What is the best lighting for a variety of applications for a “Beta”?

All about lighting. LED, CFL, Halogen, Other? Questions and info about lighting go here.

Moderator: peterZ

Post Reply
jacques
Posts: 3
Joined: 08 Jan 2018, 01:33
E-book readers owned: kindle "kindle fire"
Number of books owned: 10000
Country: united snakes

What is the best lighting for a variety of applications for a “Beta”?

Post by jacques »

What is the best lighting for a variety of applications for a “Beta”?

San Francisco’s hackerspace Noisebridge just transferred one of their two Bookscanners to Oakland, CA’s Sudo Room hackerspace. I believe this kit was what Daniel Reetz called in this video a “Beta” prior to marketing the Archivist.
https://youtu.be/a4-qMc2QSOw
Here are some photos of our “Beta”:
https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Bookscanner
https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Digital_Archivists

There seems to be a tremendous amount of discussion on lighting on this list which must have resulted in some solid recommendations. At the Sudo Room, we are expecting that over time, different cameras will be used for different types of digital book production with this rig.

Possibly not always using cameras you recommend like the Canon PowerShot ELPH 160, what is the best lighting for a variety of book scanning applications?

THANKS!!!

Jacques
duerig
Posts: 388
Joined: 01 Jun 2014, 17:04
Number of books owned: 1000
Country: United States of America

Re: What is the best lighting for a variety of applications for a “Beta”?

Post by duerig »

That scanner is a 'hackerspace' model. You can tell because of the all-plywood construction including a plywood handlebar. If you want to upgrade the lighting for that scanner, there are two threads you can pull.

First, you can buy high quality LEDs rather than the lights you bought for it. SORAA 00919 is the recommended LED light bulb. You will need optics (for spreading the light), fixtures, a mounting plate, and a 12v power source to make it all work. Take a look at the Archivist descriptions here:

http://diybookscanner.org/archivist/ind ... age_id=278
http://diybookscanner.org/archivist/ind ... age_id=459
http://diybookscanner.org/archivist/ind ... age_id=267
http://diybookscanner.org/archivist/ind ... age_id=317

If you have specific questions I am happy to answer them. If you want to know how to get a particular part, let me know and I can either point you at a supplier or quote you a price.

Second, you can move the lights further away from the platen. Because of various design constraints, Daniel put the lights closer to the platen than is ideal on that model. For later models (like Daniel's Archivist design), the lights were been moved further away to reduce glare and hot spots. You want to reproduce this in some way. So just build a simple frame you can set on top of the scanner to lift the lights. There is a mathematical way to find the minimum distance, but it might be easiest just to do it empirically, pulling the lights away and taking sample photos until you see that there is no reflected light source.

Best of luck on your project.

-Jonathon Duerig
jacques
Posts: 3
Joined: 08 Jan 2018, 01:33
E-book readers owned: kindle "kindle fire"
Number of books owned: 10000
Country: united snakes

Re: What is the best lighting for a variety of applications for a “Beta”?

Post by jacques »

Fantastic Jonathon. That helps lots. Might get back to you soon.
jacques
Posts: 3
Joined: 08 Jan 2018, 01:33
E-book readers owned: kindle "kindle fire"
Number of books owned: 10000
Country: united snakes

Re: What is the best lighting for a variety of applications for a “Beta”?

Post by jacques »

Hi again Jonathon,
I am trying to get us to scanning ASAP. Could I purchase from you all the parts including lights, sockets, wiring, mounting bracket, jack and power supply?

Do you think the entire lighting system of the “quill” could be easily mounted on top of our 'hackerspace' model? Does that solve the spacing problem? Since “The lighting system on the Archivist…excels at putting light only where it needs to be,” could our 'hackerspace' model benefit from that?
http://diybookscanner.org/archivist/wp- ... C01920.jpg
How much would it cost to buy that entire piece?

Any reduced pricing or donations for the Oakland Sudo Room is needed.

Jacques
daija12
Posts: 2
Joined: 10 Mar 2022, 12:19
E-book readers owned: 1
Number of books owned: 300
Country: US

Re: What is the best lighting for a variety of applications for a “Beta”?

Post by daija12 »

Any news on this? Like the OP, I have a Beta ("Hackerspace") and have not been thrilled with the light performance. I get uneven light distribution with lower exposure near the spine and glow toward the outside edge of books. I see that moving the light further away may improve things. Upgrading this Beta to the "Archivist" lighting system would be a ton of work. Would love to hear if the juice is worth the squeeze from someone who has done it. Is there a big enough improvement upgrading to an "Archivist" lighting system vs just moving the light further away to warrant the effort and expense?
Post Reply