Adventures in Microfilm
Mass Capture has lead the Research Team on an adventure in microfilm. All of the original CI 9 certificates were destroyed in 1963 under the auspices Microfilm Authority M6-62. Almost all of the certificates have been digitized and can be viewed here .
However, because many of the original microfilm images are of poor quality, Mass Capture has been digitizing them again, certificate by certificate, frame by frame. This has been the work of Helen Piekoszewski, a professional photographer. As a team, we have learned that the best way to digitize archival microfilm has been to use a DIY set up involving digital camera, a tripod, a lightbox, lots of gaffer tape, and even public transit transfers! The result has been beautifully crisp images that allow the Research Team to really attend to the visual analysis that has to be done (lots of attention to signatures, scratches, smudges, margins).
Interview with Helen, the photographer. Lily, the Principal Investigator for Mass Capture, asked Helen to talk about the equipment and process she uses to digitize the CI 9s.
Comparisons Please take a look here to see the differences between certificates that have been digitized by a microfilm reader, and the ones that Helen has digitized “by hand.”
Mass Capture 