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Photographing B&W negatives with a digital camera

As an alternative to using a scanner, I thought I would have an attempt at digitising some 35mm black and white negatives with a Panasonic G2 Micro 4/3 camera. I also have a very sharp Canon FD 50mm macro lens that belonged to my father that I can mount to the camera with an adapter. I could also purchase a negative carrier from eBay to keep the film relatively flat. Though I'm not so sure on what sort of diffused light source I can use behind the negatives. Any suggestions for this?

The other thing is I am fairly new to digital cameras and haven't done any RAW processing as yet. I am happy to shoot the negs in JPEG to simplify the process though is it true that RAW will offer greater dynamic range? If so, would that be the better option to reproduce all the various tones in the negatives?
 
Peter Krogh, author of The DAM Book (Digital Asset Management) writes extensively about using a digital camera, rather than a scanner, to capture both color transparencies and B&W negatives. Here is the URL to his book web page: The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers

He also hosts an online forum on which there is in-depth discussion about this technique. You might have to do a little digging on the internet, but the information is there.
 
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