Precision, innovation, and passion: How G.A.P. Visio contributes to the digitalization of cultural heritage in Italy.
In the context of digitalizing Italy’s cultural heritage, G.A.P. Visio has stood out for over thirty years as a benchmark for the digitalization of historical archives, documents, and museum collections. The company offers customized solutions for public institutions, foundations, and cultural organizations.
In order to carry out the ambitious mission of digitalizing these archives with the highest quality and efficiency, G.A.P. Visio has chosen the FUJIFILM GFX100 II large-format mirrorless camera.
The Challenge of Digital Preservation: Protecting the past with quality and care
The cultural heritage that G.A.P. Visio is committed to digitalizing consists of unique, fragile, and complex materials. Preserving their integrity during the digital capture process requires not only advanced technical expertise but also cutting-edge tools capable of delivering maximum quality without compromising the originals.
The primary goal of digitalization is to obtain a digital copy of the original to protect it from the natural degradation of its physical medium over time, as well as from the risk of loss or damage due to unpredictable events.
For example, images created on film or microfilm tend to lose quality over time, both in terms of color and contrast. State-of-the-art digitalization of the original allows for “freezing” the quality at a specific moment in history, offering future generations access to a faithful version of the original in that particular state of preservation.
The physical space saved by digital archiving compared to bulky paper archives plays a significant role.
It was precisely from this simple but forward-thinking insight that, more than thirty years ago, the idea was born that inspired Giancarlo De Calisti to found G.A.P. Visio. — Andrea De Calisti
FUJIFILM Solution: GFX100 II as the Technological Core
G.A.P. Visio chose the FUJIFILM GFX100 II, a camera equipped with a large-format sensor capable of delivering 102-megapixel resolution and unparalleled color fidelity.
The cameras are the heart of a custom-designed acquisition system customized to meet the specific needs of each digitalization project. The capture and management software also plays a crucial role in combining high quality with high production volumes. G.A.P. Visio has developed proprietary software over time, fully leveraging the compatibility of the GFX system through the SDK package.
The result is a vertical digitalization system — flexible, robust, and high-performing — capable of adapting to the diverse needs of institutions and museums looking to keep pace with digital evolution.
The reliability of the GFX camera system is another strong point. Over the past five years, it has enabled the digitalization of over 10 million pages of library materials and 20 million frames of film or microfilm.
Currently, the G.A.P. Visio team operates in over 40 locations across Italy, using around 50 cameras.
Thanks to Fujifilm’s GFX100 II cameras, we can achieve increasingly higher quality standards. They allow us to preserve cultural heritage with the care and precision it deserves, ensuring absolute fidelity to the original — where every pixel becomes an essential part of our history.— Andrea De Calisti
Technical Core: lenses, Setups, and Camera Settings
The lenses used for digitalization include:
⚫︎FUJINON GF30mmF3.5 R WR Lens
⚫︎FUJINON GF45mmF2.8 R WR Lens
⚫︎FUJINON GF45-100mmF4 R LM OIS WR Lens
⚫︎FUJINON GF120mmF4 R LM OIS WR Macro Lens
Ideal camera settings for digitalization:
⚫︎Aperture: between f/8.0 and f/11.0
⚫︎Shutter speed: between 1/80s and 1/125s
⚫︎Lighting: continuous LED lights, free of infrared and ultraviolet, with a color temperature of 5400K
⚫︎ISO: set to 100 for transparent originals and microfilm, and between ISO 100 and 400 for paper and book materials
GFX system cameras, with their compactness and ease of use, allow us to create complete digitalization systems focused on maximum quality and practicality. — Paolo De Calisti
The Future of Digitalization: Artificial Intelligence and New Frontiers in Cultural Knowledge
The collaboration with Fujifilm marks a decisive step for G.A.P. Visio toward a future where digitalization becomes an essential tool for the protection and enhancement of cultural heritage — combining advanced technology, expertise, and passion.
The next challenge G.A.P. Visio is preparing to explore is the integration of artificial intelligence into the processes of accessing and experiencing digitized assets. The goal is to make these contents accessible through new pathways of knowledge, designed for an increasingly connected and diverse global audience.
Technological innovation and historical heritage, in this way, meet in a new phase of development, where digitalization goes beyond preservation but becomes an active tool for cultural enhancement and knowledge dissemination.
