EH.R: Digital cameras for archival research

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Folks

 
I have been using the Canon A 620.   It gets very high ratings from Consumer Reports and takes great pictures.  I bought it for $211 from beach camera on the internet about a year to a year and a half ago.  

 
It has the glorious feature that you can shoot directly into your computer
with the remote shooting feature.  Therefore, you can check what the image
looks like on the computer screen, so you know for sure how good the picture
is immediately.  You can also shoot in black and white, so that you don't
use up as much space on your hard drive.  I find the M2 setting to be
sufficient for most shots.   

It uses 4 AA batteries.  I have a battery recharger that I got at Office
Depot (and is now available at Costco) for about $30 and recharges the
batteries in 15 minutes.  I have 8 rechargeable batteries that I swap in and
out.  

It is very important to have a tripod and a horizontal arm extension that
allows you to shoot face down over the document.   You need stability on the
shot and once you get the tripod set up you can push paper in and out really
fast.



Paul Rhode and I each bought a Manfrotto Tripod that has the arm extension
built-in.  The only problems with the Manfrotto are that it is costly (about
$200 for head and tripod) and heavier than most tripods.  The key to the
picture though is stability, so the extra weight is probably a positive
feature.

One warning about the digital shots.  They don't print out very well, but
you can convert them to .pdfs and still use Optical Character Readers to
read the data.

I hope this helps others.

Price Fishback