Hello Ed, The camera stations are in room 203 on the second floor. After you give the guard your National Archives card to swipe and you walk forward to the desk the first camera station would be to your left near the back over where the large copier is located. If you will notice on a small camera's there is a female thread. The male thread is on the camera station which holds it in place. You can adjust the height of the camera with a knob at the camera station. There are also four bright lights which should be turned on thus allowed enough light. The archives have a lot of different sand filled objects to help hold down the pages in case you need them. Usually there is someone at the camera station but not always. If the camera station is not being used and the lights were off you would not know what it was. One of the first things you should do is to ask for the camera reservation book at the desk. There you may schedule your hour.

The other camera station is off to the right in the next room where you normally would receive your pension and CMSR's pulls. This camera station is off to the left of the desk where you sign for your pension records and CMSR's. This is not often used but can be on a busy day. During the summer months I may not use a camera station because of the sunlight and might use a table next to a window if both camera stations are busy. Of course the 2nd camera station is closed on Saturdays as is the room. You would receive all pulls in the main room.

The following was posted by Rick Bryant on the Mississippi board and can be useful for new comers to the archives. Just copy and paste it on google. I did not see the camera stations on the video but they are there.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/5HNYhMlXYhU?rel=0

Last week at the archives a young lady ask me why I was using the camera station instead of making xeroxed copies. I told her it was about the volume of records I wanted. She was seeking pensions from the American Revolution and said that in a month she had made over 2,000 hard copies. At .25 each that is at least $500.00. I hope it was not her own personal work and that someone else was paying for it. I have a friend who puts me to shame. He and his wife made over 1,500 photographs in six hours I guess the camera stations were not busy that day. Of course she was turning pages and he was pressing the button. If no one else is waiting for the camera station you may schedule another hour but cannot schedule two consecutive hours. If someone comes up to you and wants to make a few photographs on your scheduled time I would advise you to allow them to do so. Otherwise they will schedule a time and when they are finished they may not allow you to use their time.

I usually go to an Office Depot after I'm finished at the archives and they will take the camera card and put them on your flash drive for free. After that I download them on my lap top and start the process of indexing my photos. Needless to say I can send attachments of my photographs if I choose to do so via email. Using a camera saves both time and space and money and allows you to blow up the photographs at least 10X if needed. In two days last week I took 750 photographs and it cost me a total of $5.00 and that was for the flash drive.