hello from india

[sahilkit]

hello everyone

my name is sahil and I'm from India (Hyderabad) . I'm part of an organization which is involved in book digitization,restoration and preservation of old 16th cent. and newer books available at our local libraries,in the past we have out sourced the work to local companies but now we what to build our own in house team and systems and would appreciate all the help you guys can provide in selecting a proper camera for this line of work .

I have been doing some searching on various camera options and found lot of people mentioning 4x5 camera which were converted to digital using digital backs with a adapter to fit the 4x5 camera!

what i was unable find is life expectancy of these system , shutter life can any one please elaborate on this topic .we are looking for a system which will at the least last a 1 million cycles or is there any camera system which do not use shutter and the cameras exposure be controlled by computer

thanks for your time

sahil

[archivue]

what about a pro level flatbed scanner ?
Scitex IQsmart 2 or 3...

[archivue]

otherwise, on a large format camera, the shutter belongs to the lens, and it isn't the more expensive part of the system... a new shutter cost around 250$ while a good gigital back is 8 000 to 40 000$.
You can buy a back with a 3 years warranty and very good support.

But i'm not shure that a large format camera is the way to go... you don't need movements for that kind of job, and focus is sometimes difficult with LF camera and digital back.

[sahilkit]

hello archivue

yes flatbed scanner is a very good opposition for individual papers,manuscripts and similar material but not good for delicate book so we decided to build a book scanner in the lines of (see the link)

http://www.conservation-by-design.co...undries38.html

thanks for taking interest

sahil

[sahilkit]

otherwise, on a large format camera, the shutter belongs to the lens, and it isn't the more expensive part of the system... a new shutter cost around 250$ while a good gigital back is 8 000 to 40 000$.
You can buy a back with a 3 years warranty and very good support.

But i'm not shure that a large format camera is the way to go... you don't need movements for that kind of job, and focus is sometimes difficult with LF camera and digital back.

okay , so what do you suggest ? i have also seen DSLR but the shutter life is from

100000 to 300000 max plus my budget is 10000$ max with shipping ! for each system

thanks

sahil

[Walter Calahan]

A scanning digital back for a 4x5 camera usually requires the shutter to stay open for longer than 1 second, especially when stopped down.

A LF shutter operated on Bulb (B) or Time (T) should have an operational life far longer than a million cycles because you are not wearing down the shutter timing mechanism. All you are doing it opening and closing the shutter with very little wear and tear on the system.

http://www.betterlight.com/eModels.html

[archivue]

my budget is 10000$
difficult for this price...

but maybet you should consider a betterlight scanning back !
And a rodenstock digital lens
then a good and rigid camera... for exemple a mint second hand sinar P with back bellows.
http://www.betterlight.com/

By the way, India is full of important books, and considering climat, and money involve... i think digitalisation is a good thing !

[Nathan Potter]

As Walter says a mechanical shutter should be OK. Your setup could use an electronic flash exposure system where the shutter could remain open all the time in dim enough light. You could consider using night vision goggles for document handling. A one shot of electronic flash should be inconsequential in affecting the archival permanence of the documents.

Nate Potter, Boston MA.

[sahilkit]

To Walter calahan and Nathan potter

thanks for your inputs on the shutter thing ! i was worried about the shutter life but now i understand how it work,differences between the Time/Bulb setting . I'm now curtain that it will last a long time before replacement

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_release
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/time.htm

To Walter calahan and archivue , i have already contacted the Better light people and i have narrowed down to better light 4000E as the model to buy for its price and resolution.Now that i have chosen which digital back to go for , all that is left is to decide on camera and lens , before i get to that point i would like to explain the kind of work the camera will be used for !

paper size scanned camera usage

A5 and smaller most books are in this size range
A4 and slightly bigger moderate number
A3 max very few books

so which model camera should i go for . A 4x5 point and shoot , monorail , folding or non folding type ??? and what size lens will cover the above mentioned paper sizes!

SORRY if this seems like a lot of questions, I'm trying my best

thanks you all

sahil

[sahilkit]

By the way, India is full of important books, and considering climat, and money involve... i think digitalisation is a good thing !

here is some of the work our organization has done to start with

http://pd.cpim.org/2002/dec15/12152002_andhra.htm

http://dsal.uchicago.edu/bibliograph.../svkabout.html

http://www.archive.org/search.php?qu...rt=-publicdate


sahil