Need advice choosing equipment

[footoograaf]

Hi all,

I'm trying to start a project with National Center for Digitalisation in my country. Inter alia, we will need to buy equipment. There are several institutions and companies involved, National museum and Institute for protection of national heritage among other. We need to acquire LF camera and digital back. The work will include repro artwork 2D/3D and some buildings and interiors of national cultural importance.

I need some sugegstions/advice on equipment I can get the best results from. I am thinking about Sinar arTec camera.

Suggestions regarding flash/continuous lights are also very appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[wollom]

Hi all,

I'm trying to start a project with National Center for Digitalisation in my country. Inter alia, we will need to buy equipment.

Probably the most important component of a Museum or Institute based imaging programme is a skilled and experienced person/people to manage and implement it. The most suitable equipment will be a product of considering the budget, timeframe, volume, operating environment, end use, archival considerations, and skills of personnel.  Responses from this forum are likely to be of limited value: in some contexts a $500 point and shoot is the most suitable equipment, while $80,000 of gear can be near useless.

Good Luck

Wollom

[Graham Mitchell]

You should probably look at the multishot backs available fom Sinar which work with the arTec. I've heard lots of bad feedback about continuous lighting. Try using a highly consistent flash instead (e.g. Profoto)

[Kumar]

I've heard lots of bad feedback about continuous lighting. Try using a highly consistent flash instead (e.g. Profoto)

Hi Graham,

What kind of lighting, and what have you heard?

Cheers,
Kumar

[footoograaf]

Wollom, thanks for reminding me :-)

[ynp]

I have been  a member of a pool of sponsors of a similar project here in Russia for some time. I was involved in the selection of the
equipment and, on the initial phase , they used my camera and digital back.

Now they use:
1) Large Format Art Scanner with the  vacuum table - for flat artwork, drawings and watercolor works.
2) a 3,5 meters Manfrotto (made to order) copying stand, Motorised. It was almost $6,000 cheaper that a similar solution from Foba/Sinar.
4) A Sinar-m camera, Digital Sinaron AF Module, 120mm AF lens, 4/50 mm Hasselblad FLE and a couple of enlarger lenses in  machined helicon
tubes. Sinarback 44HR.
5) Four  Broncolor  RFS mono-lights  with UF blocking domes.

I doubt that the ArTec camera is a good solution for your purposes. You will need longer lenses, and live view for focusing

Yevgeny

[footoograaf]

Thanks Yevgeny.

I'm aware arTec is not solution for repro but for monuments, buildings etc. I am also aware of Large Format Art Scanner, namely "Cruse".

Unfortunately, we can not afford to buy one and therefore looking for the alternatives.

Mladjen,

[JerryReed]

Thanks Yevgeny.

I'm aware arTec is not solution for repro but for monuments, buildings etc. I am also aware of Large Format Art Scanner, namely "Cruse".

Unfortunately, we can not afford to buy one and therefore looking for the alternatives.

Mladjen,

Since you are not funded for a Large format Scanner, perhaps you can use the camera on a very solid camera stand (FOBA) and mount the art on a vertical easel.  Using an excellent product, Zig Align and a nice geared studio tripod head (BOGEN / MANFROTTO) that will allow small incremental changes in all dimensions, you will be able to assure that the digital sensor plane and the art piece are square, plumb and aligned to .02 seconds of angle.

Should you encounter art that is larger than say 24 by 36 inches, a local craftsman should be able to create (as I have) a large easel that slides side to side on a horizontal track.  Taking a series of images with over lap you will be able to later in PHOTOSHOP stitch together the two (or more images) resulting in native files allowing for one to one reproduction without interpolation at 360 dpi.

I agree with Yevgeny's previously stated excellent experiences with art and fabric originals that, the SINAR 54 H 16-shot back is unsurpassed in IQ, color reproduction and absence of moiré, assuming that you have color accurate and consistent output from your strobes; which pretty much means that you would be well served to purchase USED BRONCOLOR heads and Grafit power packs.

One surprising finding that you too may encounter is the AMOUNT of light that may be necessary to adequately light the art originals, owing to the need in many cases to polarize both the camera's lens and the light sources to overcome the specular highlights produced by surface varnish.  I am using two GRAFIT 4 power packs and shoot at F 11+.  Most of the time I am using 85% or more of the power of BOTH power packs into two 3200 ws lamp heads.

Good luck with your exciting project,

Jerry

[footoograaf]

Thanks Jerry!

[archivue]

one complete system from architectture extreme wide angles to long lenses is the Arca RM3D (or the bigger RL3D) and the aditionnal bellow and rail... plus the nice rotaslide as an option.

i've heard that amoung MFDB the leaf is the best preview, and the back are ready to shoot (no wake up stuff like phase one).

becarefull when buying the back, some are unusable with movements !

[ynp]

Mladjen,

I agree with Jerry, he is doing the copying work on the daily basis and he knows what he is saying.
--

I asked around and the museum Digitalisation  people directed me to the Moscow Heritage museum. They have very limited funds and they
bought almost everything second-hand:

Sinarcam-2 ($1,200.00)
Sinarback 54H ($9,900.00)
p2 and  four DB Didital lenses (bought all for about $3,000.00).
They use 2 Bowens 3000 generators (I do not know the price).

