How to Order a NCAP Reconnaissance Photograph

On a number of occasions, I have been asked how to order a reconnaissance photograph from the National Collection of Aerial Photography (NCAP). This collection of aerial images is now under the auspices of the 'Historic Environment Scotland' in Edinburgh.

If you do not know the photograph you require (sortie number, frame number and date), then you will first have to do a search to see if your Area of Interest (AoI) has coverage for your specified time window. I will go through the procedure for doing a paid NCAP search in another thread.

Assuming you know the photograph you require (sortie number, frame number and date), proceed thus:

Browse to the NCAP image order form at the link below:

http://ncap-sales.rcahms.gov.uk/shop/image_sales/tara_sales_enquiry.php

The order form has three tabs and tab 1) Sales Enquiry is open by default. In the 'Order' field, enter the full name of the photograph you require, including underscores to avoid spaces as in the screenshot below:

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The ‘US30’ part of the file name seen in the Order field above here may not be part of your photograph title. In this case it refers to the USAAF 30th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron, 67th Photo Reconnaissance Group.

Next select dpi level from the drop down list in the ‘Product Type’ field. I normally select 1200dpi as I believe this is the resolution limit of the master prints from which the customer’s TIFF file is created. In my view choosing the more expensive 1600dpi setting will only produce larger versions of fuzzy detail not visible in 1200dpi files.

Now move onto tab 2) Licence. This is where you inform NCAP of the intended use of the photograph. Remember you are not really buying a photograph per se but rather the right to use a copy in a specific way. In the screenshot below, I have clicked the ‘Non-Commercial’ option in the ‘Type of Use’ field (circled red):

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You will see that I have specified very clearly the intended use in the second field titled ‘Additional Information’. NCAP will need to know this before a licence can be granted.

Finally, in tab 3) Your Details, enter your contact details (phone numbers are required even though the fields are not marked as mandatory):

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Ensure your email address is valid as this is the normal mode of contact during the ordering process. When all fields are filled in here, go back and make sure you have entered the name of the file required correctly in tab 1. When everything is in order, click the ‘Submit Enquiry’ button at the bottom of tab 3.

If you have completed the three-part Order Form correctly, the following screen will appear:

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A few minutes later, you should get an automated email from NCAP like the example below:

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Normally within three or four working days, you will receive further communication by email with a copy of the licence agreement, which you must accept and pay the prescribed fee. This being the week before Christmas, I do not expect to hear from NCAP until they re-open in the New Year.

I’ll post further screenshots of this next step when it arrives for the above order.

Regards,

Pat

 

Hi Patrick,

What you appear to have been charged for was the fee for an opened ended search, not high resolution images. Always tell them to limit your search duration!!

I think they charge something like £15 per 15 minutes of search time. When requesting a search, I always tell them to give me one example 'proof' only from each sortie found for my AoI and also, I tell them to stop searching after one hour - very important!!

When you have one example 'proof' frame from a sortie, you can order the Sortie Index Plot and then you will know exactly what coverage there is from that sortie for your AoI.

The pdf you received, with the low resolution 'proofs' embedded therein, was the result of your search. It could just as easily have been no proofs (a blank pdf) and you would still have been charged the search fee for the time it took to establish that there was no sorties flown for you date window over your AoI.

I hope this clarifies matters for you. I will go through the procedure for doing a paid search in another thread.

Regards,

Pat

 

Patrick,

This looks very expensive.

When I requested a search for the Vierville area last year, stating that it should not exceed one hour, I was charged £40 + £8 VAT or about €59 total.

Did your search AoI cover just the Cherbourg area? Is it possible you were charged for two separate searches - two different locations?

The only other thing I can think of is that there were probably a large number of sorties flown over this important port city and it therefore took a lot of time to sift through them all to find frames covering your AoI.

Regards,

Pat

 

Hi All,

To continue with the 'live feed'

Today I received the pdf licence to which the customer must accept the terms and conditions online. Below is an extract from the licence summary section:



Note that there is a 'pull' fee of £3.50 which is a charge levied to cover the cost of physically retrieving the master print from the NCAP storage facility prior to scanning.

When the full fee is paid via the online store, you get a summary of where things stand at present:



In normal times it takes about seven working days from this point until the image download link is emailed to the customer. As this is the week leading up to Christmas, I do not expect the link email until the first week in January.

Regards,

Pat