Photographing microfilm for genealogy with pdr-m70

Can anyone give me suggestions for photographing microfilm from the
reader screen at the library?

I need to make about 75 copies of newspaper pages and my library
requires that I use the microfilm there only, can't take it with me.
So I'll put the image on the screen, and take a picture of that. And
I'd like to avoid the copying charges which aren't very much for a few
copies, but 75-100 can get expensive.

My camera is a Toshiba PDR-M70, which takes excellent pictures, I just
haven't tried it with microfilm.

Any help appreciated

lwg

"mjgmom" wrote in message
oups.com...
Can anyone give me suggestions for photographing microfilm from the
reader screen at the library?

I need to make about 75 copies of newspaper pages and my library
requires that I use the microfilm there only, can't take it with me.
So I'll put the image on the screen, and take a picture of that. And

I'd like to avoid the copying charges which aren't very much for a few
copies, but 75-100 can get expensive.

My camera is a Toshiba PDR-M70, which takes excellent pictures, I just
haven't tried it with microfilm.

Any help appreciated

lwg

Put the reel in a microfilm reader. Project the frame(s) you want on the
easel. Take a shot at the projected image. Do nor use flash.
You will need to experiment to find the best exposure. Experimentation with
a digital camera is very very cheap.
Jim

"Jim" writes:
Put the reel in a microfilm reader. Project the frame(s) you want on the
easel. Take a shot at the projected image. Do nor use flash.

I'd add: put the camera on a tripod and cover both the tripod and the
microfilm machine with a big blanket, to keep out extraneous light,
sort of like a focusing cloth for a view camera.

You will find the screen is lit very unevenly. You will want to
post-process the image. I've been wanting to get around to writing
some filters for that purpose.

The camera's built-in autofocus and autoexposure works ok.

"Jim" wrote in message
. net...

"mjgmom" wrote in message
oups.com...
Can anyone give me suggestions for photographing microfilm from the
reader screen at the library?

I need to make about 75 copies of newspaper pages and my library
requires that I use the microfilm there only, can't take it with me.
So I'll put the image on the screen, and take a picture of that. And

I'd like to avoid the copying charges which aren't very much for a few
copies, but 75-100 can get expensive.

My camera is a Toshiba PDR-M70, which takes excellent pictures, I just
haven't tried it with microfilm.

Any help appreciated

lwg

Put the reel in a microfilm reader. Project the frame(s) you want on the
easel. Take a shot at the projected image. Do nor use flash.
You will need to experiment to find the best exposure. Experimentation
with a digital camera is very very cheap.
Jim


If your camera has a "text mode" use that. Don't use flash. Take a photo
of the screen, and you may have to adjust the exposure values using
trial-and-error, until you get it right.

Remember that you are trying to end up with an image that is readable--NOT
one that has perfect exposure.

Finally, consider using OCR software to read the text in your image files
and to create text files, which you can then cut and paste into your various
genealogy reports. If you don't have the ability to OCR the documents, you
might just want to read and retype them yourself, rather than relying upon
the image files to be readable in your genealogy reports. You could include
the image files in an appendix, if you feel the need to substantiate the
transcribed versions.