Lomography DigitaLIZA Max - Film Scanning Solution

I’d been using a tube and holder system for 35mm scanning with my dSLR; and a slightly more loose light panel and tripod for 120 scans. Now yes, this does give better quality scans than using the Digitaliza and phone, but 90% of the time the quality from the phone scans is ideal for what’s needed.

The fact I can do 35mm and 120 using the same system is brilliant - the 35mm feeds through its mask perfectly using the thumb wheel, while the magnetic clips on the 120 mask seem pretty strong. The light panel is nicely even, and everything moves nice and smoothly along two axes to get everything positioned perfectly, with the phone clamp moving up and down to fill the frame.

And all works so much more quickly than my previous set-ups; while if needs be and I want a detailed scan, I can switch back to those.

I have been using a flatbed scanner for years and wanted a faster way of converting 120 film into a digital form. This is I think an excellent starter package at a reasonable price.Construction quality is good. I did find the results from the mobile just ok. Using the back light with a DSLR on a copier stand gives me the best results so far! I have had more sucess with medium format than 35mm.

The base is sturdy and the light is diffused well. It's pretty easy to set up without reliance on instructions although I'd have hoped the USB socket would be a type C in this day and age, although batteries can be used instead.
The film goes in easily enough though there is sometimes curvature, but this is the cheap end of film scanning and far better than sticking negatives on a white screen and trying to pin them in place which catching an image with your phone.
This set up will improve what I view, and allow for expansion when I switch from having to rely on my phone, to getting an adequate digital camera for the job.

Once agin Lomography bring the affordable fun which helps get the taste for something more.

I think this is perhaps one of the best compact scanning solutions especially for those on a budget. The scans one can produce with it are of an impressive quality with just some basic post scan editing. Ive loved using it so far, one tip to get the best out of it is to use a good phone camera and also put a 3s timer on it to remove the wobble from you pressing the shutter button.

Anyone who uses a mobile phone for scanning, knows that 120 it's not easy....or it didn't used to be! This setup makes mobile phone scanning of 120 film just as easy as 35mm, but now with the roll through system for 35mm...you can zip through it in no time, and the results from either 35mm or 120 are great..though a good camera on the phone is advantageous.
I've attached a few scans of 120 film I did today just for reference.

This is so simple to use, I develop my roll and run it through before cutting it and it is unbelievably fast compared to another scanner. I got great results using a phone but even better with a camera on a tripod. The spirit level is useful to make sure the camera is level, the negatives were totally flat which is why I bought it. I have rapidly gone through my recently developed rolls with this but will now slowly rescan everything with this as the problem of curled negatives and light areas on the sides of the film is gone. I’ve done 35mm and 120 up to 6x9, although there is a bit of cropping on 6x9. So fun to include the sprocket holes, guess I should get a sprocket rocket next… analogue wonderland was the best place to buy it from. Best price and shipping and, as always - totally reliable!

I think it's a great product for beginners

I bought this as a cost effective way of home scanning negatives that I had home developed. It’s hard to find a beginner friendly set up, and Lomography really offer a great product for that.

It’s easy to set up, and Lomography offer a free browser based conversion software to match the product. Everything you need to get started is in a small, affordable box.

Everything is well built and you’ll get the impression you have a high end product, I only had one issue, but it’s a significant one.

The light box that comes with the package failed on mine after two months, it kept producing light, but something in the coating or the defuser plate changed and I started getting the shape of each LED on my photos. I did contact Lomography who noted that they looked into the issue, but couldn’t work out the cause.

Fix - I fixed this by buying defuser paper from Cinestill and putting a layer between the light and the negative mark, this really improved things.

As I use a number of different film types I wanted something that could do more than just 35mm and this was both meeting that requirement, wasn't too expensive and didn't need me to build a darkroom!

I gave it 4 stars for the following reasons:
1. There is no way to alter the brightness of the scanner light
2. There is no scanning app - so you can either use a 3rd party app on your phone, or take a picture then use Lomography's web based application
3. There are no clear instructions around using the masks and how to hold the negatives flat.

However, if you have a decent camera on your phone, this is brilliant. There is a spirit level to check things are square and the phone clamp is firm but gentle. I like the fact you can move the scan bed around once the phone is in place.
There are a couple of masks for 120 and 35, but the roller scanner thing is brilliant and the hole is wide enough to capture the image from the films and the sprockets (if you have a panoramic Sprocket Rocket this is perfect). There isn't a mask in box for a 110 or 620 film, but you can always make your own (especially as 'loose film' means those masks aren't great.
So this is great if you want to reduce your scanning costs, but you are dependent on the apps on your mobile phone (I now mostly produce black and white images through the film cameras!)

It's not a professional piece of kit. Although it fairly well constructed it doesn't do the job in my honest opinion. The clamp that holds the phone is poor - holds level on one plane but way off true in the other. Also, especially with my rubbish phone (Motorola g10 play,) it's not designed for extreme magnification far too much barrel distortion and it can't resolve the detail of the negs. The film transport, I found was hit an miss. It would advance the frames so far after which I had to physically pull the neg strip through. The masks just sit on top of the provided light box and quickly move when making fine adjustments. The light box works of batteries and also has a usb connector yet there was no usb provided. For the price I'd expect one! Better results are obtained using a DSLR and either macro lens or extension tubes. However, as the set up is only centimetres away from the copy frame it's awkward advancing the frames. Not value for money Sorry, Lomography.

Great value. Was able to put together quickly and start using straight away. The versatility for using with all different size negatives was great. The only thing I would suggest is to include a lead to use electricity rather than just the battery option would make this perfect.