Field trip to India: HELP!

[Henry Groover]

Beatrice Reusch wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
 I will be going to India in a month or so to collect some Sanskrit
manuscripts, and I need to take a camera with me. Could someone
kindly explain to me what would be the advantage of taking a digital
camera?

>HG>>
I think the replies you've gotten were great in that they basically
advocate the low-tech emulsion-type film approach.  I basically
agree, but let me answer briefly some of your questions about
digital.

The only real advantage of a digital camera is that you're on-site
after having spent 6 hours riding train, taxi, tonga, ricksha etc.
and you've negotiated access to some rare manuscript, you shoot your
pictures and can immediately download them to your laptop and verify
their readability.  This is provisionally _if_ everything works as
expected.

You should be able to get readable quality this way, and you could
probably do so in black and white (which considerably lowers the
pricing of your camera, but that shouldn't be the main consideration
here).  As pointed out previously, your quality still won't be
comparable to fine-grained emulsion film (which you could then put on
Photo CD for about $1 per frame and have extremely high-resolution
digital content).

>BR>>
Could you please tell me in detail what kind of materials I need to
take with me?  If a non-digital camera is better, what type of camera
and film?

>HG>>
This has been handled in great and informative detail.

>BR>>
If digital, again, what kind?

>HG>>
As you seem to be using a Mac, check out Apple's digital camera.  I
would not suggest going with a low-end model priced for the consumer
market.  Visit a bookstore and get a copy of Imaging magazine, also
Digital Video magazine will have reviews and ads for these somewhat
specialized products.

Another alternative I would _seriously_ consider is a digital
camcorder.  Expect to pay $3,000-$4,000 (but then by the time you get
a Power Mac laptop with a big enough hard disk plus a professional
quality digital camera you're close to that) for one of the new Sony
models.  The current issue of Digital Video has a feature article on
these.  Basically, you get 700 scan lines of resolution (compared to
400-500 on NTSC or PAL video).  It may seem a bit odd to suggest this
for still shots _but_ you can check the readability as you shoot.

Once you get back to the States you can hook up the digital camcorder
to a machine with a FireWire interface and upload everything directly
to your hard disk.

This is just a really wild idea, and I would see what others have to
say about shooting MSS with a camcorder.  You still have to extract
single frames once you get everything back on your hard disk, but
this should be relatively straightforward.

>BR>>
If I take a digital camera, can I use it with a laptop Mac?

>HG>>
Yes; all (decent) digital cameras have a SCSI or serial interface for
uploading pictures to a PC or Mac.  But I would try to get more
specific info from folks who've been doing digital photography,
perhaps on one of the fora suggested (rec.arts.photography ?)

>BR>>
What type of battery-powered Mac would be the best? How much RAM,
what size of hard drive? 

>HG>>
Get one with more than the minimum recommended RAM (if it was a PC
I'd say 8MB minimum).  You need a laptop with very good battery
performance.  I have a Dell Latitude XP which uses lithium ion
batteries - expensive, but no memory, high capacity, and quick
recharge.

Get a big hard drive - images take up lots of space, even with
compression.  1GB would be best though you could probably squeak by
with 540MB.

>BR>>
 What type of backup/storage device?

>HG>>
A Zip drive might be good for this - they're cheap, store 100MB per
cartridge, but don't run off batteries.  You can do backup when you
get back to the hotel.

Hope some of this helps.  There's no terribly useful info here but
lots of ideas and a few little facts.

Regards,
Henry Groover
HGroover at qualitas.com

>BR>>
I'd sincerely appreciate it immensely if you could kindly take the
time to answer my questions.  I'm really in need of advice here.  I'm
drowning in an ocean of ignorance. Please help!
With best wishes,
Beatrice




 

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