“Valoi” is a Finnish word meaning light and creation — a nod to the creativity of analog photography. The Scandinavian roots of VALOI are visible in the minimalist and functional design. VALOI 360 is a film holder system that provides an affordable way to digitize your rolls of 35mm and 120 medium format film using a digital camera, without compromising on features. This system will help you scan film quicker and, with the right setup, with higher quality than traditional flatbed scanners.
The VALOI 360 Slide Basket is an accessory for use with the and which allows you to increase efficiency and retain the order in which the slides were fed through - a great benefit if you are trying to maintain the sequence of your slide archive.
The basket mounts directly to the using built-in magnets and catches your slides as they come out of the , keeping 10-20 (depending on thickness) slides safe and dust/scratch free. This accessory is not useable on its own - to use it you need the and .
*Note that we do not guarantee that this fits all slides as there are too many slight variances in across slide mounts made in different countries at different times. There are simply too many in circulation to test them all - the older the slides are, the more likely you may have problems.
Camera Scanning Considerations:
Camera Body
Just about any semi-modern, interchangeable-lens digital camera will work great for camera scanning. There are many mirrorless or DSLR options to choose from with large lens catalogs, tethered capture capability, and excellent image quality. Some high end cameras can even use pixel stitching to deliver extremely high levels of resolution.
Macro Lens
For camera scanning, the one real requirement is that your lens focuses close enough to capture the entire frame. For full frame cameras and capturing 35mm film, the term “1:1” designates a lens that will reproduce the 35mm frame exactly onto the full frame digital sensor. With crop-sensor bodies, 1:1 lenses focus even closer. Outside of reproduction factor (1:1), also look out for lenses that are sharp, have good color reproduction, limit internal reflections (modern coatings), and have very little vignetting. Finally, it’s generally best to use your macro lens stopped down 2-3 stops from wide open, as this gives a good combination of depth of field and sharpness.
Software for Negative Conversion
There are a few plugins and standalone programs for converting captured negatives into positive images. Some older and some newer, all of them try to harness the color science based in darkroom paper to various degrees. After all, even a professional lab scanner is essentially a digital camera and a light source. Most of the options presented here allow you to download a demo version to try before you buy and determine which one best suits your workflow.
| SOFTWARE | REQUIRES | DIFFICULTY | CONTROL | COST |
| Mac/PC | Consumer | 👨💻 | $ | |
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Mac/PC | Consumer | 👨💻 | $$ |
| Adobe Lr | Prosumer | 👨🔧👨🔬🧙♂️ | $ | |
| SilverFast HDR 8 | Professional | 👨🔬🧙♂️ | $$$ | |
| Adobe Ps | Expert | 🧙♂️ | $ |
