Waaaaay OT, sorry.

[DAve]

Gary Kline wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 28, 2005 at 10:15:06PM -0800, Vizion wrote:
> 
>>On Monday 28 November 2005 22:05,  the author Gary Kline contributed to the 
>>dialogue on-
>> Waaaaay OT, sorry.: 
>>
>>
>>>	Folks,
>>>
>>>	This is one of my more obscure questions and involves scanning
>>>	not paper but something they used to store books, magazines,
>>>	and newspapers--before the computer age.  It is called a
>>>	microfiche (or fiche).  A friend got a copy of a rare
>>>	out-of-print, not-for-sale book on microfiche.  We're looking
>>>	for some means of scanning this film into a scanner with
>>>	OCR.  So far, he has tried a camera with 8G memory.  No joy,
>>>	the scanner sees garbage.  Anybody out there ever have anything
>>>	like this prob?  The book is from 1913 so it is well in the
>>>	public domain.  I've already written Google; zero response.
>>>
>>>	I want to get this book up on my site, fully HTML it so that
>>>	everybody has the opportunity to ready it ... .
>>>
>>>	thanks for any insights,
>>>
>>>	gary
>>
>>Its a long time since I have handled microfiche but my guess is you will need 
>>to mount your camera onto a  microfiche reader or a microscope. The 
>>resolution of a microfiche image is really high - far higher than the camera 
>>you are using so I think you may need something to enlarge the image for you 
>>to photograph.
>>
>>my two pennorth
>>
>>david
>>
> 
> 
> 	Microscope; that never cross my mind.  I think my pal took stuff
> 	to the  main library one night and tried capturing the data from 
> 	the reader.   Not very successful; I don't know the details.
> 	(We are around 1200 miles apart.)   Any ballpark SWAG what power 
> 	lens might work here?  I only touched m'fiche one time ever, so 
> 	have no idea.  Money is an issue since there are 400+ pages.
> 
> 
> 	gary
> 
> 

Have you given any thought to using an overhead projector? Possibly a
slide projector? Depends on the fiche size I'd think, but you could then
  make an image on a wall/screen that could be photographed.

Also, I remember using my fathers extension tubes on his old Cannon to
copy slides and photograph postage stamps. It was amazing the clarity I
got. A small stamp could fill a 35mm frame.

DAve