NARA Seattle

[Andreas Brekken]

Hi, guys

With regards to scanning of microfilm there are of course several factors...

The reason Rod is successful using a camera and photographing the reader screen is of course that the film already has been enlarged to approx A4 size on most readers by the reader optics, something that will not happen when you use for example a flatbed scanner.

Another aspect here is of course time... scanning at very high resolution on standard flatbeds will always be a time consuming process.

I have a reader at home, but additionally I use a Canon MS300 dedicated microfilm scanner at the local library from time to time. I have bought a SCSI card for my laptop and simply plug the reader/printer/scanner into my laptop when I am working there, the drivers and scanning software available from Canon's website. I get very nice 600 dpi scans from this unit.

Regards,
Andreas B

[Delmenhorst]

Is it allowed to use your own camera in NARA Seattle ? I am going to Seattle in June and would like to visit the archive.

[Richard T. Eger]

Dear Rod and Andreas,

Thanks for your comments. I agree that scanning microfilm to capture documents is a slow procedure. The method I use, the tried and true printing out of multiple exposure levels onto paper, gets me there rapidly, avoiding the intermediate steps of scanning microfilm with a scanner and then printing. Don't forget the cost of printing a scanned page in terms of ink as well as the time involved. Depending on whether I'm dealing with a monster document or many smaller ones, I can knock out 200 to 300 pages in a day at the Garber archives, some of these being, of course, multiple exposure levels. At $.30/copy, it gets the job done at a price. Frankly, I just grin and bear it. If you take into account a motel cost of $70/night, you can't push the copy button fast enough.

The screen capture with a digital camera from my microfilm reader is certainly a lesser expensive possibility, although there is the cost of buying a copy of the microfilm roll, a real consideration. IIRC, the price is $30 at Garber, $65 at NARA II. So, at $.30/frame, one can copy 100/200+ frames single shot and not bother with buying the reel. And, those familiar with Garber reels know that the subject matter tends to come in clusters of short documents, with perhaps only a dozen pages of interest on the reel. In this case, buying the reel is foolish, unless...

Unless one is after the photographs. Then we are right back to the proposition of a microfilm scanner. The Canon90 at Garber is not well suited to reproducing photographs.

At NARA II in College Park, the last time I was there researchers were heavily into using them to copy textual documents. Scanners are also allowed at NARA II. Snapping a page is quick and one gets excellent reproduction of what is there. However, you are always bending over the document and being a jack-in-the-box, trying to shoot as straight down as possible, but frequently the page will be distorted. Also, the page may not lay flat, adding to the distortion. Using a scanner or one of the copy machines avoids this problem and electrostatic copies there from textual records are $.15 each, or were the last time I was there. On the other hand, like Garber, printing from microfilm costs $.30 per shot, although this can include 2 frames, assuming you are lucky and they are of the same density and reasonably squarely oriented on the film.

Rod, what do you mean by "vignetting"?

Regards,
Richard

[RodM]

Hi Richard,

vignetting is the fall-off/loss of light intensity that radiates out from the centre of an image captured with a lens. In the case of a microfilm reader, it can also be caused because the illuminating light source (bulb) is positioned in the centre of the frame, and the light intensity will decrease towards the edge of the frame, visibly showing as the centre of the frame being brighter than the edges. My initial experiments some years ago in photographing off a microfilm screen, using a 4 MP camera, produced strong vignetting, but I found a year or so ago that this could be easily corrected during post-production in Adobe lightroom. I haven't seen the problem occur with my DSLR. I believe that the problem was compounded by using the 4 MP camera at the widest aperture; the vignetting being a result of the poor optical performance of the lens at the widest aperture.

Cheers

Rod

PS - I have found a DSLR to be worth its weight in gold during visits to various archives. Like yourself, because of the costs associated with visiting archives, I want to maximise the amount of information obtained. One trip, to Australia, resulted in 4,500+ pages of photographed documents, while another trip to TNA, London, resulted in 11,500+ pages of photographed documents. Any identified document where the reproduction was critical (such as plans, maps, diagrams) could always be re-copied properly (i.e. flatbed scan or photocopy) later.

[Mikael Olrog]

Regarding taking photos of documents I've developed a method which saves my back and enables me to take high number of photos of real documents with fairly great ease. I've mounted my DSLR on a tripod, making the camera point downwards and then I've got remote controll for the "fire button" which means that I don't have to look through the camera for each shot. Sometimes I also mark the space on the table which I should keep the document within to be sure it is fully covered in the picture. The only drawback I've experienced is that possibly one photo out of 100 or so becomes unsharp so I've taken the precaution on very important documents to check the results in the camera or make paper copies.

Obviously it draws some attention from staff and other visitors when you mount a tripod on a table in the reading room, but I've been able to take large volumes of photos of documents and at the same time be seated in a comfortable position turning pages and snapping the shots whenever I find something of interest, or just fire away to get it all and sort out it later when back home.

[Richard T. Eger]

Dear Rod and Mikael,

Good suggestions, indeed. Rod, what is this magical camera and lens that you are using? Mikael, what is the tripod and remote viewing setup that you are using? Images of each send via e-mail would be appreciated.

One ugly little drawback in copying at NARA II is that one has to get approval to make the copies in the first place. This consists of someone completely lacking in knowledge reviewing the document, looking for whatever, then providing you with an NND label which needs to be visible in whatever you copy. For using copy machines, it isn't a really big deal, as you tape the label somewhere to the platten surface. I'm not sure what they do in the case of scanners or cameras. I will say that the tape they use is especially sticky, generally leaving a gummy residue on the copy machine platten.

The NND label indicates that, regardless of the classification shown on the document, it is unclassified/declassified. Thus, it is a good idea to copy it as well. The decision to declassify has been made much earlier and the NND number appears on the box the document came in, not decided by the person giving you the label.

The only time I can recall that I was ever prohibited from copying something was a photo in a binder. I think they were worried about breaking the back of the binder. Other than that, approval appears to be proforma.

The next issue has to do with whether to take the staples out of the document to get a good copy. "Good" is in the eye of the specific person at the desk. Some will willingly remove the staples while others will give you a hard time, forcing you to badly bend the papers and hope and pray that they aren't too brittle and break. A stapled document will also prove more difficult to copy by camera or scanner.

Regards,
Richard

[Andreas Brekken]

Hi, Mikael!

Also very interesting in any aspect of your setup:

- Camera type (I have a Canon EOS400D)
- Lens
- Camera setup (RAW? JPG? Size?)
- Tripod type
- Remote control type

On the side... as a plastic modeller, I made a plastic guide for my scanner to use for microfilm rolls. Works very nicely indeed, and I do not have to open and close the lid. In addition, the film stay on alignment.

Regards,
Andreas B

[Mikael Olrog]

Hi Andreas,

I've got a Sony Alfa 100 with a 18-70 mm lens and a light weight Manfrotto 785B tripod which is short enough to fit in my hand laugage when flying - very pactical when on a short but important mission to an archive... :-) The remote control is the short (1m) standard version sold by Sony. The photos I take are of 3872*2952 pixels and the size ca 2mb in .jpg format. This has proven to be enough even for low quality documents. Since I have a PC with me and spare memory cards space is obviously not an issue.

Regarding scanning, Like you I've also got a guide and then an empty microfilm role so that I can role from one to the other withouth having to open the lid when moving up the film for the next sequence to scan.
All the best
/Mike