Hi Geoff,
I invite any and all skeptics to view the page images currently in P1 for _The Arian Controversy_. It's not nearly as hard as Jon makes it out to be.
http://www.geoffhorton.com/pictureocr/instructions.html has an explanation of what I do.
Very interesting! Of course, let's now look at the issue from: 1) Cost viewpoint 2) Convenience for the average Joe who is not interested in DIY. 3) Archival quality (not of interest to everyone). Regarding 1), a person can buy the PlusTek OpticBook 3600 for about $250 or so. The web site about this scanner is: http://www.plustek.com/products/book.htm How much in supplies, parts, etc., not to mention the camera, does it cost for your solution? (Of course, the digital camera can be used for non-scanning purposes, so that is a benefit. I am quite familiar with photography and digital cameras. I currently own an Olympus C-50 with 5.0 megapixel resolution, and I have my eyes on a prosumer-level SLR when I can afford it.) Regarding 2). What if a person is not interested in DIY stuff? There are a lot of people like that out there! <smile/> Regarding 3), can you achieve effective 600 dpi results (including factoring in camera focus issues) for a college textbook-size page? That would require a 14 megapixel camera. In contrast, the OpticBook can scan an 8.5" by 11.7" page which, at even 300 dpi requires a 9 megapixel camera (and note the OpticBook can scan at 1200 dpi optical, thus an 8.5" by 11.7" page scanned at 1200 dpi would be equivalent to a 143 megapixel camera which does not yet exist, as far as I know.) ***** To conclude, what I am NOT saying is that it is impossible to get good page scans using a digital camera -- what I am saying is that it is not easy nor convenient to do (especially for the average Joe), and not that cost effective, either. There is a big difference. I'm a DIY kind of guy (helping my son now to build audiophile grade speakers and tube amps), so I understand the zeal you have in getting a digital camera to do page scanning, but I also recognize that for most people, those who aren't like us, ready-made solutions which are optimized and engineered for the job at hand are better. Jon Noring