Photographing Old Manuscripts

Marathon Man

Hi all, Hope someone here can help me with this. I am doing some research at the moment and will have to photograph a rare old text as there are no microfilm copies of it. I have practiced on the newspaper and its not too good. Is there a setting on a digital camera for text. What is the best way to get a good resolution pic of text?
BTW my camera is a Canon Powershot A550.

Thanks.

Skittle

I hate to sound obvious or stupid but there are A3 photocopiers that will create a TIFF image of the document placed on the machine. It might be a better way to approach it instead of using a digital camera.

ThOnda

Those copiers/scanners use very bright light, it could be theoretically dangerous to old manuscripts. But what do I know? Just an idea - please, read my signature.

Marathon Man

Skittle wrote: »

I hate to sound obvious or stupid but there are A3 photocopiers that will create a TIFF image of the document placed on the machine. It might be a better way to approach it instead of using a digital camera.

Its a very sensitive document. So there is no possibility of getting a good quality picture?

Ricky91t

Find a friend will a DSLR and a low light lens,some good glass on a Digital slr will out do a compact cam anyday...

ThOnda

And tripod. Also you could use (adapt) stand from film enlarger. You need to callibrate white ballance and use dispersed light to avoid unwanted reflections and shadows on the bend of the pages in the middle of the book.
Camera must be parallel to the book, big number of aperture and lot's of patience.

Mycroft H

Find the closest point to focus on your powershot (try 'macro' mode, it has an icon like a flower), get several table lamps to light the subject, then using a tripod or your hand if your steady take the photo.

Btw friends with dslr and fast macro lenses are hard to come by.....

Edit. Just looked up the minimum focus lenght for the a550 is 5cm. Compacts often take fantastic macro shots

Burnt

This is probably edging towards overkill; but if it was for reproduction purposes,
would a perspective control lense be a help?

pjproby

very interested in this subject myself. i have the opportunity to photograph an 19th century archive. If i succeed it would allow me to put the entire archive on the web. I know little or nothing about photography but from some test results i would guarantee, that at the very least you would need a tripod. in my case i think i would need to construct a frame for the tripod to be attached to.
i was using a much cheaper camera than the original poster but some of the results were spectacular.some were awful.
I also managed to convert the photo to a pdf file which is a better solution for a document.
In my case a scanner is also out of the question.
Have a look at Google Books who are, as far as i know, also photographing the material first.