Digital Photo Archiving by Using a Digital Camera?

[AJSJones]

[font color=\'#000000\']a3, I have done exactly that with some family archive pictures (oldest one from 1878!) that are all black and white.  I used a copy stand and a Canon D30 with the 50mm macro and angled floods.  The AWB issue goes away when you convert to gray mode and none of the images had enough resolution that the camera was limiting - a couple had to be held flat by a glass plate but with the floods I had enough light to stop down so DOF wasn't an issue.  The prints varied in contrast so I couldn't use an autoloevels action to automate the processing and did them one by one.  Definitely was fast compared to scanning and more than adequate for the  purpose.  For color work, a custom AWB should get you close so you can post process as much or as little as the original deserves...

Andy[/font]

[a3]

[font color=\'#000000\']As I am now reading that digital cameras are much "cleaner" (in every way, not just the absence of dust) than scans, I was wondering what anybody thinks about digitally archiving black and white and even color prints (not film material) by using one of the high end digital SLR cameras with a macro lens and using a copy stand with lights setup?

Do I have to use a macro lens on cameras with a magnification ratio, as I don't have to worry about the edges of the lens? Is such a lens still "flat field" enough?

I also think that this method will be much faster than scanning.

Thanks for any feedback.[/font]

[Reg PALEY]

[font color=\'#000000\']I have only been shooting digital since Dec 01, but I have found a way of getting my old 3.25 X 2.25 in B+W negs into my PC. Although I am only able to run to a 3.2 Megpixel Olympus 3020 I'm very pleased with results - place neg on light box - mask - set camera to macro - take shot. Once transferred to the PC the amount of control is wonderful - it was never like this in the old wet darkroom![/font]