Another "budget" copying solution I used and later donated to some museum people:

ALPA TC (without the expensive viewfinder) - about $2,000 or less.
ALPA-Rollei 6008 lens adapter with the Rollei shutter - less than $2.000.00
Rollei Makro 90mm lens (I don't remember the price, you can check it[attachment=12945:Alpa_Rollei.jpg] on eBay)
They sourced  a used Jenoptik Precision 22 mpx back themselves  and they shoot to CapturePro on their
older Power Mac. They claim the price was less than $6,000.00 (about 7 month ago.)


Yevgeny
Rollei ALPA adapter:

[mattlap2]

I can add in that I agree with the recommendation of Sinar multi shot backs and Broncolor lighting for museum and reprographic work.

When I was employed by Sinar Bron, we had a rather sizable list of museums worldwide that used Sinar digital backs.   I am sure if you were contact Sinar directly at www.sinar.ch they would be able to give you that list.   Maybe you can find someone locally that can help walk you thru the process and finalize your list of equipment.

In my own territory alone I had 5 museums that were using the Sinar / Broncolor combination and another 2 that were using Broncolor lighting.   There were also  3 other institutions that were using Sinar digital backs for archiving.

Right now the street price for used in the US is about $9000 on a Sinar 54H digital back.   The current 75H is also a great solution, but will cost about 2 1/2 times that amount.   Much higher resolution however and a number of museums have switched over to them.  

The reproduction, archival and museum markets are one of the few where they demand as much resolution as they can get.

[mattlap2]

I asked around and the museum Digitalisation  people directed me to the Moscow Heritage museum. They have very limited funds and they
bought almost everything second-hand:

Sinarcam-2 ($1,200.00)
Sinarback 54H ($9,900.00)
p2 and  four DB Didital lenses (bought all for about $3,000.00).

Yevgeny,

The Sinarcam was a wonderful solution, but I would probably shy away from it currently.   It has been discontinued since 2002.    By far the biggest issue is the computer you can use it with.   There are no drivers available for Intel based Macs.    So you would have to use a G5 or earlier to use that set up.

I have a few customers that were forced to upgrade when their older mac died.

[JerryReed]

Yevgeny,

The Sinarcam was a wonderful solution, but I would probably shy away from it currently.   It has been discontinued since 2002.    By far the biggest issue is the computer you can use it with.   There are no drivers available for Intel based Macs.    So you would have to use a G5 or earlier to use that set up.

I have a few customers that were forced to upgrade when their older mac died.

Perhaps there has been new information that you were unaware of related to the availability of drivers for the Sinarcam 2 that provide compatibility with INTEL Macs.  I use a Macbook Pro 17 inch (the previous version) as my platform for CaptureShop in the camera room, the laptop sits on a small platform supported by an arm that is provided by FOBA for their camera stand, which I use.  Note however, the Sinarcam 2 is not currently compatible with eXposure.

Not to be contradictory, but rather to offer my experience that may be helpful to someone looking to make high quality digital files and working within a tight budget.

Jerry Reed

[Dick Roadnight]

Hi.

You are getting a lot of good advice here.

I have been involved in Museum work ranging from diamonds and Gold to vehicles.

Sinar P3/M is the obvious choice as the low flash sync speed of the focal plane shutter will not be a problem.

I expect that you will need 6,000 to 10,000 ws of flash, but with bracketing for HDR you can do a great deal (e.g. in hall interior shots) with available light.

The P3/M is expensive but you only need one electronic shutter, and electronic shutters are great for remote or multi-shot work.

The Airtec may be useful occasionally, but I eliminated it from my wish list because of the limited movements.

I bought a Hasselblad as I thought that the auto-focus point-and-shoot-adapter (which you could get, through the HY6, if you wanted it) would be handy, but Sinar are focused on view camera applications.

Dick Roadnight

[MHO]

FYI,
   There is at least one portable Fine Art Cruse scanner operating over in Spain.   How I am aware of this is that when I bought mine last December, at that time two were in operation with the government of China, and one in Spain.  I would assume that it could be made available in the EU for onsite services, as that is what I do with mine here in the USA.  Currently I have the only portable Cruse scanner from what I am aware of in the Americas.   The really powerful thing about it is the lighting control it provides and its precise focus, which in my opinion puts it in a separate class of tool from medium and large format capture camera systems.  This thing was designed from the ground up for capturing art.  Mind you it does what it is designed to do very well, but it is not a magic bullet by any means.   Cameras and their associated hardware to do capture are like a hammer, whereas this is sort of like a 20 ton hydraulic press.  For some things a camera is more than adequate, and is better suited for the job.   But for capturing lots of art and documents, and doing it very consistently and efficiently, I have yet to find a better solution.   And yes, they seem to be expensive on almost the ridiculous level, especially the portable machine.   I really had to think it through before getting it, I spent about three years of research and pillow time "sleepin on it" before I made the plunge...

Thanks Yevgeny.

I'm aware arTec is not solution for repro but for monuments, buildings etc. I am also aware of Large Format Art Scanner, namely "Cruse".

Unfortunately, we can not afford to buy one and therefore looking for the alternatives.

Mladjen,