Alex,
Let your material and budget dictate your choice first and foremost. I
empathise with your local govt procurement issues but I do believe that if
it is explained in terms of cost and time efficiency your DSLR and copy
stand solution will look more attractive. This combination is very
versatile for documents, books and other media. The work you have to do to,
for example a creased photography having flat-bed scanned it, will mean a
lot of corrective work. in terms of staff skills it is just as skilful as
taking a photograph if not more so.
Do your transparencies really need an A3 scanner?
Another option if you want a large glass platen is to look at multicopiers
that can scan and collate to PDF. You may already have these functions on
youroffice photocopier. Expensive though, although not as expensive as book
scanners and actually the platen option for large tightly bound books
unless you are able to unbind will cause you problems which are time
consuming and therefore less cost effective.
If you are digitising books and bound archives especially for preservation
and access a book scanner can be a good option but if you think staff woud
be turned off a camera wait til they try a book scanner!
The JISC Digital advice is really useful and I can endorse starting your
scoping exercise there too.
Having had to go through this with different projects over time I must say
that I have come to like a combination of camera and copy stand capturing
in raw and multicopier (if the office already has one) to cover everything
except the largest maps and plans which are better outsourced.
Good luck!
Tehmina
On Friday, February 15, 2013, Alex Smith wrote:
> Hi there guys,
>
> Thanks so much for the quick response. There are a few reasons to go for
> the flatbed as far as the discussions we have had here. Although we are not
> planning to digitise transparencies and film right this second, I would
> like to know we have bought something that could. But perhaps a smaller
> high-end scanner would be a better choice for this?
>
> People know how to use them – they are less confident about being asked to
> use a camera.
>
> Thirdly, I work for a local council and the technology procurement is
> reallllly painful. Explaining that we want a scanner throws them enough;
> explaining that we need a DSLR solution to the problem may make their heads
> explode. However, I do think your right, if there is a better solution than
> a flatbed then that discussion will have to happen anyway.
>
> Thanks for everyone’s input, I will digest and plan the next steps.
>
> Cheers,
>
> ALex
>
> ****************************************************************
> website: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/
> Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg
> Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup
> [un]subscribe: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/
> ****************************************************************
>
--
Dr Tehmina Goskar, MA AMA
[log in to unmask]
Heritage Consultant & Historian -- Industrial Heritage -- Digital Heritage
-- Collections Management -- Interpretation -- Research
http://tehmina.goskar.com/
Twitter: @tehm <https://en.twitter.com/tehm>
Join History 51: Unveiling Women in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly:
http://www.elizabethtreffrycollection.org/
Read about my research on copper: http://copper.goskar.com/
****************************************************************
website: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup
[un]subscribe: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/
****************************************************************
|