Cameras are available on short-term loan to faculty, instructors, Art History and Humanities PhD students, MAPH students concentrating in Art History, and College students majoring in Art History who need cameras for their related teaching, research, and scholarship, with an emphasis on site, object, and archival photography. Sign up to reserve a camera and schedule a brief orientation or email visualresources@uchicago.edu.
Camera reservations are made on a first-come, first-served basis. Borrowing priority will be given to departmental traveling seminars, including Gold Gorvy Traveling Seminars, and PhD students collaborating with the VRC. If you are interested in adding your research photographs to LUNA, review the Student Research Photo Collaboration program for more information. The VRC is grateful for Gold Gorvy support for photographic equipment for departmental research.
Browse the equipment and accessories in the VRC’s Camera Lending Program. Email visualresources@uchicago.edu to request a camera reservation, discuss available options that would benefit your project, or schedule a brief orientation.
At this time, the VRC cannot lend cameras to students in architecture studio courses or visual arts courses for documenting their own work or RSOs, but the Logan Media Center may be able to lend equipment for your needs. Please email visualresources@uchicago.edu if you would like to make an appointment with VRC staff to document your work. Similarly, the VRC cannot lend cameras for requests and users that are outside of the scope of Art History and Humanities needs for site photography, object-based photography, and archival research.
Camera bodies and lenses lent through the VRC Camera Lending Program are insured by the VRC’s enrollment in the University’s Theft Insurance Program. They are insured for theft regardless of their location at the time of the theft as long as they are secured. Practically, this means the equipment is with the borrower rather than in checked baggage while traveling or secured in a locked area that is not visible when it is not possible to be in the borrower’s possession.
Cameras
The VRC has a fleet of three Sony Alpha a7s with a suite of lenses for professional art and architecture photography and two Canon Rebels with basic zoom and macro lenses that are suitable for general reference photography. Available with each camera is: a camera bag, color checker, two SD cards, a USB-C to SD card reader, two camera batteries and a charger. Other available equipment, such as tripods, microphones, remotes, and tethering cables, is listed on the Camera Lending Airtable gallery.
VRC staff can help you determine what type of camera will best suit your project. Recent iPhone cameras can take photos with resolution comparable photos to DSLRs, and in some cases it might be preferable to carrying a larger camera (more portable, user-friendly, etc.). Consider borrowing a VRC camera if you will be photographing in the following conditions:
- Zooming in on faraway objects. The mechanical zoom of a DSLR lens can take higher-quality photos when photographing farther away. The digital zoom of an iPhone loses some of the quality.
- Low light or night photography. iPhones can take decent quality images in low light, and editing can fix some quality, though DSLRs can minimize post-processing time and have better color fidelity.
- Though images taken with iPhones and with DSLRs appear quite similar, DSLR cameras can take images at higher quality. If your project requires high-quality images, or photos might need to be cropped to create details, consider borrowing a camera.
- Color fidelity without using a color checker. The color in iPhones can often shift towards yellows and greens, if you need to photograph accurate colors and are unable to include a color checker for editing afterwards, a DSLR may photograph colors more accurately.
Document Camera
Other Equipment
The VRC has a CZUR Aura X Pro document camera with battery pack that can be used for quickly creating high-res photos or PDFs of documents, books, and more. To use this scanner in CWAC 257B, make a reservation via our Appointments booking widget. To borrow this foldable, portable scanner for your research travel to archives or libraries, write to visualresources@uchicago.edu to reserve.
Note: Some archives and libraries do not allow personal document camera equipment to be used in their reading rooms. We encourage you to check the policies and procedures before leaving on your trip.
