The Deal Thread or How To Find Cheap Cameras

[charlies]

A quick look at
http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ
will tell you which cameras are supported
then, look at Canon, for refurbished cameras from them:
http://shop.usa.canon.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CusaCatalogSearchResultView?searchTerm=+refurbished&keyType=BCAT&catSize=1&catType1=CATEGORY1&catValue1=CAMERAS&gnSize=1&gnType1=&gnValue1=
then, adorama often has these (and more models, also) for less, and free (snail mail) shipping (I have bought from them, and they are great)
http://www.adorama.com/searchsite/default.aspx?searchinfo=canon%20refurbished

If you know of more 'stores' selling Canon refurbished, let us know, here.

as of this writing: Canon has A590 refurbished for $90; adorama has SD1100 for $109 (has lion battery!); a470 for $70. all supported in chdk...

[drsampft]

We scan documents for city government; and install & support a document imaging package called "Laserfiche".
Cities in Iowa where we work have very little money; but many large, bound volumes of historic documents. Some of the books are 24" X 18". Many pages are yellowed or brown with age.

I know very little about selecting the proper camera for a job like this, but I know neither my clients nor myself can afford a commercial book scanner. So I will have to make one!!!

Any suggestions on a good camera for this task would be appreciated. I anticipate needing 12 megapixels, but I may be off base.

What kind of lens would be needed?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this issue.

drsampft in Des Moines, IA

[reggilbert]

Dear drsampft,

Browse through this active thread for some heavy math on megapixels, zoom factors, and page sizes:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=332&start=10

I read this a few days ago, but I think the upshot is that you will need a good bit more than 12MP for the page sizes you are talking about, assuming you desire a resolution of 300dpi+.

I am interested in building or otherwise acquiring a system that can handle fairly large page sizes (but not a big as yours thank heavens), so please let me know what you come up with if you ever get to the point of actually scanning your large documents.

Reg

We scan documents for city government; and install & support a document imaging package called "Laserfiche".
Cities in Iowa where we work have very little money; but many large, bound volumes of historic documents. Some of the books are 24" X 18". Many pages are yellowed or brown with age.

I know very little about selecting the proper camera for a job like this, but I know neither my clients nor myself can afford a commercial book scanner. So I will have to make one!!!

Any suggestions on a good camera for this task would be appreciated. I anticipate needing 12 megapixels, but I may be off base.

What kind of lens would be needed?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this issue.

drsampft in Des Moines, IA

[Misty]

I wrote a blog post about DPI with cameras the other week.

That said - while 300 DPI is the usual archival standard, your 24" pages are so large you will probably not be able to afford a camera that can give you that resolution. If you take a look at the camera shopping guide I wrote, you can get a sense of what resolution camera you might be able to afford. What's your budget on this project?

If you'd rather talk about this privately, send me a PM and I can give you my e-mail.

[spamsickle]

I'm not an archivist, so I'm free to set my own standards. If the text is legible and the pictures are pleasing, I've captured what I need.

I'm currently scanning some old books which are 11"x13", with three columns of relatively small text. They're bound copies of newspapers from 1800. While it is possible to get readable text by shooting an entire page with a 12 MP camera, I'm planning to shoot half pages instead, and combine them in post processing. I've tried the freeware Hugin, and don't think it will do the combining as I'd like. Seeing the results it returns, I suspect that other "panorama stitching" software will also not be adequate for my needs.

I'm thinking I'll probably tile the two images together in Photoshop, because I think I'll probably want to try to put my seams between lines if possible, and may also need to transform the geometry to get the two sides to line up properly across the seam. I expect it's going to be very labor intensive, but if you're being paid to do it it might be something to consider.

[daniel_reetz]

My god, you can get a 10mpix DSLR WITH A LENS for $349 -- just amazing:

http://dealnews.com/Sony-Alpha-a230-10. ... 01071.html

This really changes the whole equation... As cameras get cheaper and cheaper, the level of work we're able to do goes up and up...

[Misty]

Wow, that is crazy. I know Sony replaced it with a newer model earlier this year, but even for a year-old model that's pretty much deal of the century. It's amazing how cheap SLRs are getting these days.

[DonnaA]

B&H currently sells refurbished Olympus E-P1 cameras, $369.95, apparently a maximum of one per customer:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Nt ... edSearch=1



-- DonnaA

[Misty]

I see they have two sets listed. Will they let you buy one of each?

[daniel_reetz]

Looks like the Powershot line is getting a refresh, including an $89 A800:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/05/cano ... a1200-and/

Can't wait to see CHDK running on these new models!