ScanPro Lens Selection

made easy

Do I Have Portrait or Landscape Images?

Why Do I Need to know if I have Portrait or Landscape Images?

What Size Lens Do I Need?

Let’s start with how the film image was created. A special "camera or recorder" uses a reduction lens to reduce the original document size to the film image size you find on your microfilm. This filming process is very similar to that of a personal camera.

In general, since you will be making copies from your microfilm, the magnification lens that you want for the Microfilm ScanPro or ScanPro Direct is the one that will magnify the film image so that it will print onto a sheet of 8"X11" (or A4) paper. Since the matching paper size is marked on the VIEW SCREEN, if you get the image inside of the VIEW SCREEN marks, the image will fit on the paper.

The easy way to determine which lens is the best match to get the microfilm image inside (best fit) the VIEW SCREEN marks, is to use a lens template

Lens Template Makes Lens Selection Easy

Fortunately the math has already been done for the selection of reader printer, and microfilm scanner magnification lenses and formatted as lens templates that can be used as an aid to selecting a lens.

These templates are arranged into two groups, templates for portrait film images, and templates for landscape film images. Each template represents a film image that will magnify to 8.5"X11" (or A4) when using the lens specified with that template.

If you are dealing with more than one film image size, you will need to consider additional lenses.

Note: If the film image is smaller than the template, you will have a smaller than 8.5" X 11" (or A4) image on the reader printer or scanner view screen and on the plain paper copy. This may result in a border around the image. Correspondingly, if the film image is larger than the template, you will have a larger than 8.5" X 11" on the view screen and the entire image will not fit on the plain paper copy. You need an exact match to get an exact 8.5" X 11" result.

The lens templates are available for viewing and printing as a Adobe PDF file.  It is provided in this format to help insure that the individual lens template sizes are correct.  To view and print a PDF file requires that you have the Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer.

Lens Template

When Do I Need Image Rotation?
IMAGE ROTATION lenses are not required for scanning and are not required for viewing on the PC monitor. The Microfilm ScanPro scans the entire area of the view screen and the software provides the ability to view scans on the PC monitor in any desired orientation. However, it is not unusual for images to be filmed with the information "not correct reading" (the information is laying-on -its-side requiring the user to tilt their head to view the image). Again, the software can rotate the image on the monitor so that it is correct reading, but to view a non correct reading film image as correct reading on the ScanPro VIEW SCREEN requires IMAGE ROTATION Make sure to determine if your film is correct reading. If it is not, you will need IMAGE ROTATION to view the film image as correct reading on the ScanPro VIEW SCREEN. Keep in mind, it is difficult to add image rotation to a scanner once it has been shipped from the factory.

To see a graphical representation click here

You can always call us toll free and have our micrographic experts help you in selecting the correct configuration--800/334-8334