First, I think, you need to determine how you are ultimately going to use the scans. Are you doing this to document your collection or catalog them for insurance purposes? Or are you looking for individual images that you can put together into pictures like I have below or post on eBay ads?

If individual images are the way you want to go I would set up a camera on a tripod or other mount and do a table top set up where you have a board etc. all positioned to take pictures. I am trying to acquire the proper equipment to build my own portable copy stand setup. That would require a base board or table or a corner of a desk, and a vertical pole that could be clamped to the edge in a pre marked and determined location. Then, I have a clamp that I can mount my camera to. (Bogen Super Clamp) Positions on the pole can be marked and everything can be set up very quickly and easilly. Put the chips on the backdrop one two or three at a time etc. and line everything up and mark the location where you want the chips to be so they are centered. That way all you have to do is remove the first batch of chips and set down the next chip(s) on or inside your marks and snap a picture. If you use a good quality camera and leave adequate spacing between chips you can then snap a bunch of chips and cut them apart on the computer with Photoshop or other programs to use good size individual images. To make markings mark lightly with a sharp pencil. Set the camera manually for color and exposure and lock that in. Use a neutral gray card (Gray Foam Board available at office supply stores is usually very good) when doing this. That way the exposure and color of all your images will be the same. Colorful chips can throw off the color shift of a camera, or scanner for that matters, if you have the device set for automatic settings. If your lighting isn't perfect or colors from one chip to the next are extremely different you might notice your background and other white portions of your image will often vary in color shift and exposure. By setting manual adjustments you assure more consistancy.

The use of the plastic pages seems to work out pretty good if you want to shoot an entire page for insurance or catalog purposes. However I would note the glare. If that isn't of concern to you than using such a method would seem to work well. Glare could also be a difficulty when using AirTites etc. as well. I usually take all my chips and tokens out and photograph them outside of pages or capsuls. That way I don't have the glare problem. I also try to take them outdoors or into a sunny window where I can set up free from reflections, shadows or whatever.

You could just lay out groups of chips as I describe above and take series of photos. Or zoom in more and take individual images. One added advantage of using a good digital camera and shooting closer of inididual or smaller groups is that you can get incredable resolution and details which can be helpful in identifying certain chips. Older chips may have identifying imperfections that can aid in identification. A 3 to 5 megapixel camera when properly used can yield some fantastic pictures. I used to use a Nikon Coolpix 990 for all my shots. I would shoot at 1024x768 with Fine Resolution. With those settings I got good quantities of images on a single memory card while getting fairly large and really good clear images. Using 3mpxls would be better still if you have a large enough memory card to handle a good number of pictures. Now I have a 6mpxl Nikon D100 which I have plans to use for my next set of images. I can always downsize images for posting on the web etc. but the fact that I can get a crystal clear image at over 11x14 of a single chip is somewhat exciting.

I personally have taken to using the tabletop method to take photos of my pictures. I used to do the scanner thing but had the difficulty of rotating chips correctly... Then if something came out wrong it was so long to fix the problem and rescan. I suppose newer scanners and computers may be quicker than my Gateway 486-66 and similar vintage scanner but now that I have been using the digital camera I really have no need to go back to the scanner. I even use my Digital Camera for photographing documents and such. It is just so much quicker to just set down a sheet of paper on the desk and pop off a photo or two then plug the CF card into the computer.

Specifically to scanners, if that is the way you need to go, I would suggest a couple things. First have a good clean piece of paper or cloth to put over your chip(s) when you scan. The inside of the lid to a scanner can look unpleasant at times. Using a clean fresh paper can make things look much nicer. Also due to the thickness of the chip(s) light can make it's way under the lid and cause refelction or glare. By putting a clean cover over your subject you will have a better scan. Here I would make the following points. A scanner is going to read the overall quality of the entire bed of the scanner. Not just your chip. Thus, pay attention to the qualities of your backdrop. Avoid glossy materials. Also use neutral colors. White, Medium Gray or Black. Other colors can end up altering the colors of your image. If your images are coming out a little blue for example, use a blue backdrop and the scanner will add some yellow to compensate. that might remove some of the coloration. In most situations, Try to use gray if possible. That will give you an overall normal or average exposure and color setting. You can use the black or white to add contrast between the chip and background or you can use black or white to fool the scanner into lightening up a little or darkening a little. A white chip might reflect more light back and become overexposed on your scanner. Scanning it on a lighter gray or white can help cause the scanner to ratchet down the exporure a little. If your chips are coming out dark than try using a darker shade of gray or maybe black. That might cause the scanner to lighten up a little.

A little note about the image below. I was playing Blackjack one morning at The Orleans, 4am, and they were changing the felts. I asked and was given this felt. A few tears and a couple cig burns... When I got home I took it out into the back yard and photographed it on a table in a sunny part of the yard. I then took photos of the chips which were taken in a sunny window on a neutral background or on top of a black and white print from some of my vacation photos. I then went into Photoshop and was able to cut the chips out of their background and paste and resize them onto the photo of the felt. All the photos were individual pictures of the chips. I then used the magic wand tool and selected each chip from the montage and created a new layer where I colored inside of each circle with black. Then, when adjusting the opaque setting I created shadows and offset them from their corresponding chips. Then after flattening the image everything looks like part of the same photo. Except of course the scale between the chips/tokens and the felt. In reality though, the photo is a compilation of over 20 different images or componenets.