General Chat

Has anyone invested in their own fiche reader ? Any idea's now much they cost.. ?

Bloody hell, I'm not paying that sort of money - if I could get a second hand one for £50 I might think about it !!! I'm only asking coz I've bought some fiche for a parish that's miles away, and at present am going to have to use the reader in the local library - easier than driving across counties every time I want to look something up...

I hadn't thought of that !! I bet we've got one here somewhere, it's a big office. I really don't know why the FSH's don't publish the fiche on CDROM tho...

Paul Try Ebay. Got my fiche reader off there. £65 Margaret

Iv got a fiche reader,,,a big one that cost me £60 about 4 years ago. I would love a smaller one though as I have to drag it out everytime i want to use it, I shouldnt complain though,,at least Iv got one,!

I got mine ( about the size of my 15" monitor) for £40 by answering an advert in the "For Sale" columns in one of the monthly genealogy magazines. Had to drive from Bucks to Somerset to collect it. I wonder if GC would add an "Items for Sale" board ? Len

I also bought microfiche of parish records for a couple of parishes I was interested in. I've managed to scan them on my father-in-laws pc scanner and enlarge them to the point where they are readible. It didn't work on our (older) scanner. This method has the advantage that I can print out anything useful I find. Ann

Ann what a bloody brilliant idea, I shall try this out tomorrow night (not tonight as the footballs on the TV lol). Why didn't I think of that ? lol

Hi Paul Like Margaret I got my fiche reader on e-bay and paid about £30. Carol Perthshire

Ann, How did you do that? I have a fiche and tried to scan and enlarge but couldn't manage it. My scanner is a Cannon and was new the begining of this year so don't think that can be the problem. Sue

I think you need the sort of scanner that will scan negative film. My HP Office Jet G85 won't do it. Len

I have been trying to scan the fiche again and I think my problem may be something to do with the DPI because, when I get the image to enlarge, the writing just turns to squares. It just seems expensive to buy a reader just to read one fiche and our local library is useless, the woman did not even know what I was talking about when I asked if they had a fiche reader! Oh well back on the shelf it goes!

Sorry - just found this thread again using the your messages facility (Thanks GC). My father-in-law bought his scanner this Christmas specifically to scan in negatives of engineering drawrings. So, yes it is a good one, but still a domestic rather than office one. I will ask him what make it is. I scan the whole fiche and write to a file (sorry can't remember what type). I then open the file using Paint Shop Pro. This allows me to zoom etc. I've experimented with other programs with no success. (So I have to borrow hubbies pc as I don't have Paint Shop on mine !). I have also had limited success using our older scanner for images where the data was typed. Ann

just a word on this... I did try scanning (on a new and fairly decent Canon scanner) but even at highest DPI I couldn't get an image. Have been using the fiche reader at the libraby