Micro Studio - Photographing Tiny 3D Prints

The level of detail printed by my SLA technology is such that a macro lens is essential if you actually want to see the finest of those details.  I have been using a macro lens attached to my iPhone for this with pretty good results as described by a previous post.  I may have even gone a little further than I needed to set up a mini studio!

What the iPhone solution delivers in terms of convenience though is lost in quality.  Lack of depth of field makes focus across any distance problematic and the various forms of optical distortion caused by tiny lenses is not a help either.  Enter my SLR.  I have Canon SLR and a macro lens and macro flash that I had purchased a while back.  I have never really taken the time to set it up for easy capture of the small models that I print until now.

Here is the my setup:

Woeking Bits

• 3D Printed stand for the camera and macro lens
• The actual camera and macro lense
• Rotating platform for the object to be photographed
• Elevator to raise or lower the floor on which the subject will sit.
• Backdrop holding paper that could be white or black
• PC (or Mac in this case) running Canon's EOS Utility

  

  Close-up of the working bits

  

  EOS Utility Console

  

  Captured Image

The parts that I designed for the Micro Studio are a rough work in progress but they can be found here.  Rotating stage is based on a huge bearing that I had from another project.  It is really not needed for this one so I have one that can be printed but I have not tested it.  The concept is here though!