DIY Book Scanner

The most reliable method for downloading directly to computer is tethering. Tethering requires the right DSLR and most systems on this forum will not be using a DSLR. See http://www.jibble.org/canon-tethered-shooting/

daniel_reetz wrote:So, sorry for asking a question like this, but what you've learned here is that Eye-Fi cards can keep up with normal scanning speeds, given an 8 megapixel camera?

I've just completed a scanning session with my new a650 is cameras. The 12MP jpegs average out to about 4.7MBs per shot. I did six 400 page books in 2 hours 26 mins and 53 seconds precisely. (I was listening to an audiobook. The timing was flawless.) I'm still not breaking speed records, but the paperbacks were zipping along nicely. I did one book a bit faster as a test. 400 pages in just over twenty minutes. The pics were only about 10 shots behind when I finished. Safe to say at normal scanning speeds the eye fi cards can keep up given a 12 megapixel camera. Both cards did fill up despite endless memory mode. The SD extension cables made clearing them a breeze. Curiously, just like almost every other time its happened, it was within a dozen or so pics of each other.

I finally got this endless memory mode problem sorted out. Camera makers don't care about eye fi cards. Therefore they don't even begin to understand the concept of a memory card whose contents could change while the camera is on. They design their software accordingly. Eye fi has to work around this limitation and they do so by having the memory card delete photos while the camera is being turned on and off. That's why when I was using an 8MP camera with an average file size of 3MBs I almost never ran into a problem with the cards filling up and why when I switched to a 12MP camera with an average file size of 4.7MBS, I do. Oddly enough, the eye fi tech swears that it takes several power up and power downs to completely clear the cards and just one would not work. I only ever had my scanner cameras on when I was scanning so that's only one power on and off per month. Go figure.

I have since switched to sd extension cables and have just recently found some with lock tabs so this is something of a non issue for me. Hopefully it helps someone else out.

thanks for reporting back, Drake. Interesting stuff.

My extension cables haven't shown up but I needed some reshoots so I did a full scanning session and I can tell you that simply turning the cameras on and off a couple times in quick succession won't clear them. I tried both shooting and playback mode. Couldn't say why.