[Richard T. Eger]

Dear All,

This is a very interesting thread.

About a year ago, I tried to order a microfilm roll online from NARA II, but the software failed to function properly. I ended up calling and an apologetic person on the other end said yes, they were generally called to take the order information, recognizing the online ordering issue. As I recall, one roll cost me $65, which is pretty steep. It took maybe 2 months to get the reel.

I was very interested in the comment about NARA now being willing to supply the microfilm as a DVD, which would resolve the problem of locating a decent microfilm reader/printer or trying to scan the microfilm, as Jaap has tried to do with less than stellar results.

Creating a decent microfilm reader/printer today should be a slam dunk and maybe some company out there has risen to the task. However, I am not aware of such and the best that I know of is a Canon90 that does a decent job with text, more or less, and a pretty lousy job with photos.

The Canon90 I use is at the NASM Garber archives and it has its own quirks. Best copies are made near the end of the toner cartridge's life. A fresh cartridge won't print as darkly or capture as much detail from the microfilm and, as with Jaap's example, that detail can be pretty marginal.

There is also an ongoing issue with microfilm/film scanners, that being that you must, in most cases, cut up your precious reel into short lengths to scan the film. If willing to do this, likely a dedicated film scanner is the best bet. An alternative might be a lighted lid scanner, which would allow you to keep your reel intact. I once saw a researcher doing exactly that with 35 mm movie film at NARA II with pretty good results.

If anyone has more information on the DVD option from NARA, please do share it here.

Regards,
Richard