OOPS... Sorry, my bad. It was my first post and I was trying to be as specific as possible with the suggestions. I have no connection with any of the links I posted and they were placed for information only. I won't break the rules again.

BTW, is the link to Nikon I included also forbidden?

Thanks
Fermenteer

TaoTeJared said:
Niko........

Wow! I didn't even notice the links in this thread. Sorry guys, I must be getting too old for this sh..! ;^)

**PLEASE NO COMMERCIAL LINKS IN THE THREADS. OR WE WILL ASSUME YOU ARE A P.O.S SPAMMER AND YOU WILL BE PERMANENTLY BANNED**

Fermenteer said:
This is my first post here and I felt I should way in with my experience as I used to do this for a living back in the day when slide shows were state of the art. (Yes, Fred Flinstone was one of my customers).I would first like to address one very important issue not mentioned here yet and that is ergonomics. It looks like you may be spending many hours bending over your viewfinder and will have some serious problems with fatigue and back strain. I have put together some suggestions for you based on your budget. I will list them for you and then explain.

1. Nikon D5000 est $650 new body only.
This camera has a tremendous feature that will allow you to rotate and move the rear screen to any angle and you can use this while the camera is pointing down on a tripod. Focus will be done manually and you will see a small square in the viewfinder after you have achieved perfect focus on your subject. This procedure will save you tremendous amounts of time and effort as you will quickly be able to frame and adjust your objects without having to squint through the viewfinder.

2. NIKON MICRO-NIKKOR AI-S MACRO LENS 55mm f/2.8 est $200 used on ebay. This is a MANUAL FOCUS lens and one of the finest pieces of glass ever made. Any of the other micro nikkors will also work if affordable but I would keep to the 65mm or less. In copy work the manual focus is an advantage.
3. A good tripod that will allow you to reverse the center post so that the camera is between the legs. A crank for adjusting height would be very helpful if many of you subjects are of different sizes. The heavier the better. A used enlarger with a motorized carriage would be ideal like the old Besslers. I am not up on the current tripods out there but I think you could get something around $150 new or much less used. A trip to your local camera store or suggestions on this board should help.

4. Wireless remote control (extremely important) Est $14.
ML-L3 Wireless Remote Control.

Here is a generic equivalent that you can get on ebay for less than $2.00 including shipping! I would get several of these as they could be easily lost.

4. Lighting. I would opt for the light box solution as suggested by earlier posters for affordability. Try to restrict the light from illuminating the surrounding room if possible as the glare will cause problems. Some simple "barn doors" can be made from black poster board. Although expensive, the ideal solution would be to have two spot lights at 45 degrees with polarizers placed over the lights and to also use a polarizer on the lens. This is how the pros do it when photographing paintings and other objects with texture to control micro-reflections. These result in reduced contrast and glare that can degrade the image. Unfortunately these are expensive. I would opt for a good consistent light source. Be sure and set your camera to manual white balance based on your light source. Inexpensive flash units may work but you may have to trigger them from the on-board flash. This might be doable though.

5. Also, place a black card around the the lens to shield the camera and your white ceiling from reflecting back from the subject. Just cut a lens sized hole in some black poster board and cut to size. The larger the better. It is very distressing to have a days shooting ruined because of the image of the camera faintly looking back at you in all of your images.This will be extremely important if you use a sheet of glass as a platten to keep your subjects flat. Also, if you do use a glass platten remember that most window glass will add a green cast to your image. A few tests should show you the correct compensation. A sheet of good grade framing glass would be ideal. A polarizer on the lens may still be helpful with these setups.

5. Use your camera in manual mode for exposure and white balance. Once you are set up your light will not change.

6.Use an eyepiece cap. I know it sounds weird, put light does come through the camera both ways and can effect your image. Nikon makes a custom one but anything will do.

7. You can use an external power supply for your camera. This will keep the camera from shutting down just when you are about to click the shutter. I think it is around $100.

Good luck! I hope this helps and that my suggestions are within your budget. You can contact me if you have more questions.

Fermenteer

NOTE: Ken Rockwell at
has just done a review of an inexpensive Dolica AX620B100 tripod for around $35 that would work for you. The legs lock at three angles, and each has a screw foot for a spike or rubber tip.

The column reverses, but even better, there is a second 3/8" screw at the bottom, so you can reverse the column, or just screw the head onto the bottom instead. It even includes a carrying case for that price and will hold up to 13 pounds.

