Olympus E-PL1?

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elhyam
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Olympus E-PL1?

Post by elhyam »

I started flatbed scanning books and OCR'ing to read on my HP 200LX DOS pocket computer over 15 years ago so I guess you could say I'm an early adopter of ebooks, including the DIY variety. But it's been a long time since I've done book scanning and now that the day of the ebook has arrived with a vengeance I'm looking to get back in the game. The plan is to pick up a kit from one of the folks here, which my brother (architect and craftsman extraordinaire) has graciously, with minimal arm-twisting, agreed to assemble.

I already ordered a couple Pentax Optio point and shoot cameras but that was when we were planning on a more rudimentary setup. Now that we've agreed on something more elaborate, better cameras would seem to be in order. I know there's some experience here with the E-PL1 (Haiti project etc) so I'm wondering if this is still considered a good choice, with prices running around $250 refurb and $280 new? Opinions regarding something better in a roughly similar price range are also welcome!
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daniel_reetz
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Re: Olympus E-PL1?

Post by daniel_reetz »

Personally I like them and think they are a great deal. However you should probably PM Misty De Meo and ask if she will respond here because she has the most experience using them for scanning.

With a kit lens, there probably isn't a more affordable and capable Micro 4/3 camera at that price.
elhyam
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Re: Olympus E-PL1?

Post by elhyam »

Thanks Daniel. Did the dual wired remote release you hacked together for them work as expected?
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daniel_reetz
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Re: Olympus E-PL1?

Post by daniel_reetz »

yep
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Misty
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Re: Olympus E-PL1?

Post by Misty »

While I haven't used the Oly cameras in production, I did do some evaluation shots with my personal E-P2 and was very positively impressed. The remote-trigger works nicely (as Dan mentioned), and the camera produces a very nice image - good sharpness with the kit zoom lens that comes with the camera, and very nice image quality from the sensor. It should produce good reproductions of colour illustrations. What's your use-case - primarily text-based books, or books with illustrations? What size of books?

If you'd like, I can see if I can still locate any of the test shots I did, which was scanning a very oversized ledger.

I tested with an E-P2 - I think you'd get even better results with the E-PL1, which is reputed to produce moderately sharper images.

(man have I missed a lot on here.)
The opinions expressed in this post are my own and do not necessarily represent those of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
elhyam
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Re: Olympus E-PL1?

Post by elhyam »

I plan on doing mostly text of average-sized books. Did you wind up using different cameras for the ledger project?

Thanks!
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Misty
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Re: Olympus E-PL1?

Post by Misty »

You're doing mostly text? Are you planning on keeping the photos of the original pages, or are you going to be running the text through Scan Tailor? A higher-quality camera is really helpful for getting better images of illustrations, or retaining the texture of the book page, but there's much less benefit if you're doing pure text that's going to be processed in Scan Tailor.

A ledger-sized book does benefit from a camera with a higher resolution. For optimal OCR, you're going to want to target a minimum of 300dpi when possible. You can calculate a rough theoretical max dpi by doing (horizontal pixels / size in inches); for instance, a 9-inch tall book will scan, at most, at ~450 dpi on the E-PL1 (4096 pixel width). In the real world you'll always get less than that, so you want to leave yourself some wiggle room, but a 12mp camera is definitely sufficient for average-size paperback books.
The opinions expressed in this post are my own and do not necessarily represent those of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
elhyam
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Re: Olympus E-PL1?

Post by elhyam »

I plan on using Scan Tailor. There will be some books with illustrations but they will be a distinct minority. Probably the E-PL1 is a bit of overkill for most of it but the investment in better cameras pales in comparison to the expense and effort of constructing the scanner itself and most especially in comparison to by far the greatest investment which is the actual scanning and creation of ebooks. I would hate to digitize hundreds of books and a couple years down the road wish I had used better cameras.
cgott4242
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Re: Olympus E-PL1?

Post by cgott4242 »

Misty wrote:You're doing mostly text? Are you planning on keeping the photos of the original pages, or are you going to be running the text through Scan Tailor? A higher-quality camera is really helpful for getting better images of illustrations, or retaining the texture of the book page, but there's much less benefit if you're doing pure text that's going to be processed in Scan Tailor.

A ledger-sized book does benefit from a camera with a higher resolution. For optimal OCR, you're going to want to target a minimum of 300dpi when possible. You can calculate a rough theoretical max dpi by doing (horizontal pixels / size in inches); for instance, a 9-inch tall book will scan, at most, at ~450 dpi on the E-PL1 (4096 pixel width). In the real world you'll always get less than that, so you want to leave yourself some wiggle room, but a 12mp camera is definitely sufficient for average-size paperback books.

How does the E-PL1 compare to a Canon 12MP DSLR (e.g. T3) which is almost in the same $ ball park (can find used for $300 w/lens with effort vs $250 for E-PL1)?
How many MP would you recommend for OCR'ing an 11" tall book with small print (about 6point font)?
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