jdowning
Oud Junkie
Posts: 3485
Registered: 8-2-2006
Location: Ontario, Canada
Member Is Offline
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Make a Microfilm Copier/Printer
This topic is music research rather than specifically oud related but I thought that some members might be interested in this home built digital
microfilm copier/printer that I built recently to digitally copy my large collection of music and historical texts from 35 mm microfilm to CD so that
I could make hard copies of them for easier reference.
Prior to making this unit I had to take my film to the local library for printing on their microfilm reader/copier - a pretty inconvenient and
expensive proposition.
The unit consists of two parts - a backlit light box with film carrier and a mounting for a digital camera. I was fortunate enough to own an old
portable microfilm projection type reader that I was able to adapt for the light box unit but it should not be a difficult task to make up a box and
carrier etc from wood or sheet metal. The lighting is provided by a standard spiral fluorescent light bulb that shines through a light diffuser made
from a piece of 1/8th inch thick low friction UHMW plastic sheet (used for jig making) to provide an even background lighting. The film passes between
two hinged sheets of glass to hold it flat. Hand cranked film spool holders are nice to have but not absolutely essential.
The digital camera that I use is a (now obsolete!) Olympus 4000z mounted on a sliding holder made from UHMW sheet and aluminium T slot tracks used for
jig making (all sold by Lee Valley ) so that the position of the camera relative to the microfilm may be adjusted for optimum results.
The choice of camera is important as it must have the capability of being focussed close enough to cover a full frame of microfilm as well as have
sufficient resolution. The Olympus camera can focus down to about 3/4 inch and has a resolution of 4 megapixels which is ample. The camera also has a
very wide range of adjustment settings. I simply set the camera to black and white image, HQ resolution giving a captured image of 2288x1712 pixels
and file size about 600kb, and to super macro close up. At this closeup, wide angle setting there is some slight 'barrel distortion' of the image that
I could correct with a photo image editor but I do not bother to go to that extra trouble.
I print up the digital images using a Brother HL2030 laser printer that I bought for $35 US (!!) sale price in January this year. This gives very
satisfactory crisp, easy to read results.
The attached images show the unit that I made - just to give an idea of what can be done. This design can be adapted in many ways to suite the variety
of materials and components available to others who may want to try their hand at making their own copier.
Good luck.
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jdowning
Oud Junkie
Posts: 3485
Registered: 8-2-2006
Location: Ontario, Canada
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
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|
I should add that this rig can also be used to quickly copy colour slides and negatives - not to professional photographic standards but good enough
for family photos taken with a good quality 35 mm film camera.
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