"Actually Canon has a really great scanner/microfilm combination. It is a tad pricy at around $21,000.00. It does regular scanning and microfilm at the same time. It is really a nifty machine. After your things are scanned, you would run them through an OCR program."
These machines are intended for the business industry. The auto-feed features are not acceptable for most archives unless we are talking about paper in very good condition. The literature on these machines (conveniently?) leaves out what size film stock is used- 16 mm or 35 mm. 35 mm microfilm is the standard for the library and archives fields. These machines are usually output 16 mm film stock.
Another post mentioned copies. The microfilm standard actually calls for 3 copies: master negative (camera negative, offsite in "archival" storage), printing master (duplicate directly from master negative and used to make any future copies), and service copy (made available for searching and lending).
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Tina Mason, Education Officer
SOLINET, Preservation Services
1438 West Peachtree St. NW Suite 200
Atlanta, GA 30309-2955
Tel: 800.999.8558 x4894 Fax: 404.892.7879