Best camera for scanning?

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MaxxxM
Posts: 1
Joined: 12 Sep 2019, 13:51
E-book readers owned: I would love to be a part of DIY Book Scanner because I need a lot of things to scan...
Number of books owned: 0
Country: Ukraine

Best camera for scanning?

Post by MaxxxM »

Hi all, I'm a complete newbie to this so please pardon me if these are silly questions. First and foremost, what camera and lenses would be recommended for this? I have a Nikon D5600 and the 18-55mm kit lens. Will these work or should I get another type of lens?

A second question is where to get camera gear without spending a ton of money. I'm on a budget but I don't want to deal with buying used on Craigslist or eBay or something like that. I thought I might try B&H Photo or maybe Adorama. I've bought a few small things from B&H before but never used Adorama (though it sounds reputable according to https://www.photographytalk.com/adorama-review). At any rate, I'm anxious to get started so any feedback on these subjects would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!
BillGill
Posts: 139
Joined: 18 Dec 2016, 17:13
E-book readers owned: Calibre, FBReader
Number of books owned: 7000
Country: USA

Re: Best camera for scanning?

Post by BillGill »

I don't thing there is a "best" camera for scanning. Almost any camera with a decent resolution will work. More important is how you plan to scan. Are you building a 2 camera scanner or a 1 camera scanner?

For a single camera scanner you will need have a camera with a good resolution (about 2 megapixels or more). Zoom is kind of optional. My scanner is described in post viewtopic.php?f=14&t=3467. I don't use any zoom. I positioned the camera in a fixed position so that the unzoomed field of view just covers the area of the largest book I will be scanning. The camera mount is a little more complicated than it really needs to be because it is built so I can use 2 different cameras. The primary camera is a Canon Elph 160. The secondary is the higher quality Sony RX10 II. However, I have been getting good results with the Canon so I have never used the Sony for scanning with this scanner.

If you are planning on a 2 camera system you may want to look for cameras that can be remotely controlled, so you can get software to at least semi-automate them. Of course this will cost more, and you will need the cameras to be a matched pair. Actually, thinking about it you might not need to do it software wise. You could rig a system that would mechanically push the 2 buttons at the same time. There have been several systems described on the forum that would do this. Then there is free software that will combine the pictures from the 2 cameras into the correct sequence.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Bill
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