Transparency Film For Archiving News Paper

A project that I'm working on in my university's E-Text center

involves archiving some 19th Century French newspapers (well, it's

hard to know what to call them). They have been framed in the music

college for some time but they're worried about the survivability of

the documents (as they should be). The artwork is very nice and was

hand-colored back in the day.

I originally decided to work with my D70 (the alternative was some P&S

that they had there). The color was good, the absolute quality of the

text could stand to be better. After getting some clarification

concerning the desired result, I suggested that I shoot the papers

with my MF on transparency film and have them drum scanned. Obviously,

we don't want to scan the documents themselves because we'd *rather

not* expose them to any more mashing than necessary.

I was thinking that if we go this route, I should use Provia 100F

because of its relatively true color and fine grain (there is some

small text and detailed graphics that I'd like to capture cleanly).

Anyone have objections to this choice? :-)

Thanks!

m.

<p>The University of Utah Marriott Library has been doing this sort of work in the digital domain, see

<a href="http://www.lib.utah.edu/digital/">this page</a>

for a discussion. It takes very high-end digital cameras.</p>

<p>I would think in film cameras, a 4x5 would be the way to go. Provia 100F is about as stable as you can go in color film. But also shoot B&W film, processed archivally.</p>

>Provia 100F is about as stable as you can go in color film

I think K14 films are the most archival color films out there (if kept in dark) but unfortunately they are only available in 35mm which wont do the job.

Thanks for the confirmation, John. I was talking about this to another person in the department and said that we would need a digital camera that costs in the neighborhood of $10K to to do justice to the prints. See, I just thought that they wanted something that was simply displayable online-- nothing was mentioned about archivablility of the images. It's a good thing I brought it up or we could have been sitting here with some pretty but not particularly academically useful images.

And thanks for the link. I'll get right on that when I get the chance (bookmarking).

m.

If you can get a hold of a view camera, that might be even better, with a good lens and apropriate technique you'd be able to resolve the texture of the paper easily.

Peter

Astia 100F exceeds Provia 100F resolution by 5%, despite the

identical 60-140 lp/mm datasheet ratings, according to Ellis Vener,

and drum scans confirm this.

When Fuji simultaneously announed Astia and Velvia 100F,

they claimed "unprecedented longevity" for the new emulsions.

Astia is available in 4x5 but not 8x10.

If negative film is OK, you can use Kodak Imagelink film: Since it's 35mm, you'll need a tack-sharp lens. It's used as a microfilm; but with the appropriate developer you can tame the contrast a bit.

It's also inexpensive: A case of twenty 100 foot bulk rolls is only about $13/roll.

If you need a positive, David Wood's DR5 process is being tested for ImageLink

Imagelink is a B&W film, and Matt said those 19th century newspapers

contained color: "hand-colored", "color was good", etc.

Well, looks like I'm working with tungsten lights anyway. I'll probably use RTP II.

Geeze, I'm so spoiled by digital that I just balanced off a gray card and shot without considering the color temp :-> oops.

I thought that i would use provia anyway and just white balance the scans. This seems easier.