Summer research

[David Goldfarb]

I've been photographing documents and books for years, with film and
digitally, and basically what you need is a camera with a lens that
has macro capabilities, and it's desirable to have manual aperture and
shutter speed settings (since light meters on point and shoot cameras
often can't make much sense of documents), as well as the ability to
control the contrast.  Digital cameras natively shoot with low
contrast which is fine for portraits, but not so great for documents.
You can increase contrast with image editing software like Photoshop,
but it's convenient if you can get things as close to the way you want
them in the camera to save time later.  If color is not important,
it's handy to be able to set the camera in monochrome mode.  If you
need to print the documents later, monochrome documents print much
faster than color documents on many printers.  You don't need very
high resolution (even as little as 4 megapixels is more than
sufficient to render documents with enough detail for optical
character recognition), and it's important to be able to work with a
copy stand with even lighting or a tripod with a lateral arm when you
can, if you want to have sharp results.

If you end up getting a camera with a fixed zoom lens, as opposed to
interchangeable lenses, copy work is best done with the zoom set in
the middle of the range to avoid barrel or pincushion distortion
(straight lines appearing convex or concave near the edges of the
frame), which are common with zoom lenses at the extremes of their
range.  Adjust the distance from the camera to the work to be copied
to use the full area of the camera frame.

I don't know what your budget is, but since digital cameras depreciate
quite a bit when they are displaced by bigger and better models, I'd
get a second hand Canon or Nikon DSLR of around 6-10 megapixels, which
will have an APS-sized sensor (smaller than 35mm "full frame") and get
a 50mm macro lens (not a zoom) made by the same manufacturer (which
will be about the equivalent of an 80mm lens on a 35mm camera).  A
reliable used camera dealer in the U.S. is KEH.com, or in Canada try
Henry's, which liquidates used and discontinued items on eBay.  The
key thing is that you can spend more on the lens than the camera, and
a second-hand DSLR with the right lens will be better than a new
point-and-shoot with a fixed zoom lens.

Once you've got things set up, you'll find that it is much faster to
copy documents and books with a camera on a copy stand than with a
scanner.

David
--
David A. Goldfarb
http://www.davidagoldfarb.com


2010/5/17 Donna Orwin <donna.orwin at utoronto.ca>:
> Dear Colleagues,
>
>
>
> I'm thinking of buying a new camera to use in photographing documents.
> Which cameras do you recommend for this task, and why?  Thanks in advance
> for your suggestions.
>
>
>
> Best to all,
>
>
>
> Donna Orwin
>
>
>
> ________________________________
>
> Donna Tussing Orwin, Professor
>
> Department of Slavic Languages and Literature
>
> University of Toronto
>
> President, Tolstoy Society
>
> Alumni Hall 415
>
> 121 St. Joseph St.
>
> Toronto, ON
>
> Canada M5S 1J4
>
> tel 416-926-1300, ext. 3316
>
> fax 416-926-2076
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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