hello from india

[Nigel Smith]

For the money your spending you could just keep buying DSLRs as they wear out.

What's the final use of all these files?

Nige.

[Ole Tjugen]

A monorail will do nicely. You need nothing fancy, even a basic old Linhof Colour would do. Since a camera is basically only a light-tight long hollow between lens and film/sensor, second-hand is the way to go as long as the bellows are in good shape.

You will basically be doing reproduction work, so a repro lens is whay you want. something like a G-Claron 150/9 - or a more modern one if the budget will stretch. The G-Claron will likely be just as good as a brand new one.

[sahilkit]

For the money your spending you could just keep buying DSLRs as they wear out. What's the final use of all these files?

first the DSLR camera costs from 3600-8000$ change and shutter lasts only 300000 cycles which is not a problem but there is no local service option plus each system has to take 4000 images a day ( 8 hours working time ) and we are planing to setup 6 machines initially.

now we have to scan 60000 books each having a average of 250 pages which equates to 15 million images total and 5 years is the given project time !

i think u get the point plus we have seen horror stories being posted on the net about bad service and some claiming that 300000 cycles is the DSLRs total life and if this is the case we have to replace a camera nearly 18-20 times!

this material we are digitizing will be made available on the net for free to scholars etc ! and we also have to provide microfilms for long term storage + bu-ray DVD backup !

[Nathan Potter]

WHOA! That's an image approximately every 8 sec. during the 8 hours. To achieve that you'll need to have a fixed focus setup and not vary the working distance for long copy runs. Consider a fast and simple way to keep copy flat and properly framed. Seems like that thruput might be possible but I doubt it. Or is the thruput of 4000 / day with 6 machines (36 sec. per exposure)?

Nate Potter, Boston MA.

[sahilkit]

hello nathan

yes its a lot of work , i was thinking of going for a point and shoot type 4x5 camera some thing like a fotoman 45BL and rodenstock lens what do u say ? and also i can use the better light at a lower resolution some thing like 60% to get a better scan time which is till high though or go for mamiya ZD which does 1.2fps ?

and yes each machine has to do 4000 images a day or buy more machines

To Ole Tjugen thanks for your input

sahil

[Ole Tjugen]

A point-and-shoot camera would be good - if all the books were the same size. Since they tend not to be, it will be necessary to adjust framing once per book to get as much information recorded as possible. Then the whole book can be done without further adjustments, as long as the position is held constant as the pages are turned.

I still think a basic monorail is ideal for the job. Look at a repro camera - or get one!

[Nathan Potter]

Sahil, like Ole said the monorail or repro camera would also be my choice by a small margin. You need to consider the amount of detail you need to capture digitally. This especially if the content has some of that very fine and wonderful Indian artwork that must be recorded.

Nate Potter, Boston MA.

[sahilkit]

sorry if i sound ignorant but I'm new to these stuff,so what is this repro camera ? as far as i could find out its something like a view camera mounted on a adjustable stand for taking pictures of artwork etc .

can some one please explain the difference and what advantages it has compared to monorail or view cameras ?

thanks

sahil