Time to regroup and reconsider.  My study was piled high with debris from experiments.  Old negatives and slides were stuffed rudely back in the shoebox from which they had exploded.  The study has been cleaned up and (cough cough) vacuumed. Way overdue.  Where am I going with this project?  Some further explorations last night were not so encouraging; the quality I’m getting isn’t quite as spectacular as I thought, but I was comparing critically against an excellent LS-8000 scan.

There is room for improvement.  But really, how good does it need to be? What ancient history am I trying to resuscitate?  I guess part of me was thinking, “Wait, what happened in my life, back before 1998, when I started scanning film?”  Some of that old stuff has been scanned, most has not.  During the years when I was scanning film seriously, it was “art” I was thinking of (and saleable prints) and not family album material, which is what I’m focused now.

But really, who’s going to look at this old stuff?  Will anyone care? It’s the story that matters.  Are those missing years so memorable?  How do I split my time and energy, between living in the moment, versus recording the past?

I’m about to buy a small light stand from BH Photo.  A 52mm 10-diopter macro lens is on order.  And I’ve thought of a way to actuate the shutter using a three dollar hobby servo and and receiver from my other hobby.  It turns out the RX-100 (at least the original model) has no support for electronic tethering, so the servo will at least allow for hands-free, albeit still mechanical shutter activation.  I just need to figure out how to hold the servo against the camera… maybe some sticky-tape?