Why Phase One iXG is the most suitable digitisation tool

28 February 20183 min readTripont Heritage editorial team

Phase One camera above a gold-coloured old document

iXG – a professional image-capture device with industrial performance and 100MP resolution

Besides preserving their collections, the basic task of cultural institutions is to support research and to make the collection known to the public. This requires high-level digitisation of objects. Phase One provides the intelligent image-capture solutions that best meet these needs, built on the fast production and accurate processing of large-volume digitisation workflows. The Phase One Industrial Imaging team has developed an ergonomic, flexible and efficient multifunctional solution for this purpose. This is the iXG camera system: a 100-megapixel, durable yet easy-to-handle device built for industrial workloads, together with the Capture One Cultural Heritage software, which controls the iXG, processes and organises the images, and exports them in formats suited to different uses.

The iXG camera system is characterised by ease of use, reliability and flexibility. The system, with 100MP image resolution and designed for special imaging tasks, ensures the accurate capture of cultural heritage. Combined with Phase One’s own motorised stands, it can switch quickly between large and small originals, and with the accessory called the Phase One Film Capture Stage, photographic materials, films and glass plates can also be digitised easily.

The iXG can be controlled with the Capture One Cultural Heritage software. The most important elements of the new Cultural Heritage release are the following: automatic capture of negative film, automatic cropping with “pre-pass” optimisation and automatic alignment for flat objects, books and transparent film materials, as well as ICC colour profiles prepared for reproductions.

Colour fidelity and richness of detail

The iXG camera system uses a BSI (back side illuminated) CMOS sensor for the highest resolution and the lowest noise level. Combined with the Capture One CH ICC profile, these sensors can reproduce colours and details more accurately.

Industrial durability

The iXG camera system was designed for hard work. It is of industrial construction, made of high-quality aluminium, and uses the most durable mechanical and electronic components. The long service life of the Reliance Shutter comes with a guarantee of one million exposures. With the electronic shutter of the iXG 100MP, which has no moving parts, an unlimited number of shots can be taken.

Capture One Cultural Heritage integration

Full integration of the hardware into the Capture One Cultural Heritage software leads to an efficient workflow and precise results. The tools used for the automatic cropping and alignment of documents and books, and the automated workflow used for capturing negative films, lead to significant time savings. With the software we can also assign batch metadata or keywords directly to the images, and it provides measuring options so that we can check and, if necessary, adjust the settings even before capture. The quality of the resulting image meets international image-quality standards and the requirements of the FADGI and Metamorfoze standards.

Schneider Kreuznach lenses

The iXG camera uses integrated Flat Field optics: the 72mm and 120mm Schneider Kreuznach lenses. These lenses were designed specifically for photographing flat objects, especially for libraries, archives and universities. Schneider Kreuznach lenses deliver the highest quality in terms of the resolution, distortion-free imaging, sharpness and colour fidelity required for the most demanding reproduction applications.

Precision focus control

The iXG camera system provides precise, accurate and fine motor-driven focusing. Optimal positioning of the lens and camera ensures ideal focus accuracy. Beyond manual and preset positioning, contrast-based autofocus can also be used, which determines distance and resolution parameters accurately and reliably and helps to set the camera position and focus automatically for a given job, depending on the document size and the capture resolution.