Does anyone know if a device is avialable, whereby I can view my 35mm negatives on a viewer? I don;t just mean a lightbox, I want something that is going to make my negative images appear positive. TIA, Neil

-- Neil (nmcgibbon@blueyonder.co.uk), February 27, 2002

Answers

Never heard of such a thing. You'd have to either make contacts prints (Ansel Adams sometimes made them using a ceiling light and quick hand on the light switch), or scan the negatives and view the positive.

What I do suggest is that you really can learn to read negatives on a lightbox. It just takes practice. Keep comparing negative to print (for thise that have been printed) and pay attention to shadow detail and highlights. Good luck.

-- Jeff Polaski (polaski@acm.org), February 28, 2002.

Check this site:

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=001Y2R

There may be cheaper options but have a look at the Nikon Super Coolscan 4000 ED Film Scanner. Visit the following web sites for more information:

http://www.epinions.com/S0575354-Super_Coolscan_4000ED

http://www.central-camera.com/Digital/scanners/cs4ed.htm

-- David M. Roche (rochd@hotmail.com), February 28, 2002.

I think the Sony 'Fotovix' does that. It is, or was, basically a small CCTV camera that instantly 'scanned' film at low res, and allowed it to be displayed on a computer or TV screen. I've seen one advertised recently, but I'm not sure if the Fotovix is still being made.
Some professional laboratory printing machines have a preview CRT monitor that shows (roughly) how the neg will print too.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), February 28, 2002.

Many video cameras have a "negative" feature that you may be able to combine with a slide dupper.

-- Ed Farmer (photography2k@hotmail.com), February 28, 2002.

If you have a scanner and Adobe Photoshop, you can do the same thing with your computer. Photoshop has an "invert" command that allows you to change positives into negatives and vice versa.

-- James Huffman (jlamar99@hotmail.com), May 09, 2002.