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General discussion

Genealogy and digital cameras

Oct 3, 2004 1:50AM PDT

Doing family tree research, and want a digital camera to photo public records(where allowed) Am ignorant of digital cameras, and their capabilities, in respect of mega pixels. Was told some time ago, 1000 pixels would do, but such cameras are not on the market.

Can anyone suggest a nice, inexpensive camera? Can you explain what the advantages and disadvantages are?

Can anyone tell me the

Discussion is locked

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Re: Genealogy and digital cameras
Oct 3, 2004 1:57AM PDT
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I get great shots of 8.5X11 with a 4meg Nikon, and
Oct 3, 2004 6:37AM PDT

it can take the pictures in low light. The key is the material should be reasonably well lighted (a typical film viewer is sufficient), and the camera must be held ABSOLUTELY motionless while the image is recorded. Also, a reasonably well lighted room is sufficient for actual documents.

Be sure to brace yourself very well while taking the picture. The only problem I've had is trying to run the images thru OCR because text may be curved slightly due to camera position.

You do not need 300dpi for text. You need between 72 (crt resolution) and 150 (for printing) dpi. This suggests a 2 megapixel camera will do fine as long as it will perform well in reduced light. My camera is a Nikon 4500 which I bought on eBay. Text material is less demanding than photos, not more demanding. You can easily see this on scanners where text material is captured at a very low dpi.

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Re: Genealogy and digital cameras
Oct 3, 2004 2:12AM PDT

I bought a Minolta Dimage X20 and carry it in my pocket for my daily bike ride to the local library.

I occasionally use it to copy articles from the Wall Street Journal and Consumer Reports and copy pictures from the coffee table type books. I actually printed and framed a Hiroshige print that looks like an original print.

I simply open the book or newspaper on a low table in front of the library's south-facing window. My photographs are perfectly legible and easily converted to text Word documents using the ABBYY FineReader program that came with an inexpensive Epson flat bed scanner I bought from Dell.

I got a good deal on the used camera on eBay for $78 but wouldn't recommend that unless you are very familiar with buying on eBay.