Microfiche to .pdf Conversion

[paulo57509]

I was wondering who has had this done and who did the conversion?

I have some old, bit still useful (to me) GM parts catalogs on microfiche. I have a microfiche reader but it takes up too much bench space. I'd really like to have the catalog(s) in electronic form.

TIA

 

[Vercingetorix]

Something like this maybe? Might have to rig up a film holder.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/epson-perfection-v600-photo-scanner-black/9599259.p?skuId=9599259
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/epson-...330069.p?skuId=9330069#tabbed-customerreviews

 

[atikovi]

I did something similar many years ago to a Peugeot parts catalog on microfiche. There was a place nearby that had printing microfiche readers. They would let you use it for the cost of the copies. Took hours to read, crop and print the hundreds of pages on the microfiches. I just made paper copies but you could then scan those into a pdf, or I assume the later model readers would have that capability built in.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Have you gotten a quote? No idea how much it costs but we had a bunch scanned at work years ago and the PDF's came out fine. They looked like a really oversaturated photo copy - but they were perfectly legible.

 

[Eddie Hudson]

I have a bunch of Ford Ultrafiche that I would love to make into PDFs.

 

[Fla]

FYI, a FEW of the local libraries still have microfiche viewer/printers but they're getting harder to find by the day. You'll probably need to talk to the head librarian at each location to see if they have one since most of the machines have been stored away in the basements.

I saw a demo of a very nice scanner that will covert photos, documents and michfiche to files but IIRC the costs was about $700. I don't recall the name but I will try to find it and post it here.

 

[paulo57509]

Thanks for the comments/help.

Consumer-grade flatbed scanners don't have the magnification or resolution to reproduce pages from a 28x14 fiche. Believe me, I tried this.

I checked into the DIY method several years ago. A 7800dpi (minimum) scanner was recommended - it was cheaper to send it out than to buy a scanner with this kind of resolution.

There were several places that did conversions, the cost wasn't prohibitive for scan-to-pdf. The add-ons (like negative to positive, etc.) added up. Like ordering off an ala-carte menu.

I'll keep looking and if I get a quite, I'll post up.

 

[kschachn]

I managed a project that scanned and recognized over a half million pages of microfilm (diazo) and if you want a reliable conversion it is somewhat expensive. We ended up sending it to China to be triple-keyed since we couldn’t tolerate errors. What are you looking for in terms of output? Searchable text or just images?

 

[Owen Lucas]

We ended up sending it to China to be triple-keyed since we couldn’t tolerate errors.

I'm just curious, what does this mean?

 

[brianl703]

I'm pretty sure I have a microfiche reader in the basement. My dad had a lot of airplane service info and probably FAA bulletins on microfiche (he was an A&P mechanic and an inspector), and all the stuff from his house wound up in my basement when he passed away.

 

[Hall]

At my old job, at one point in time, all of the hand drawings were scanned into electronic format as well as having microfilm copies made. This was a large (chemical) pump manufacturer with drawings going back to the 1920s or 1930s. All that work was outsourced to a company that offered this service. If I'm not mistaken, the company was local at least to the SW Ohio area.

Today, I'd guess there's only a handful of those companies still around and that's for the entire country. Obviously anything that needed converted was done years ago by now.

 

[kschachn]

I'm just curious, what does this mean?

You pay to have three people independently type in the information then it is electronically compared for errors. It’s pretty typical for this type of conversion.