Quote Originally Posted by mikerz View Post
Bonus: Are there any you guys know of shown online with zoomify?

My company needs to do some fine art reproductions at very high quality, and I pitched film as an approach rather than a robotic head + many digital stitches (very difficult to align).
For the best digital stitching you want a lot of overlap. This will require more computer resources but the result would be better. Also you can combine different exposures to create a HDR file... One problem is you might end up shooting the work hundreds of times, if you are using flash lighting make sure you have UV protection. Even then you are hitting the work with a lot of light.

The betterlight system likes a lot of light as well. The cruse system uses less light because the light follows the part of the work that is being scanned.

Maybe I am overreacting about the dangers of light hurting the work... I do know it is something that museums and many professional artists consider. What ever method you go for I would think a lot about using "clean" (low or zero UV) light sources.

For flash photography two or more 48" broncolor lightbars would work well but are not cheap (especially when you include the powerpack). This is would be an option for film, and stitching systems.

The use of a scanning back requires a continuous light source. Betterlight recommends the use of Northlight brand ceramic lighting. These are a little cheaper and come in watt ranges from 300-900. A brighter light will make a cleaner (lower noise) scan.

http://betterlight.com/hid_copylights.html