Fermenteer

Niko........

This is my first post here and I felt I should way in with my experience as I used to do this for a living back in the day when slide shows were state of the art. (Yes, Fred Flinstone was one of my customers).I would first like to address one very important issue not mentioned here yet and that is ergonomics. It looks like you may be spending many hours bending over your viewfinder and will have some serious problems with fatigue and back strain. I have put together some suggestions for you based on your budget. I will list them for you and then explain.

1. Nikon D5000 est $650 new body only.
This camera has a tremendous feature that will allow you to rotate and move the rear screen to any angle and you can use this while the camera is pointing down on a tripod. Focus will be done manually and you will see a small square in the viewfinder after you have achieved perfect focus on your subject. This procedure will save you tremendous amounts of time and effort as you will quickly be able to frame and adjust your objects without having to squint through the viewfinder.

2. NIKON MICRO-NIKKOR AI-S MACRO LENS 55mm f/2.8 est $200 used on ebay. This is a MANUAL FOCUS lens and one of the finest pieces of glass ever made. Any of the other micro nikkors will also work if affordable but I would keep to the 65mm or less. In copy work the manual focus is an advantage.
3. A good tripod that will allow you to reverse the center post so that the camera is between the legs. A crank for adjusting height would be very helpful if many of you subjects are of different sizes. The heavier the better. A used enlarger with a motorized carriage would be ideal like the old Besslers. I am not up on the current tripods out there but I think you could get something around $150 new or much less used. A trip to your local camera store or suggestions on this board should help.

4. Wireless remote control (extremely important) Est $14.
ML-L3 Wireless Remote Control.

Here is a generic equivalent that you can get on ebay for less than $2.00 including shipping! I would get several of these as they could be easily lost.

4. Lighting. I would opt for the light box solution as suggested by earlier posters for affordability. Try to restrict the light from illuminating the surrounding room if possible as the glare will cause problems. Some simple "barn doors" can be made from black poster board. Although expensive, the ideal solution would be to have two spot lights at 45 degrees with polarizers placed over the lights and to also use a polarizer on the lens. This is how the pros do it when photographing paintings and other objects with texture to control micro-reflections. These result in reduced contrast and glare that can degrade the image. Unfortunately these are expensive. I would opt for a good consistent light source. Be sure and set your camera to manual white balance based on your light source. Inexpensive flash units may work but you may have to trigger them from the on-board flash. This might be doable though.

5. Also, place a black card around the the lens to shield the camera and your white ceiling from reflecting back from the subject. Just cut a lens sized hole in some black poster board and cut to size. The larger the better. It is very distressing to have a days shooting ruined because of the image of the camera faintly looking back at you in all of your images.This will be extremely important if you use a sheet of glass as a platten to keep your subjects flat. Also, if you do use a glass platten remember that most window glass will add a green cast to your image. A few tests should show you the correct compensation. A sheet of good grade framing glass would be ideal. A polarizer on the lens may still be helpful with these setups.

5. Use your camera in manual mode for exposure and white balance. Once you are set up your light will not change.

6.Use an eyepiece cap. I know it sounds weird, put light does come through the camera both ways and can effect your image. Nikon makes a custom one but anything will do.

7. You can use an external power supply for your camera. This will keep the camera from shutting down just when you are about to click the shutter. I think it is around $100.

Good luck! I hope this helps and that my suggestions are within your budget. You can contact me if you have more questions.

Fermenteer

>>the killer part is some of the alblums are spiral bound, & when placed on an easel, the pages, smaller than the hardbound cover, lean down<<

Ah , large books... for these often the best table is ...the floor, with thw peaces of ( Matras filling) foam and a cloth on top off that to support the books in the most possible flat fashion.. .
Its two peaces of foam because you then support the front and back cover of the book, with a space in between for the "binding ( spiral)" that keeps the book together. This way there is no limit to the size ( only the size for the available floor and foaom supports..).

This enables you to put simple lighting on all the furniture you like to have around and put up a tripod with reversed mid column above your subject..

