1. Do-it yourself - see
http://www.frontiernet.net/~rjacob/copystnd.htm. The picture I attach here is from that page.
2. Semi-professional copy stand by Manfrotto (Bogen in the US).
I guess that this is something similar to what some US university libraries offer for the use of students (It's been quite a few years since I last time lectured in the US, so I am not current on that).
I bought the Manfrotto in Italy a couple of years ago together with lots of accessories:
micro ball head, a mini laser level (that I attached to camera flash rail to aim the lens at the middle of the document page), extra 500 watt halogen lamps, reflector lamps, a variable friction arm, micrometric plate, various brackets, quick change plate adapter, multiclips (to hold black sheets protecting from side light), etc.
I was quite proud of the results achieved with that setting, although I was never happy with the lighting and shadows.
Since I am now a few thousand miles away from home, I had to device something provisional. So I designed and constructed a repro v-cradle as a temporary solution. It proved better than the flat bed copy stand for at least four reasons:
- it is ideal for books, magazines, etc. because of the V shape;
- it allows to position the original paper document at any distance and angle to the lens without touching the tripod or other camera stand;
- it solves the problem of lighting (see desperate solutions for flatbeds in the attached pictures taken from the internet);
- it does not require a tripod or a stand with precise positioning, anything that holds the camera steady at about 45 degree angle to the horizon level will do.
3. Professional reprographic systems. There are dozens of them with sky high prices. They may be right for automated reproduction of thousands of pages per day, but not for quality of each and every page. I assume that google books uses something like that and the results are sometimes disastrous (see yourself at google books).
I believe that with my repro v-cradle setup, I can match quality of any professional reproduction and I can photoscan hundreds if not thousands book pages a day (individual sheets of documents are just too easy to photocopy to mention).