microfiche and scanning

Since y'all are talking seriously expensive hardware ($50,000 and up), here's a much cheaper thought. Get a photographic enlarger and hack the film holder to hold the fiche, then blow the fiche up optically to 12x17. This quadruples the size and thereby reduces the necessary reslolution from 5000x5000 to 1250x1250, which a top end consumer scanner or midrange pro scannershould be able to do. The scanner may set you back a thousand dollars or more, but the other 49,000 buys a lot of photographic paper and chemicals... -- Jim Strickland jim(a)DIESPAMMERSCUMcalico.litterbox.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- BeOS Powered! -----------------------------------------------------------------------