I don't plan on any exotic lighting other than a couple angled softened daylight bulbs on a backdrop sheet...I'm very familiar with intra-oral dental reconstuction & jewelry & diamond photography with a Lester Dine 105mm w/macro side & ring flash setup....unfortunately, it was a 35mm setup, not digital, or I would just be using my own camera with another lens . . please send mr. documentary over to Hallandale,fl & let's git'r dun!!!..I've only logged in about 5 times...He must be a true guru!! . . :) some of these alblums are falling apart from age....I'm not in a hurry to contribute to their demise & have finger pointing...HBH

I think many of the suggestions posted here would leave you with gear of of no benefit anywhere else. Just using a Nikon DSLR and a macro lens will get the photos copied and some should be shot of the albums and scrapbooks as well. Stands and easels and complex lighting schemes are just a drag. In the time you have logged getting suggestions Ken Burns would have shot them all and had them archived, indexed, and in a slidesound show.

in the UK. e bay has a De Vere 54 varicon CLASSIC 5 x 4 black & White enlarger

which, with a bit of modification would be perfect

not sure what the US equivalent would be

A down side of a drill press is they are not normally counterbalanced

Hi,.... I AM with the Hallandale Historical Preservation Board.....We first attempted to "borrow" the Police Dept's multi thousand$$ camera to archive the PD's historical scrapbook for them, but they declined use of CSI camera.....That's how I got to starting research...The Chamber of Commerce is also funded by the city, who gave us the budget for the camera & system... We are in possession of ALL the city's original photos, which were being stored by the chamber.....doe to hurricanes, fire, etc... it has been decided to copy all for safety of the archive....I'm now looking @ the 40mm & 50mm macro's....the killer part is some of the alblums are spiral bound, & when placed on an easel, the pages, smaller than the hardbound cover, lean down....the alblums are so large it takes 2 easels to support it when open. . .That is why I prefer a table to support the alblum laying flat....and a means of camera support over the table.....I'm familliar with the old fashioned negative enlargers, having used them... hard to find so I may get a floor drill press stand & Mcgyver a tripod mount 90 degrees to it...Unless, someone knows of an articulating arm that would mount to a tripod, or anything that could work in this situation....Thanx for all the great input everyone!! HBH

HBHistorical: One other thing to consider that's got nothing to do with cameras, strobes, etc.: if you're preserving the city's history, why not contact your local Chamber of Commerce and/or Historical Society, explain the project, and see if they're willing to put up a few bucks as well? It'll give you more options in terms of what you can use to get the job done, and might also open additional avenues as far as getting the work before the public.

>> The upcoming 40mm Micro Nikkor would be awesome I would guess but again, what is that going to do to your budget? <<

Its priced around here already ( and on preorder..) , Price is just a little more than the 60mm micro ... ( AF-s version) so I guess its positive on the budget then ...

I have done this exact kind of assignment many times. i have way over your budget in my scanner gear and to be blunt, I rarely use it anymore. The most harmonious outcome has been a Nikon DSLR with a 60 Micro Nikkor. This combo was recommended by an above poster. I have also found that artificial lighting was not much of an edge over nice even window light. I think your biggest challenge is budget. I have shot these also with zoom lens and in many ways they are faster, but with less sharp detail. The upcoming 40mm Micro Nikkor would be awesome I would guess but again, what is that going to do to your budget? I would pay attention to getting squared up with your image. Ken Burns did this kind of photography so often and so well that the Civil War and the National Parks documentary are among the best known historical reworks ever done. Ken Burn did his photos of old photos with great gear. I assume you have seen those documentaries but that should provide lots of inspiration. I'd get a Nikon DSLR, a Micro 60mm Nikkor from B&H used, and a steady tripod and go to work. Also how you archive your photos and share them will be worth doing right as well. Put togethr in slide sound show on say iPhoto or Aperature 3 (Mac) would be pretty nice on a HDTV secondary monitor.

I'm getting some great feedback here....This is not just a 1 time project, as this will be performed on about 40 of the same sized scrapbooks, and some individual 8 x 10's that have been aquired over the years......I could even forsee the camera used for photos of group meetngs & events......The budget has pretty much been fixed by the city mgr, so I'm sure $1200 would be the max, ($1000 was approoved)....Thanks for all the ideas.....any links to some of this optional equipment would be greatly appreciated, especially if from a site that sells discounted.....I've volunteered to scout out the equipment, some of which I'm not familiar with, such as the macro focusing rail.....Googe gives too much info vs. best price....Thanx again,... JD

