Slide copying - best light source?

I bought a slide copier - the tube type that fits on a camera body like a lens - and a quick play suggests that this will deliver what I want, but...

The but is that the exposure results are mixed, so I'm assuming I need a consistent light source of some sort - window light is too variable.

Any recommendations please?

It probably won't cover the full frame with a digital camera.

I use a normal dome shaped low energy which is 2700-3200K
They are hard to find though so just try the biggest low
energy you can find.

Thanks Algi.

Yes, the copier does crop, but for the majority of the slides I want to copy they seem to have been taken on cameras which had 80-85% viewfinders anyway, so losing what's round the edges is not a problem at all.

Do you shoot straight into the light source, of diffuse it?

In the interim, my wife has pointed out that we have a number of 'daylight' bulbs so I'll give those a try first as a source.

Just straight at the Globe shaped bulb, but you could use a diffuser. I think my Pentax copier has a diffuser built in.

This is off a 1970 Kodachrome...




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I would use flash

Thanks Ken.

Directly into the device, via a diffuser, or bounced off a white surface?

Full power?

Via a diffuser of some sort, I say flash because you know what the colour temperature is

You would still need a light for focusing/cropping.
Flash will also emphasize any dust or scratches.
Which is one of the reasons diffused enlargers
were so popular.

I did a Custom WB for the bulb I used, by trial and
error. Try 3500K.... 3200K ..... 3000K etc.

This one link would be ideal.... it's DAYLIGHT 6500K
about £11.50 delivered.

If you use RAW you can also correct the CT during
editing.



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It's worth making some sort of test slide to line up the
copier. This is a rough shot of a Novoflex one.....




Another Spotmatic shot off the same 1970 Seville Kodachrome film
as above....




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Same day different make of film.... Same Black Spotmatic..





Edit: Looks too purple in Firefox? The original isn't?
That one was just off a JPG not RAW.

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Kodachrome doesn't scan well, which is why some scanners have a dedicated setting for it.

The second shot looks too purple in IE as well. It looks like a very faded colour slide, or maybe a mismatch of colour spaces.

John, I've always had amazing results from Kodachrome using the default settings on my Minolta dimage IV using the supplied Minolta softwRe

Good to hear Ken. We have a Coolscan V and it has a Kodachrome setting. In this case it does produce a better result on that setting, but I guess that's what it's set up for.