Tameran Wide Format Insider

Why Replace Microfilm Cameras and Plotters with Digital Microfilm Recording Technology?

1. You’re using one of the following obsolete microfilm cameras.

• Kodak MRG Microfilm Camera
• Kodak MRD Microfilm Camera
• Wicks & Wilson ACOI Aperture Card Plotter
• Wicks &Wilson ACOII Aperture Card Plotter
• Microbox CADMIC Aperture Card Plotter
• Quintek Aperture Card Plotter
• Microbox Polycom Microfilm Plotter
• 3M 2600 Camera
• 3M 2800 Camera
• 3M 2900 Camera
• 3M2950 Plotter
• Kodak, Canon, Minolta, ALOS, or Zeutschel Rotary Microfilm Camera
• Kodak, Canon Minolta, ALOS, or Zeutschel Planetary Microfilm Camera
• and more.....

Unscrambling the Wide Format Print Output Mystery

Did you ever wonder why manufacturers of wide format ink jet printers such as Epson, HP and Canon did an excellent job of designing great, cost-effective printers for wide format drawings but failed miserably in providing a productive method for off-loading prints as they are produced? If you use one of these printers, you know that the prints are basically thrown on the floor. Yes, there is usually a cloth basket to catch the print, but the print is basically on the floor. Sometimes a metal or plastic contraption is associated with these cloth baskets, but figuring out how to effectively use it when making more than one print at a time is difficult. In fact, if you are printing multiple copies or print sets, you will receive results that most users describe as @*&$%! I guarantee that those censored words are not “neat collated sets.”

Did you ever wonder why so many people have great common sense after a disaster strikes but for some reason common sense is in short supply before it happens?

Do you know how many warehouses that store active and inactive documents are located in areas that flood or are susceptible to hurricanes? The answer is way more than common sense would dictate. 

In the past, paper documents were filmed directly on to microfilm using a microfilm camera that created the film by essentially taking a picture of the document. These microfilm cameras were capable of recording documents with good fidelity if you had a good quality document to film.

If you are about to embark on a project to scan aperture cards, make sure you have considered all of the steps necessary for a successful project. There are six important steps to be considered and acted upon when converting aperture cards to digital images in order to create usable images within a realistic budget.

Does any of the following sound familiar?

• My aperture card reader-printer has reached the end of its useful life.
• Service for my reader-printer is no longer available.
• Parts are no longer available but we still have thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and even millions of aperture cards in our files.
• These aperture cards contain information that is important and does not exist in any other format.  How can we access this information?  How can we make prints?  How can we e-mail the information or make the information available online?

We hear this story over and over again. There are two potential answers to these questions:

There are many types of scanners as well as companies offering outsource scanning services to convert paper and microfilm documents to digital files. The technology used in scanning paper or microfilm documents is mature and if proper equipment is selected for the specific requirement, documents can be productively scanned.

However, beyond the actual scanning of the documents, there are a couple of issues that need careful consideration:

1. Are the scanned digital documents usable? Simply put, are the documents readable, legible, and printable in a digital system of workstations, smart phones and tablets?
2. Are the documents indexed or mapped to a metadata system so they can be quickly accessed in a digital system when needed?

Both issues are not directly a function of scanning the document. They require additional steps in the process of converting paper or microfilm documents to digital files.

Aperture card scanners that are available today fall into one of three categories based on their technical design characteristics. 

These categories are commonly referred to as:

1. "Camera on a Stick",
2. "Screen Scrapers", and  
3. "Factor or Line Scanners"

To achieve the best quality results in microfilm scanning, you will want to consider Factor or Line scanners. When scanning aperture cards which typically contain images of drawings, it is very important to assure usable, readable information. Line scanners are available in configurations for convenience scanning and high production scanning.

Let’s take a closer look at the three categories of microfilm aperture card scanners available:

It’s Both! Use Digital and Microfilm!

For quick access to information, documents that are recorded on microfilm can be converted to digital formats such as tiff or PDF then integrated with other digital documents and managed using a digital-based document management system. Nothing beats the speed or convenience of accessing documents over digital networks. However, if the document is a vital record that needs to be maintained for decades or even centuries, microfilm is the most cost effective way to not only store the document but to assure availability long into the future.

Does it matter whether I record my documents on 16mm or 35mm microfilm?

A previous blog post explained the importance of microfilm for long term preservation of documents as an addition to digital storage. Second to recognizing the importance of archiving critical documents on microfilm is understanding which microfilm media to use per application. For example, many times organizations settle for archiving documents larger than 12” x 18”, such as engineering or technical documents, on to 16mm microfilm. This can be a big mistake in terms of resolution obtained and future readability both by scanner or human eye.