Direct digitizing

Kenelm Philip fnkwp at aurora.alaska.edu
Sat Oct 4 03:38:13 EDT 1997


	Gary Anweiler sent me his JPEG file for the _Feltia jaculifera_
that he digitized by scanning the pinned specimen--inverting the unit
tray on a flatbed scanner platen.

	The image does show some of the softness that results from pushing
the limits of the depth of field of the scanner. The distance from the
pin head to the wings is too long for optimum focus. However, for compar-
ison to the plate in Covell's field guide for ID purposes, the image
quality is quite sufficient. I tried the same technique on a couple of
butterflies on my H-P ScanJet 4C--and again the results were usable, if
not as sharp as images of depinned specimens.

	So this quick and dirty technique, which, for those who already
have access to flatbed scanners, is essentially free (and is not very
expensive even if it means buying a scanner) is definitely useful.
Sharper images may always be obtained by depinning the specimen, if the
additional clarity should be required. The results no doubt don't match
those from Pierre Zagatti's $8900 video camera setup, but neither does
the cost...

							Ken Philip
fnkwp at aurora.alaska.edu




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