On Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:13:22 -0700, Jim Thompson
wrote:

On Wed, 24 Mar 2010 14:09:34 -0500,
(Hal Murray) wrote:

In article ,
Jim Thompson writes:
Trying to take close-ups of chips, is there some kind of stand/tripod
to hold a camera pointing downward onto a desk surface?

What do you call it/where do you get it?

If you want really good pictures...

Microscopes usually include good illumination setups.
They often have a 3rd port setup for a camera.
Some have no eye-ball ports, just USB to your computer.

For a chip, you don't need high magnification, at least
relative to what many other people need.

Try searching for inspection microscope or disecting microscope.
Most of what you find will probably be more expensive than you
will like but you might find something that catches your eye
or get some ideas.

I don't need that magnification... I'm just talking macro shots of I/C
packages on PCB's.

...Jim Thompson

I have a giant copy board with lights around the outside, and the
DSLR mounted above, and controlled from my computer's USB port. I have
a macro lens and ring flash for very close work. Also a couple
portable diffuser boxes for product shots (one home-made from
instructions on the net using plastic tubing from Home Despot, and one
smaller portable commercial one).

Or, for occasional use and no cost, take a white pizza box, add
background if you want, haul it outside on a cloudy day, and point the
camera on a tripod down at the ground. Use a remote release dongle or
just use the internal timer set to a second or two to avoid shake.
You could probably simulate the cloudy day on a sunny day by draping a
K-mart bed sheet over some kind of supports.

Once you get a good high-res photo using diffuse light, you can fix
anything else (like the PCB not being 100% straight or minor
keystoning, color balance, contrast and brightness) in Photoshop or
your favorite image editing program. Photoshop makes it particularly
easy to do rectangular PCBs with the perspective crop feature.