rollei and Hasselblad models, which are or were costly, Kindermann and Liesegang used to produce more reasonably priced machines. These performed well, indeed I suspect that they were produced in the same factory, it may be possible to source a used model, they used standard eaasily obtainable lamps. There were also older single slide push-pull models which used to become worryingly hot.

The mounts for these are also now rather costly, the card type seem to have become unobtainable, the plastic type are still around. I have used both Hama and GEPE plastic mounts, I find the latter are very fiddly to use.

[Benchista]

The cheapest models recently on the market were the Kiev and Cabin models - but cheap is simply a relative term here.

Probably the cheapest option of all is possibly the Rollei accessory that turns a Rolleiflex into a projector. Even if you had to buy a Rolleiflex specifically for it.

[Zou]

Thanks for all the info. Lightbox and loupe it is then, until I can justify a top end scanner. My Epson 4490 is great with mono, but is quite disappointing with slides (which was to be expected given its limited dynamic range, but colour rendition also seems a bit off).

[Benchista]

Try shooting on colour neg. I've always found that Portra scans very nicely - admittedly on my obscenely expensive MF film scanner, but it should be OK with a decent flatbed - once you can get the colour sorted.

[Zou]

Colour neg works fine, the Epson can deliver decent results. Problem is, a part of me is addicted to transparencies...

[Benchista]

Yes, I know that one.

[Damien_Demolder]

Colour neg works fine, the Epson can deliver decent results. Problem is, a part of me is addicted to transparencies...

Yes, I know that one.

I know what you mean too, but Nick is right. Shooting on colour neg will give you much more flexibility and it makes scanning far easier. Trannie is a real pain to scan in comparison.

[beejaybee]

Shooting on colour neg will give you much more flexibility and it makes scanning far easier. Trannie is a real pain to scan in comparison.

Not my experience - I haven't had a lot of trouble scanning (many, many) transparencies, though Kodachrome upsets the ICE in (at least) some software packages. OTOH I've had great difficulty getting a decent colour rendition from scans of colour negative films (lots of different ones), and I've generally found that grain becomes rather a problem too.