Sunday 2 August 2015

Archives New Zealand's new charges in relation to aerial photos

On the 1st July 2015 Archives New Zealand introduced a new scale of charges for remote research services. The key points of these charges as they relate to aerial photographs include:
  • The base fee of $25 per half-hour has increased to $50
  • The scan resolution that is defined as "low resolution" has been decreased from 600 dpi to 300 dpi.
Since I have determined that 600 dpi is the minimum resolution suitable for the aerial photos I am using (around 1:10000 scale), I am now faced with either paying a lot more money to Archives, or making do with the lower resolution. The indication from resampling the images I already have at 300 dpi is that I will struggle to pick out some of the detail that is visible at 600. It indicates that 600-1200 dpi is the optimum resolution for these around 1:10000 aerials but it also depends on the print size. It is pleasing to know that the option for scanning these contact prints has worked out from a technical point of view, compared to scanning from the original film, which Opus charges an enormous scale of fees for.

The fees for high resolution copying start at $30 although there is a volume copying rate of $10 that may apply to subsequent scans. The $50 fee is also payable as a minimum charge. When this fee is applied to low resolution scans it includes 20 "free". I am currently seeking clarification from Archives as to the application of the scale of charges for high resolution scanning since I may inevitably resign myself to obtaining a limited number of high res scans at the higher pricing. If the charging scale works out that there is significant advantage in getting a number done together then they will be batched. The use of the high resolution scans is going to be limited to Volume 17 otherwise it just ends up costing too much. So everywhere else will be low res except where there is free or cheaper high res coverage available.

The chainage chart referred to in a previous post turns out to have 24 pages, therefore it would only cost about $50 to have it scanned. I am planning to set up the request for this next week. Meanwhile tidying up the traces from the previously obtained aerial photography continues.