On 15 Feb 2014, at 20:00, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Seriously, though: if you want archival quality, the
way to go is a
CoolScan. Not only would we be able to scan negatives ourselves
(though it'd be tied to the office, rather than being a loanable
item), we'd be able to make very good friends indeed with GLAMs that
have random piles of unscanned negatives.
It'd be nice if someone with a few hundred quid bought a CoolScan,
scanned their collection, then donated the kit to WMUK when done with
it.
The way it usually goes is: someone buys a CoolScan on eBay, scans
their negative collection, sells it to the next person. WMUK would be
a suitable end point for such a chain.
The main catch is for it to be *someone else's* problem to make sure a
decade-old piece of kit is in usable condition not to be a white
elephant - donating something that turns into a liability is helpy
rather than helpful. CoolScan IV/4000 use FireWire, V/5000 on use USB
... software and supported OS is an interesting question as well ...
III/3000 and earlier do archival-quality scanning, but often have
weird hardware requirements. I think the I and II needed their own ISA
card. This is the sort of white elephant *not* to inflict on a small
charity.
If I had ~£500 to spare I would happily be that person. I'm not though :-)
I'll borrow the Ion (a rather less fragile piece of kit, so
borrowable), but if I had access to a CoolScan I'd happily do 'em
again.
Perhaps it would be worth WMUK thinking about purchasing such equipment, either to be made
available in the office (which would then require travel costs, or postal costs and
volunteer time in the office to scan posted material in), or to be sent around to
interested volunteers?
Of course, both purchase and maintenance costs should be thought about here, both for the
machine itself and for the equipment that’s needed to interface with it, and also
insurance costs... Depending on demand and durability, that may or may not make this
cost-effective.
Or maybe there are renting-on-demand options available for equivalent, more recent,
equipment that can do the job?
(It’s not a white elephant so long as the up-front costs turn out to be worthwhile, given
that it shouldn't cost much to recycle it if it breaks…)
Thanks,
Mike