FWIW, Since I bought myself a digital camera for general use, plus a copy of Omniscan, my scanner has been pretty well idle. As it happens, the camera is a 12 megapixel model, but for most purposes I find it better to set it to 8 MP or even less. Also, for most books I set the mode to black and white. It is best for mass input either to get a tripod as well, or to buy some sort of cheap plastic stand and mutilate it into a camera stand. I have been using a kindergarten table into the top of which I cut a camera-shaped hole with a hobby knife and due caution. Avoid buying s cheerfully coloured stand, because if you happen to need colour shots it can seriously affect the picture. The best is translucent white or grey, or possibly transparent. Grey or black are not too bad if illumination is no problem. Then it is just a matter of setting manual focus and clicking away till done. The table is very light and firm and I have had no problems with unsteadiness. Obviously one chooses a suitable surface to work on, so that glue and similar pollutants are not a consideration. There are of course umpteen variations on the theme. You might prefer stands and clips to hold the objects erect. You might buy a second-hand camera economically, but do make sure that it will take a suitable memory module, the larger the better. SD cards are very good, especially if have a reading USB attachment. I got one pretty cheap. The main regret is that I didn't get a mains adapter to power the camera while one was still available. As it stands I simply use rechargeable NIMH batteries of the right size. Remember: the power burden is much heavier than most other photographic activities. There are some definite advantages over the scanner, even though modern scanners are remarkably good. Fewer moving parts for one. (once you have the camera set up, it is only the button and the shutter that move! ) Unless you have a scanner with an automatic feed, the speed is better too, plus, there are few books that you need mutilate to photograph them. Another luxury, though I have not in practice needed it, is that the camera can be set to various degrees of resolution. For most purposes very modest resolution is far more than adequate, but if you should need more than you can get from a single shot, then set it up to take only part of a page at a time, and you can magnify your material till the limiting factor is not the camera, but the quality of the printing. Is my choice unusual in any way? Jon On 2010/04/14 13:44 PM, Greg Weeks wrote:
On Sat, 13 Feb 2010, Sparr wrote:
Remnants of glue left on the edge of a page (from the removed spine) get stuck to the inside of the scanner or feeder, ruining the scans of subsequent pages until the scanner is cleaned.
I use a knife to cut the binding off rather than try to separate the pages. A plough knife is actually made for this. I've had pretty good results with a standard construction razor knife.