Last Updated on 08/24/2017 by Chris Gampat
In addition to the new Nikon D850 DSLR, the Nikon ES-2 Film Digitizing Adapter is making its debut too. What’s that? Film? Yes. By using this adapter with Nikkor macro lenses and a flash, you can get high resolution scans of your 35mm negative or slide film images. When you’re using the Nikon D850, the camera will work to convert the images in-camera to positives. Considering the world’s rise in analog film photography and Nikon’s history in the film industry, it makes a whole lot of sense and is a really nice move to see Nikon doing this.
Who shoots film? Well if you’re reading this, you’re probably not a typical Phoblographer reader; but lots of readers of this site still shoot film despite a few comments on our Facebook page. There’s been a rise in analog film photography in the past few years too and in order to support that without making another Coolscan scanner, this is more than adequate as methods of doing this have popped up on the web as well. I only wonder about how it will work exactly because I feel that in order to get the most latitude from a film scan you need to do multiple passes and shoot it as an HDR. At least that will give you a flatter negative to work with in post.
But to also be fair, I shoot film so that I don’t have to work in post-production as it is. Again, do note that there isn’t an LED panel on the adapter. You’re best off still using a lightbox or a flash to illuminate the film in addition to locking your white balance to get consistent color output from each image. I only wonder how it will make black and white film look.
The ES-2 film digitizing adapter will have an SRP of $149.95. And this photographer is EXTREMELY FRICKEN EXCITED to test it out eventually.