New Lamp For Negative And Slide Copying (digitizing)

I finally got around to making a light source to use with my copy stand, DSLR and negative holder, as first mentioned here:   

https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/10/light-bulb-dummy-load.html

It uses an empty KLIM dry milk can - BTW the real airmen portrayed in The Great Escape supposedly used the KLIM tins from their Red Cross Parcels for various escape tunnel items, so there is a long history of repurposing old KLIM tins.

source: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205402300 

  I took an unused IEC power cord from some item and cut off the female connector.  Then stripped back the wires and connected them to a Leviton keyless lamp holder (keyless means no switch).  The lamp holder is screwed to a piece of wood which is fastened to the KLIM tin.

gotta connect that ground wire to the tin !

I used a rubber gasket around the hole punched in the tin and tied a knot in the cable for a strain relief.

    

A round diffuser from my Testrite Photo Enlarger was taped to the plastic cover of the KLIM tin.

  

It actually works, here is an old black and white negative of my parents on the beach of our east side cottage, taken at night.  I need to dial things in for exposure though.

Here is a scan of the same negative from my Canon scanner:

there are some added artifacts from slimming down the picture file size

The scanner works OK but it is glacially slow, at least with the old Acer computer I use it with.  So that's why I looked into using the camera to do the negative scanning, it's much speedier.

But a color negative of my 8th grade graduation produced bad results:

Am I blue ?

This is the too blue picture converted to black and white:

The original print:

I'm speculating that the lamp color is too "warm" and I wasn't able to do a quick and easy "white balance" with the software I have.  I'll try to find an LED lamp with a different color temperature or try firing up different image manipulation software.

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm