I loved this portable DIY 35mm film scanner with built-in light, and it could save me a lot of money but its not as simple as it sounds

Date:
Mon, 20 Jul 2026 15:41:36 +0000

Description:
I have fallen in love with this scanner, but its equipment requirements mean it's not for everyone.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter The Valoi easy35 V2 is an at-home film scanner for digitizing 35mm film negatives It requires a digital camera, a 1:1 macro lens, and negative conversion software It's a compact, portable unit with a built-in light source Shooting film is an expensive business, and Im always on the lookout for ways to make it cheaper. As such, the Valoi easy35 v2 immediately caught my attention, with its promises to
make the process of scanning film negatives at home into something, well, easy. Okay, Im interested.

Paying to get negatives scanned and digitized is an ongoing cost that adds up over time and since I live in a fairly small apartment in a city, a large flatbed film scanner isnt a practical option for me. The Valoi easy35 V2, however, is a compact cube with about the same desk footprint as a large coffee mug. Even with its raft of accessories, its easy to store, easy to transport and at $272 / 199 / AU$337, its cheaper than high-end scanners, too. Color me even more intrigued. The main scanning unit is very portable. (Image credit: Jon Stapley) But before you get too excited, be aware that
this is not a standalone film scanner. Portable self-contained film scanners do exist, like Kodaks ultra-cheap Slide N Scan, but their quality is pretty poor. Instead, the Valoi Easy 35 V2 works by connecting to your high-resolution camera and your 1:1 macro lens. You do have a high-resolution camera and a 1:1 macro lens, right? Latest Videos From Watch full video here: Indeed, this isnt necessarily the super-simple, anyone-can-do-it film scanner that the word easy in the name perhaps implies. But if youve got the kit and you scan a lot of film, it could save you money in the long run and as I found when I tried it out, the process can get pretty addictive. Check Amazon Valoi easy35 V2: In use The Valoi easy35 V2 comes as a kit as well as the cube-shaped scanning module itself, with its built-in light source, you also get a couple of extension tubes for ensuring your lens can operate at the correct focal distance, and some step-up adapters that allow you to connect lenses of various filter thread sizes to the 62mm-thread tubes. While the
unit itself is smooth plastic, these accessories are all metal, and feel suitably premium as a result. You may like RewindPix review: the first 'digital film' camera that gets the feel right Godox's cheap 'transparent viewfinder camera' doubles up a light meter I'm buying! Lomography's new point-and-shoot is like a disposable with double the shot count it comes pre-loaded with film These step-up filters allow for the attachment of different lenses (52mm thread not pictured as it was on my camera). (Image credit: Jon Stapley) In terms of compatible lenses, the distance between your negative and the front of your lens needs to be less than 230mm. Valoi recommends that if youre using a full-frame system, youre best off with a
lens with a focal range between 55mm and 105mm; for APS-C, its 40mm to 70mm; and for Micro Four Thirds, the makers recommend between 35mm and 60mm.

I was using a Fujifilm X-T5 , since with its generous resolution of 40.2MP,
it would easily offer enough pixels to make the scanning process worth the effort. I paired it with the TTArtisan 40mm F2.8 an affordable manual focus macro lens that is Valois budget recommendation for use with the scanner. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. The whole kit,
together with a selection of negs. (Image credit: Jon Stapley) Fitting the parts together is simple enough I only needed to use one adapter and extension tube, but depending on your lens, you may need to stack multiple. The unit itself has one-button operation; you simply turn it on to activate the light (it's battery-powered and recharges via USB-C). Negatives are
loaded carefully into the holder at one side, fed through the scanner for
your camera to snap, before emerging out of the other side. You'll need to ensure that the negative is correctly focused it helps to use a nice clear shot with a well-captured subject, ideally a person. And then, youre away. Negatives should always be handled carefully to avoid fingerprinting. (Image credit: Jon Stapley) Thats when I started to get addicted. See, I have a lot of negatives. Like, a lot , a lot. And once the Easy 35 V2 is in position and your lens and camera are set up correctly, the process of scanning is incredibly quick feed, snap, feed, snap. You can scan entire rolls in minutes. I will say that on my first few attempts, a lot of my scans came in
a little crooked and I couldnt quite figure out what I was doing wrong but fortunately I had enough latitude to crop and straighten without impacting
the image too much.

Of course, once youve got those digitized negatives, you still need to
convert them. You have a number of options it brings me no pleasure to say this as I am on the record as an Adobe critic, but by far the quickest and best is pairing Lightroom Classic with the plugin Negative Lab Pro, the
latter of which offers a free trial of 24 conversions and then costs a one-time price of $99. There are other options, but they tend to be either excessively complicated (Darktable) or a bit too rudimentary ( Lomographys free online tool ). What to read next Kodaks vibrant new 35mm film camera has an iconic sliding lens cover design and costs just $35 Forget the Kodak Charmera this miniature digital camera is a lo-fi bargain Polaroid Hi-Print 3x3 review: a kitschy little printer with bags of color The software will automatically chop off any borders left on your scans before converting though you may sometimes prefer to leave them on for artistic effect. (Image credit: Jon Stapley) Negative Lab Pro takes the RAWs of your digitized negs (oh, yes, you really should shoot in RAW) and automates the conversion
process into a single click. Once this is done, it provides an editing panel, and you shouldnt be afraid to get stuck in and make the final image look the way you want it, editing attributes like color temperature and tint to taste. If you dont have the time or patience to tweak sliders, NLP offers a few presets for a quick spruce-up I found that the Kodak profile generally delivered pleasing results from Kodak negatives, naturally. You can see a few of my resulting scans below. Image 1 of 12 (Image credit: Jon Stapley) (Image credit: Jon Stapley) (Image credit: Jon Stapley) (Image credit: Jon Stapley) (Image credit: Jon Stapley) (Image credit: Jon Stapley) (Image credit: Jon Stapley) (Image credit: Jon Stapley) (Image credit: Jon Stapley) (Image credit: Jon Stapley) (Image credit: Jon Stapley) The software will prompt you to take the borders off, but sometimes I think they look kind of cool. (Image credit: Jon Stapley) Valoi easy35 V2: Is it worth it? I love this thing. I really love it. Setting it up was a pain I had to get hold of some pretty specific gear, and lay it all out on my floor for want of a better working surface. It all feels a bit rustic and inelegant for me, the camera and the box didnt sit level when connected. I ended up wedging the spare film holder underneath to balance it, and was later amused when I watched a video on Valois YouTube channel and they recommended doing exactly that.

However, the scanning process itself was unbelievably fluid, easy and even fun. I could have fed my negatives through this thing for hours. I still might! And having this setup on standby at home would mean Id never have to pay to have negs scanned again, which is a mightily tempting thought. I dont think it's true to say that the Valoi Easy35 V2 makes scanning accessible to the masses. The masses dont all own sharp macro lenses with the correct
filter thread size (you should have heard the noise I made when I realised that the Fujifilm XF 30mm f2.8 R LM WR Macro wasnt going to fit, even with
all those step-up adapters). But for those who have the capacity, it makes negative scanning at home joyous and fun, and on that note Im going to step away from my keyboard so that I can go scan some more.

With thanks to Wex Photo Video (UK) and Fujifilm who loaned some of the equipment used for this article. Today's best Valoi easy35 v2 and TTArtisan 40mm f/2.8 Macro deals TTArtisan 40mm f/2.8 Macro 119 View See all prices We check over 250 million products every day for the best prices Follow
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