Multilens Film Scanning

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Multilens Film Scanning

• Christopher D. Elvidge
• National Geophysical Data Center
• William Hawken
• NOS-NGS Remote Sensing Division
• November 6, 2008

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In 2004 the federal archive in Tacoma Park,
Maryland was looking for a NOAA site to receive
and store pallets of NOAA related records. NGDC
volunteered but had no idea what was contained
on the pallets.
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In the warehouse up the hill.
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Who left that pallet in the aisle?
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I see someone knows how to stack bundles.
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Do you remember the days of multilens cameras?
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Five lens cameras frame set.
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We have 92 boxes of these?
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There are some index mosaics..
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Film mosaic from nine lens camera..
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NGS Multilens Film Archive

• Multilens cameras were developed in the 1930s
  to expand the spatial extent of film collections
  from individual flight lines.
• Collections were made from 1937 to 1961,
  primarily in coastal areas of the USA.
• The original film was not preserved.
• The archive was passed from NGS to the Federal
  Record Center and NARA many years ago.

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Estimated Numbers

• 3,000 (/-) large format BW film mosaics
  (transparencies) at NGDC and 36,000 more held by
  NARA.
• 14,000 (/-) multilens print sets in wrapped
  packs.
• 20,000 to 48,000 multilens negatives and prints
  in boxes.
• 150,000 paper prints in boxes.

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Significance of the Multilens Aerial Photography

• The photography was collected in a systematic
  manner to map the US shoreline and its features
  from the 1920s until the early 1960s.
• The collection contains one of the best national
  records of the shorelines, coastal land cover,
  and extent of development for the early to
  mid-20th century.

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Discovery Tasks in FY09

• Detailed survey of the collection contents.
• Identification of those sections of the archive
  that are suitable for digital scanning based on
  image quality and the availability of spatial and
  temporal indexing.
• Test scanning of film and print samples.