singleviking Loc: Lake Sebu Eco Park, Philippines

Fritz,
If you look closely to your photo, you'll see that your focus is off on the printed characters farther away so your DOF is limited. Using an 80 degree view (almost perpendicular) will eliminate the reflections and the use of a lightbox with remote triggered diffused external light would eliminate the shadows that appear. This is the problem with using the built-in flash for product photography.

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

I think you can work this out with a better setup and some post editing instead of spending a ton on an all new camera system. The photo you attached does not have the camera flat on the same plane as the circuit board, first of all, so if you got the printing on the ICs in focus, likely other components will be out of focus. You need to lay the board down on a table top, use a small tripod to put the camera above the board with the lens exactly parallel with it.

You also have a lot of wasted blue space around the edge of the board which means you can get much closer than you are currently. That alone would improve the resolution of the IC print. You have a label above the circuit board. If they would accept it, how about having the circuit board virtually fill the frame and add the label across the multi-pin connector area in post editing. A white text box with black print on a layer in Photoshop ($10 a month), overlaid at an unimportant part of the circuitry (like the connectors) would allow you to get rid of the blue area completely. For that matter, the photo you've attached (without the white label at the top could be cropped in post editing so the board completely fills the frame without moving the camera closer which also would increase the readability of the IC lettering.

The tops of the ICs also don't have "pure white" lettering. They never do. So, again in post editing, you could lighten the print area on the IC, or the whole top of the IC chip for that matter, with a "burn" brush. Maybe try swiping the lettering with a mild "sharpen" brush to see if that helps make it more readable.

I believe you're chasing resolution as a solution when a paper print is still going to have a resoluton limit anyway. I feel that size of the IC printing, clarity of the IC printing, and proximity to the IC printing, are far more important than the resolution of the camera itself and a better setup with post-editing can reduce your headaches.

MW

Until recently I worked for an electronics company and I recall they took one of the cubicles and set it up for product photography. The camera was nothing special (an older Canon DLSR), but the put more money and effort in to a tent, lighting and fixturing. There was a printed set of instructions on the wall that specified exactly where to place the product, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, where/how to mount the camera, etc. There were three or four categories of product listed with any required adjustments.

Quite a bit of time was spent to get the set up the way marketing wanted it. But once it was in place anyone who wasn't a complete dope could be sent to do the photo and get the desired result. The customers were all industrial so the photos went on the web or product sheets.

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

For what you want, I would be using a 70-200 f4 zoom with an extension tube or 2-element close up lens. The zoom would simplify and save set up times.......and the longer focal length would allow more lighting options.

RWR Loc: La Mesa, CA

Would you believe that I agree with you?? :lol: :) :lol:

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

When I was shooting PC boards, I would use a circular flourescent light fixture ( the kind with a magnify glass in the middle) - and remove the glass - and shoot through the middle with the camara lens ( on a tripod).

JD750 Loc: SoCal

I have some experience with this. We do this routinely where I work. Your purpose of taking photos is to read the markings? and verify placement and phasing? That's relative easy.

Some good suggestions in the posts. Some bad ones too. I recommend the following: (1) you want good sharp optics that facilitate filling the frame with the subject; (2) a high pixel count sensor. That allows you to zoom in close and maintain sharpness. I recommend a full frame sensor; (3) You need to think about lighting. You don't want harsh shadows; (4) You want a tethering setup, so you can see the results immediately on screen and save them to disk. You can use the same computer you are using to store the data to view the images as you take them, (5) you want a large high def monitor, at least 21", and of course; (6) you need a plan for storing, cataloguing, and backing up up all the image data.

Peter1972m Loc: Essex, England, UK

I'm gonna have to totally agree, as for camera and lens I coul have got the kind of picture you after with my old Nikon D3100 and Sigma 70-300 macro lens. Cheap as chips set up and I hated the lens but it will do the job fine.

mtbear

I always used an old Vivitar enlarger stand with the head removed and my camera mounted in its place. It's design pretty much guarantees the film plane will be parallel to the board as long as it's flat on the base. A right angle viewfinder helps to focus with a SLR/DSLR. It's also very easy to light and adjust the height.

Reinaldokool Loc: San Rafael, CA

:thumbup: :thumbup:

I used to do electronic pcboards as a ham radio op. A real macro is a better option as Big Bill said. The corners are further away than the center (on axis). A flatter field of view will help. I would also suggest mounting the camera on a stand with a remote shutter release, and possibly even manual focus.

Reinaldokool Loc: San Rafael, CA

Correct. Actually, you could buy or create a stand. We used to buy very fancy ones with levels and plumb lines that would ensure your camera was centered directly over the center of the board, perfectly horizontal, etc. I'm sure these are still available, though you could probably make something like this yourself.

peterg Loc: Santa Rosa, CA

Agree.
Like many others, I love my Nikon 105 f2.8. The 960 reviews on B&H and Adorama sites for this lens gets an average rating of 5 out of 5 stars. Most of the bad reviews concerned the auto-focus. At macro distances, auto-focus will often hunt, since DOF is extremely narrow. At non-macro distances, the auto-focus on my lens is similar to my other Nikon lenses. But, manual focusing is best for closeups, anyway.

singleviking Loc: Lake Sebu Eco Park, Philippines

Damn....for orientation of the pc board you can just mount it on a pc board stand mounted in a lightbox that's level with your tripod and using external diffused flash and a remote or cable shutter release. Yes there are fancy contraptions for accomplishing this on a repeatable basis but this OP is just getting started. Let's not put the fellow in the poorhouse before he get's his feet wet.
We took thousands of photos of wafers, circuit boards and IC modules in this manner at Bell Labs, Murray Hill. A D3100 would be plenty sufficient in pixel count for 18 X24 or bigger enlargements without pixelization. I agree it would be optimum to have a D800 or D810 or even a Hassleblad but it's not really necessary. The setup and lighting are paramount as is RAW files so they can be enhanced in PP.

bruceh

My experience:

1. Use a long macro lens so you can more easily light the pcb and prevent components on the board from shadowing screened info you want to include.
2. Setup so that the pcb is parallel to the camera sensor plane. You don't want a rectangle to present as a trapezoid.
3. Use a quality lens that does not present the subject with sides warped in or out.

CHuckle's Loc: Lockhart, Texas

Hi there, I have read a lot of the responses to your original post but not all so please forgive me if I repeat someone elses answer. I am by trade a QA inspector for a board house and when we have a quality issue and or a parts issue we use an Olympus point & shoot camera that does amazing images. This particular camera has a macro setting that you can get super close with and be able to get the markings on a SMD/SMT part that measures 1/16th by 1/8th" in actual size. Some of the boards we stuff measure 8x10 and we get good images for these too. If you would like, I will get the info of the camera on Monday when I go back to work. BTW, I own the D7100 and I would use the $100 to $150 Olympus to take the images that you are describing not the $1,200 to $1,500 D7100 w/lens.