Received: by fanciful.org (Wildcat! SMTP Router v6.0.451.1)
          for photo{at}fanciful.org; Tue, 24 Aug 2004 06:42:55 -0700
Received: from saf.tzo.com ([216.235.248.73]) HELO=saf.tzo.com
          by fanciful.org (Wildcat! SMTP v6.0.451.1) with SMTP
          id 1289052546; Tue, 24 Aug 2004 06:42:53 -0700
Received: from 195.112.155.162 by saf.tzo.com
 id 2004082409445656217 for photo{at}fanciful.org;
 Tue, 24 Aug 2004 13:44:56 GMT
Received: from localhost ([195.112.138.194])
 by mail.ada.com.tr (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id i7ODjXhs011977
 for ; Tue, 24 Aug 2004 16:45:34 +0300
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2004 16:51:49 +0300
From: ayse saray 
X-Mailer: The Bat! (v1.51) Personal
Reply-To: ayse saray 
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
Message-ID: 
To: Wayne Young 
Subject: Re[2]: historical manuscripts
In-Reply-To: 
References: 
X-Orig-MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Orig-Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
X-Orig-Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit


thank you. :)
i forward larry's very brief (!) documentary for your information. :)


This is a forwarded message
From: Larry N. Bolch 
To: PhotoGallery{at}yahoogroups.com
Date: Tuesday, August 24, 2004, 9:22:57 AM
Subject: [PhotoGallery] historical manuscripts

===8<==============Original message text===============
ayse saray wrote:
> hi gang,
>
> is there a technique preferred for transferring historical/ancient
> manuscripts to digital medium?
> the guys that asked briefly think of using a digital camera and a
> table (etc) to put them on. but they can not decide the light to use
> to avoid the harm.

Of course scanning would be the way to get the most accurate detail. However, if
they are old and delicate, this may not be the safest means, since they must be
held against the scanning surface. Scanning allows one to make very high
resolution files, with extremely fine detail.

Most camera lenses are not corrected for flat-field, which is necessary for
accurate focus across a document. The MicroNikkors are, so it would be
reasonable to use one on a digital body. While I love my CP5000 for work in the
field, and it has excellent macro capabilities for flowers, bugs and the like, I
doubt that it would do high quality copy work. A D70 or D1x would probably be
the current choice since they are both around 6MP and both will accept a
MicroNikkor lens.

There are a lot of rumors going round that the D1X has a successor that will be
announced at Photokina next month. If so, it would probably be a better choice
since it will enjoy three years of technology beyond the D1X - as fine as it is.
However, it was predicted that Nikon would release it at PMA last February.
Nikon ships its cameras when it is ready to, no matter what we predict.

There is no need for a great deal of light if the camera is mounted solidly.
Very long exposures are entirely practical, since the neither the manuscripts
nor the camera is in motion. As long as a white balance is taken off a Kodak
grey card or equivalent, low wattage household bulbs can be used. The only
essential is getting very even light, and I have a web topic that covers that in
detail.
http://www.larry-bolch.com/ephemeral/copy_setup.htm

There are also full spectrum fluorescent lighting units that are very gentle,
but they are also very costly. Lowell is the prime supplier. They are used in
product studios that have large format cameras with scanning digital backs and
are also used to light 24-hour TV cable news sets. They have very accurate
colour rendition, no flicker and are also very cool - in both senses of the
word. They are also costly - $1,000US or more per unit and two are needed.

If the light level is really a worry, I would suggest a couple of Smith-Victor
12" reflectors on stands and ordinary bulbs. Photoflood bulbs are accurate at
3200K and balance perfectly with most camera's incandescent settings. However,
household bulbs may be anything from 2400k up. A manual white balance reading
off a Kodak card is important for accurate reproduction of the manuscript's
colour and any illustrations that may be on its pages.

larry!
ICQ 76620504
http://www.larry-bolch.com/


===8<===========End of original message text===========


--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5