Fiche scanning (was Re: [Simh] Listings of XXDP test and maindec's for 11/70)

[Zane H. Healy]

On Tue, 14 Apr 2009, Alexandre Souza wrote:

>   Ethan, there is a way to easily scan these fiches if a normal scanner with 
> negative/transparency adapter doesn't fit the bill
>
>   A digital camera in front of the reader, page after page, in a darkened 
> room would do miracles. A professional (high-quality, etc) DV camera feeding 
> directly a computer in front of the reader also would do miracles.

I've had this done for me for some historical fiche for something I'm
writing.  The photo's were taken with a 6MP Nikon D70s.  It works, but it is
far from ideal.  Still it is preferable to the cost of printing out the
individual sheets if you have someone that will be visiting a library with a
copy of the fiche you need.  Room illumination would have been standard for
the library the fiche was at.

To do it right, even this solution isn't cheap.  You need a good camera with
either a remote, or wired trigger, and the camera needs to be on a tripod.

I have my doubts this would work well for anything like source code fiche. 
DEC fiche tends to be very small.

Zane