I had a project that involved copying and key wording 1600 photos. A scanner would have been too slow and a copy stand was too expensive for a one time project. I set a Nikon Camera on my tripod pointed down. I used a level to make it parallel with the desktop under it. A used enlarging easel that I acquired for $10 on eBay was placed under it to hold any curled photos flat. I use a 28-70mm zoom (make sure the lens you pick will hold a zoom setting, some do not when pointed down). The zoom allows you to fill the frame with the images without changing the entire set up. You could use a fixed focus but you would spend a lot of time changing your set up. the Nikon 50mm f1.8 is the least expensive and one of the sharpest lens that Nikon makes. I used two strobes in soft boxes. The strobes must be at a very low angle to the material being copied otherwise you will get glare. I had to use a angle well below 45 degrees - the strobe/soft boxes were actually touching the table top that the images were photographed on. Also beware of other bright lights in the room; any light source that is placed very high above the plane of the images being copied will cause glare, I had to turn off overhead lights in the room I used. I used a neutral gray card to get a reference for balancing the color on all the images. Once the setup is complete you can record images at a very rapid rate, I felt the quality was as good or better than a scanner. I used Lightroom to balance the color, refine the photos and add the key words

Agree with Sevencrossing, the new 40mm would be a very good lens for document imaging , combine it with a D3100 or D5100 ( for the sensor..) .

If its only for this one job, it might also be a good idea to rent a D3x + 60mm AF-d, for as day or two ...., or have it professionally scanned .... ( there is seldomly a "Cheap" option for a professionally executed job....).

Nikon are bringing out a new AF-S DX Micro NIKKOR 40mm lens on sale from 25th August
I wonder what else that date will bring

Hi,

I think JD's problem is that the photos are in a scrapbook and can't be removed, and some are likely fragile and need to be placed on a table.

7-crossing's notion of using a copy stand or jury-rigging from an enlarger is likely best if JD can manage it, but the principles that everyone suggest still apply, light 45° off the plane of the subject and a good macro lens would be perfect and a decent camera.

The budget is troubling, but JD might go used or reconditioned on lens or camera. The D90 is nice, but the 60mm might be too tight in. The new 40mm might be better when available.

My best,

Mike

Impossible in your budget if you want to do it right... You need a d3100 (or any body for that matter), a lens that is anywhere between 70-135mm, a tripod, 2 even power strobes or off camera flashes (300w a sec is good enough), and the cable, adapter, and stands to use the flash with the camera.

Hang or prop the pic against a wall or on a shelf. The camera needs to be even with the media (I really dunno how far back though). And each light rotated 45% towards the camera 1 on each side of the camera in the middle. Shoot at 1/2 power on the strobes and the Camera fstop at roughly f/8 or f/11. Make sure you don't exceed your sync SS.

Your copies will come out perfect. Or you could just live with the discoloration, shadows, and distortion you will get using a D3100 with a 18-55mm lens in "regular" light...

I would probably suggest 60mm macro (AFS or AFD) since they are super sharp, have zero distortion, and are fairly cheap. Add almost any Nikon DX DSLR and you will be good on the camera front. (3100 or 5100 would be fine)

-Add a tripod or a mounting arm to be 90deg from your subject.
-Lighting will be the biggest issue, you can make a soft box from a white, cheap bed sheet to balance the light (remove hot spots) and you should be good.
-Get a custom WB cap to get the color right as well.

If you dont want to use a scanner and you prefer Nikon camera+lens combinations, suitable lenses are Nikon 24-70 @70 mm or Nikon Micro 105 VR... Those lenses practically have no distortion and both are very sharp and contrasty...... By the way, dont forget to use a good tripod...

HBHistorical said:
Hi, . . I'm looking for the best setup for duplicating & archiving city photo's both in a scrapbook & separate unmounted pictures....Some of these need to be enhaced/restored to better clarity & color......Our budget is $1000-1200 for the camera & some type of focal length stand/frame to place pictures under......Any help would be greatly appreciated.....thanks,..JD

I think scanner is not a good Option.
You suggest any other Option...........

If you have a lot of images to copy, look at a strong wall mounted stand. I used to use a modified 5x4 enlarger stand

the lighting will have to repeatable, so dont use daylight

Scanner is not an option with a scrapbook measuring 18" X 24", with multiple pictures permanently fixed to a 40 yr old well worn out scrapbook.....how would you get each of the pages on a standard size scanner????.....ps,. . didn't mean to offend by caps in title...many of the forums I'm on require it....didn't read enough topics to figure it out...Also, not every one using caps is shouting,...some of us have poorer vision... :)

If you are just duplicating & archiving, I would go with a scanner as well. The quality will be leagues better.