Re: gross photography setups

From:Jeffrey S Crews <cruzetti@juno.com>

It would indeed, as long as the user has the money for it. For that
reason I said a CD writer "at least." It depends on how many images are
being stored and how often/easily they need to be accessed. I've looked
at DVD recording and archiving systems, and they are quite expensive, but
if the utility and budget is there, then they're certainly more handy
than CDR's.
I also don't want to knock purpose-built turnkey imaging systems. Again,
if the money is there, they'll make your life a lot easier. You many not
necessarily get better images, (the optics and image resolution of
consumer cameras  can be quite good enough for any but the most exacting
applications) but a turnkey system can save a lot of headaches,
especially if many people will be using it (training is a lot easier with
turnkey systems,) or if usage will be very heavy. 
Not knowing how much money was available and how heavily the system will
be used, I talked about the cheap end. Vendors will be only too happy to
help the purchaser to buy a more expensive system.

Jeffrey Crews, HTL (ASCP)

On Wed, 11 Jul 2001 14:54:28 -0400 "Morken, Tim" <tim9@cdc.gov> writes:
>Jeffery Crews wrote:
><<Get a CD writer, at least. CD's are less volatile than magnetic 
>media.>>
>
>A DVD writer would be far better since it holds over ten times as much 
>as a
>CD. Although CD's will be around for awhile longer, for graphics it 
>is
>better to buy the largest capacity possible at any given time (only 
>five
>years ago a 1 GB hard disk was considered large!)You should also store 
>the
>largest image possible; it can be resized for various applications as 
>you
>need.
>
>Tim Morken
>CDC, Atlanta
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Jeffrey S Crews [mailto:cruzetti@juno.com]
>Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2001 1:35 PM
>To: HornHV@archildrens.org
>Cc: histonet@pathology.swmed.edu
>Subject: Re: gross photography setups
>
>
>Random thoughts from my digital gross photo experience:
>
>Any small copy stand will do, and really is a must. The small ones 
>will
>fit inside a fume hood, too, although you may have to saw off a bit 
>of
>platform or post.
>I strongly recommend getting a camera with a threaded lens ring on 
>it.
>This allows you to screw on extra closeup lenses if you need to. 
>Tiffen
>makes them in a variety of diameters to fit just about any threaded 
>ring.
>The camera should also have a "macro" setting. Autofocus often does 
>not
>work in "macro," so you may need to establish a standard height for
>taking your photos. 
>A remote shutter button is nice, especially if you're in a hood.
>You shouldn't need to worry about a flash for this setup, since the
>camera will be mounted. Standard copy stand lights should work.
>Running the camera off of a laptop really isn't necessary once you 
>get
>your settings worked out. 
>Media and uploading: uploading images through a serial port takes
>FOREVER. Make sure the camera can upload to the computer via USB, or 
>via
>a removeable flash memory card. Most of them are CompactFlash format, 
>for
>which you can get a card reader to attach to your serial port. Some 
>are
>Smartmedia. The advantage of Smartmedia is that there is a 
>floppy-disc
>sized adapter that allows you to dump pics into your computer via the
>floppy drive. This means you can upload to any computer on which 
>you've
>installed the floppy reader drivers. I've tried this and it works 
>well.
>Models:
>For a cheap setup I used a Kodak DC120, which worked fine. For
>somewhatbetter quality I used an Olympus DL600. This was a few years 
>ago,
>so I'm sure there are other models out now. 
>There are also "purpose-built" systems out for this application, but 
>make
>sure you demo them thoroughly first to make sure they're worth the 
>money.
>I was doing it on the cheap, so I didn't try those. I'm sure some 
>vendors
>will be contacting you, so if you have the bucks one of these systems
>will probably be easier.
>As for software, whatever comes with the camera works for uploading 
>and
>saving to various formats. For adding captions, cropping, etc., there 
>are
>many, many digital image programs available. I doubt you will need 
>the
>level of function of Photo$hop.  
>If you need to do morphometric analysis, NIH has a very good and free
>program for this, but it only works on Macs. 
>And finally, you WILL need a storage and archival system for these
>images. Don't just leave them on your harddrive, and if I were you I
>wouldn't rely just on the backups made by your IT group, either. 
>Digging
>around in archival tapes is a pain. Get a CD writer, at least. CD's 
>are
>less volatile than magnetic media.
>If you have any particular questions, you can email me directly.
>
>Jeffrey Crews, HTL (ASCP)
>
>On Wed, 11 Jul 2001 11:37:16 -0500 "Horn, Hazel V"
><HornHV@archildrens.org> writes:
>>Hi all,
>>We are looking for a new gross photography set up.   Digital camera,
>>software, camera stand.....etc.    Can anyone help us out with 
>>brands,
>>suggestions.
>>Vendors are welcome to reply to me personally.
>>Thanks,
>>Hazel
>>
>
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