On 05/09/12 09:07, geni wrote:
If something does come up a setup that allowed a DSLR (quite a few wikimedians with those) to be placed above the item in order to photograph it would be an adequate solution in most cases.
-- geni
This was the system used in a digital archive project that I was involved in (letters, pamphlets, books, newspaper cuttings, handwritten pages etc). The advantage is that the material can be any size (possibly bigger than A2) if you use a camera and tripod with a laptop. And speed: scanning several thousand objects on a scanner is not really feasible. Watching this and then seeing the results, lighting is the key. If you cover the object with glass or perspex to flatten it, then reflection is a big problem. As I said, I watched this, rather carried out the process.
But I worked on the restoration phase of the project (using Japanese paper and a starch based glue for example). The archive is now in the Bishopsgate Institute.
Examples of how it can be done (there are professional tripod and camera setups as well).
http://www.subchaser.org/photographing-documents
http://uiuc.libguides.com/content.php?pid=6243&sid=40037
http://desktoppub.about.com/od/scanning/a/CameraAsScanner.htm
Gordo