New project- looking for a starting point

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PhredPhidgets
Posts: 3
Joined: 02 Dec 2013, 14:50
E-book readers owned: Adobe Acrobat, Aldiko,
Number of books owned: 100
Country: Usa

New project- looking for a starting point

Post by PhredPhidgets »

Hi everyone- I am new to the DIY Scanner Forum - a I am looking for a starting point.

I obtained a number of years ago a copystand from Boeing Surplus in Kent WA. (geez I really miss that place - It was DIYer's heaven). The stand was evidently made in the Boeing fabrications shop and very impressively made. It uses an aluminum v-beam extrusion and features a counterbalanced camera mount. It has a few quirks though - the vertical camera support was built to be in the side of the unit - so the aspect of the unit is portrait (vertical) from the front as opposed to landscape - there is a hinged platform for books on the rear - but it hinges downwards instead of up and it is in the wrong aspect to take full frames of a page. This makes me suspect the unit was built specifically for video work as opposed to still cameras - it did come with a simple video switching unit which I removed.

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So I am thinking that the easiest way would be to mount a heavy steel right angle to the camera mount to "flip" the aspect of the camera - the then reverse the hinge on the platform so it hinges upward. I am working with a single camera for now. Later I am thinking of making a full cradle for a book and mounting a hinged platen on the camera mount.

Is this a good starting point? Anybody want to offer any suggestions- or perhaps words of wisdom?
victoriaaustralia
Posts: 55
Joined: 07 Nov 2011, 16:22
E-book readers owned: newton
Number of books owned: 2
Country: Australia
Location: Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia

Re: New project- looking for a starting point

Post by victoriaaustralia »

You will end up with a single fixed camera looking down onto an open book - either then with imaging of the open book, two pages at once or a single page and then rotate book to image other page.

The single photograph covering two pages can have keystoning problems, various post-processing programs will be better or worse for this. This is a bit of a discussion about this:
http://www.diybookscanner.org/forum/vie ... mera#p8528

Trial scantailor or a newer option I have not used yet is Booksorber:
http://diybookscanner.org/forum/viewtop ... f=3&t=2620
which is $Euro29 but seems to deal intelligently with keystoning. It depends what your output is going to be for - reference, archive, OCR?

However if you are just going to use the stand as a camera support for a two page photo, why not just use a tripod? Will take up a great deal less space than that giant frame and is easier to change position:
http://www.diybookscanner.org/forum/vie ... m&start=60
Freeware Windows workflow in 2020
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=3620
PhredPhidgets
Posts: 3
Joined: 02 Dec 2013, 14:50
E-book readers owned: Adobe Acrobat, Aldiko,
Number of books owned: 100
Country: Usa

Re: New project- looking for a starting point

Post by PhredPhidgets »

Hi victoriaaustralia

I was thinking of more along the idea of using the hinged partition in a near vertical angle and taking only the even pages then flipping the book 180 degrees and getting the odd pages. I have not seen this configuration before and the one worry I have is that controlling the pages so that the entire book doesn't flip over in the process of scanning.
victoriaaustralia
Posts: 55
Joined: 07 Nov 2011, 16:22
E-book readers owned: newton
Number of books owned: 2
Country: Australia
Location: Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia

Re: New project- looking for a starting point

Post by victoriaaustralia »

Monsons sticks is this type of build - single camera facing down, taking a single image of a single page at a time:
http://www.diybookscanner.org/forum/vie ... ?f=1&t=422

Video here, demonstration at 0:50:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtPpR8amlfA
Freeware Windows workflow in 2020
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=3620
PhredPhidgets
Posts: 3
Joined: 02 Dec 2013, 14:50
E-book readers owned: Adobe Acrobat, Aldiko,
Number of books owned: 100
Country: Usa

Re: New project- looking for a starting point

Post by PhredPhidgets »

Well I am very pleased with my first start on this project - I was able to reverse the hinge on the platform.I thought I was going to need to fabricate a bracket to turn the camera 90 degrees however, I remembered that one of my tripods had a Bogen 3D head (see first photo) It takes some adjusting , but it seems to put the camera at a good position fairly easily. I found a tabletop tripod to hold my reflector with a full spectrum CFL bulb in it. Lighting is good - my camera is set to 1/60th at F8. I'd like to use a diffuser next time the page is a little hotter in the center than i'd like. I have utilized my magnetic copy stand and some magnets to hold the book in place.

Image

Image

Image

Best part of this build - I cost me a total of 6 dollars for the barrel bolt latch (to lock the platform in place) - everything else was scrounged or repurposed.

I have started on the book that is shown in the photo. I have all the odd pages imaged - took me about 20 or so minutes.

Things I have learned so far -

1)Take your time on setup - getting camera leveled an in the right position makes all the difference. Flip at least 10 or so pages to see if you have leveled and framed everything right.
2) Ergonomics are very important- about 20 pages or so and I realized stooping over the camera was not a good thing to do - I replaced the chair with a barstool that was padded and it was quite a bit more workable then.
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