Scanning Microfiche

From: Norm Aleks <norm-classiccmp_at_docnorm.com>
Date: Tue Jun 17 11:31:01 2003

I bought an Epson photo scanner for just this purpose -- mine has a max
resolution of 2400x4800. Although the DPI appears to be adequate, as
someone else posted, the actual execution is problematic. One issue is
the focus plane of the scanner -- for transparencies, it's slightly above
the platen, and it's hard to get a non-mounted transparency to the correct
height. Even when I'd position a portion of the fiche at the correct
height, the quality of the scan was below what was visible when looking at
the fiche on a cheap viewer ... it was a disappointment. (One issue, I
believe, is that the tranparency illuminator is non-collimated.) It's
possible to get a pretty good quality final product with a LOT of tweaking
in Photoshop, but unfortunately you can't apply the same set of tweaks to
each image -- it's all done by eye, page by page. The bottom line is that
the transparency scanner is pretty good for slides but not so great for
fiche.

Actual fiche scanners first enlarge the image and then use a more standard
scanning system to get an image at a "real" 200dpi or 300dpi or whatever
it is you want. They get really nice results. They're also really
expensive. Service bureaus vary wildly in cost. I forget the pricing but
the best deal I found when I was looking at this more was a company in
India that would do the scans and then mail back the original fiche along
with a CD-ROM of the scans.

Norm

> I think it's time to revisit the ever popular topic of scanning
> Microfiche. I'm in the market for a new scanner, and ran across the
> "Epson Perfection 3200 Photo" scanner. I was looking at it, because
> it's one of a very few Firewire scanners on the market. What really got
> me to thinking though, is the fact that it is a 3200x6400dpi scanner,
> and has a 4"x9" transparency adapter. This has me wondering if it
> wouldn't work for scanning Microfiche.
>
> Does anyone have any thoughts on the subject?
>
> Zane
Received on Tue Jun 17 2003 - 11:31:01 BST