Message-Id: <200004060418.VAA20286@dns.ccit.arizona.edu> Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2000 16:13:44 +1200 From: David Adams <mailto:David.Adams@NATLIB.GOVT.NZ> Subject: Re: Experiences with digitizing material not suitable for a To: mailto:IMAGELIB@LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
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If you can start with digital input at capture all the better.
Recently we have experienced some colour casts from our lab processing our 4x5 transparencies.
(And each film stock has its own colour characteristics anyway!)
The colour scans from transparencies also require careful colour management from input to output.
For the above reasons I generally advocate that the initial capture is digital.
Photophase or similar offer a range of digital backs for medium format cameras that could provide over 300dpi output.
The digital 35mm SLR range of cameras (Nikon/Canon) capture 18meg files which give 300dpi output at 8"x10" print size.
For a more economical solution;
I have recently observed the use of the Kodak DC260 camera (2.3million pixels) and was quite impressed with its ability
o capture quite accurate colour on a camera stand capturing manuscript material.
(I tested this using a Kodak greyscale and reading the RGB values form the hi-mid-lo values in Photoshop)
Its largest files were about 9megs and admittedly were JPEG files, they are able to print a photographic quality print a
300dpi somewhere between 6"x4" and 6"x8".
Making images on film and then scanning them I expect is a more expensive solution (in terms of workflow)
The digital capture device may be more expensive in terms of capital expenditure.
The economics depend on the size of the project.
David Adams
Team Leader Copying Services
National Library of New Zealand
+64 4 4743151
Visit "Timeframes" New Zealands leading source of heritage images
http://timeframes.natlib.govt.nz/
>>> Mark Jordan <mailto:mjordan@SFU.CA> 04/06/00 11:02 >>>
Hi,
We've been doing some research on the costs of equipment suitable for
digitizing material such as books, oversized posters, drawings, etc. that
we wouldn't want to (say pages from a rare and fragile book) or couldn't
(because of size) scan with a flatbed, even one with a 12x17" platten. To
get 24-bit color at a 300 dpi or higher, we'd have to spend quite a bit of
money.
Does anyone have any experience with alternative methods of digitizing
largish-size material not suitable for scanning with flatbeds into 24-bit
color, high resolution images? For example, could photograph the items,
create high-quality prints or slides, and then scan the photo? Or is this
kind of method just not practical?
Thanks for sharing any experiences you may have had with this kind of
material,
Mark
Mark Jordan
Librarian / Analyst, Systems Division
W.A.C. Bennett Library, Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada
Email mailto:mjordan@sfu.ca / Phone (604) 291 5753 / Fax (604) 291 3023
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