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Thanks for the info John, Jim, and Art. As a follow up to the list, does anyone know of any scanner rental services? Or a decent service to do the digitization work for a reasonable price? I need to provide all the options to my boss and sadly this information is a real pain to sort through via web searches. On Tue, Jan 10, 2017 at 12:06 PM, Art Rhyno. <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Hi Matt, > > If you are pressed for funds, you can do a lot with a standard camera, a > light table, and a macro lens. We have a set of about 15 reels of 19th > century local newspapers where the microfilm was produced in the 1950s and > they were sent back by a commercial scanner as being "unworkable". There's > a sample here [1] of what we can get from the camera, and a video of the > process [2]. These papers are still a challenge but I think the camera > itself fares well. I borrowed a $600 macro lens from a friend to compare it > to the much cheaper Raynox macro lens ($60 or so), and I found that it > didn't make any difference. For that matter, a $7 magnifying glass did the > same thing but it would drive you crazy trying to keep things in focus. > > I suspect a mirrorless camera would be the way to go for high volumes, > many cameras have a "preview" function that has slightly less overhead than > a regular camera shot, but the mirrors inside cameras are held by fairly > flimsy plastic and are probably a weak point. Where this approach might > have the greatest advantage is with microfiche, a format that does not tend > to respond well to scanning methods. Ping me if you are interested in this > kind of setup, it's definitely not something that could be put out for the > public to use without a lot of refinement, but you can probably assemble > the pieces for less than $1000, excluding a machine to run the process. > > art > --- > 1. http://ink.ourdigitalworld.org/sample.jpg > 2. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-PK1n92dlzwaXVFVjNuM3hXc2c > > -----Original Message----- > From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of > Matt Sherman > Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2017 9:43 AM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: [CODE4LIB] Good Tools for Microfilm Scanning > > Hi all, > > Does anyone on the list have much experience with microfilm scanning? We > have some old student newspapers and dissertations that we want to get into > a digital format and while I do have a lot of expreience with photos, text, > negatives, and large format media, I have not done microfilm. As such I am > wondering if there is a good tool or set of tools to use when scanning > microfilm? Either tools to scan with a standard bed-scanner or some kind of > microfilm scanner? Any suggestions would be appreciated. > > Matt Sherman >