Good news for all of us who loathe the endless monotony of scanning negatives, product designer Ethan Moses of CAMERADACTYL has launched a new film scanning product on Kickstarter called Mongoose.
The device is designed to pull an entire roll of 35mm film over a light source while triggering an exposure by an overhead camera for each frame that passes through the window.

This device can be used with just about any camera that has cable release support, according to Moses; it has three scanning modes, including a Fast Mode that can scan a roll of standard-sized exposures in less than one minute. With a film gate that measures 27mmx68mm, the device can be used to scan photos ranging from half-frame up to Hasselblad XPan panoramas (24mmx65mm) with a black border around each frame with no sprocket holes.

The dual-plane film path ensures that even curly and cupped film strips are flat when they’re passing through the film gate. Because the Mongoose only touches your film at the sprocket holes, there’s no risk of any emulsion scratching.

Mongoose is designed to be used with a third-party lightbox or some other source of light, such as a strobe with a diffuser, as well as a stand for holding the camera above the film and a lens that can focus close enough to digitize the content.

The film scanner is fully automated with a number of features that give users a fair amount of control over the process, including offering Fast and Manual modes in addition to the Automatic mode. Manual mode gives users full control over the process, including enabling them to manually advance and retract the film strips and to manually trigger the camera using Mongoose’s control box.

Users are able to adjust Mongoose’s edge detection sensitivity for use with underdeveloped/exposed film. Likewise, users are able to adjust the delay between each film frame; it can be turned off so that the scanning takes place very quickly or it can be slowed down so that the scanner accommodates other aspects of the overall setup, such as strobe light recycling time.

Moses has launched the Mongoose through a Kickstarter fundraising campaign that has already blown past its initial $30,000 goal in less than a day.
A pledge of at least $450 will get you one of the first Mongoose units with estimated delivery of December 2020.

More info on Mongoose’s Kickstarter page.