Two new Phase One 150 Mega Pixel, 72 mm cameras will improve the quality and quantity of digitization projects at the UCR Library.  

The UCR Library recently acquired two new Phase One 150 Mega Pixel, 72 mm cameras for cultural heritage digitization from Digital Transitions. These new 150-megapixel cameras are part of two modular copy stands that enable Digitization Services staff to capture high-resolution images for both preservation and access.

“Now, the nature of our work can be more at scale,” says Digitization Services Specialist Mark Buchholz. “We're still going to be putting in the same amount of effort and labor as before, but the output will be improved in both quality and quantity.” 

The new cameras and modular copy stands can digitize a variety of objects safely, such as flat art, items like books, magazines, pamphlets, and film. There is also software included, Capture One CH, designed specifically for cultural heritage that allows for scientific color management, batch processing, and following established FADGI imaging standards. 

“After we capture, there is a quality control process and there's some post-production,” says Digital Initiatives Specialist Krystal Boehlert. “Instead of trying to make individual adjustments by opening up each file in Photoshop, we can make adjustments on a whole group of images very quickly.” 

Now, 75-80% of digitization cases that require post-production don’t require Photoshop due to Capture One editing features. 

The digitization process doesn’t end with Capture One or Photoshop. Digital Assets Metadata Librarian Noah Geraci ensures the images are accessible and easy to find. Noah ingests the images and metadata into Nuxeo - our centralized Digital Asset Management System — and then the images are published to Calisphere, a website that provides free access to more than 2,000 collections from organizations like libraries, archives, museums, and historical societies in California. 

“No matter how nice our images are, without Noah’s work, no one would be able to find them,” says Mark. 

Digitization Services is currently in the process of setting up their digitization workflows for digitizing the Jay Kay Klein photography collection — a project that would have required outside help if not for the recently purchased equipment. 

“We have the same quality equipment as the vendors we would have outsourced the project to,” says Krystal. “Now, we can do it a lot faster because we're not shipping things off, and we can start the metadata at the same time as the capture. There will be fewer bottlenecks.” 

If you’d like to see digitized images from our collections, take a look at the UCR Library’s page on Calisphere.