DEC RD53 Manual

Some phootgraphic enlargers have the facility to remvoe the enlarger head/optics leaving a baseboard with a column and a carriag that can be moved up and down .Such thigns are idea for converting into stands for setups like this. Normally all you need is a metal bar with a male screw thread at one end to fit the camera tripod bush (normally 1/4 BSW, may be 3/8 BSW on larger/older cameras) and some way of fixing it to the carriage. [1] You don't turn down the end of a 2" or so diamater metal bar to 1/4" and then trhead it, of course. It's much easier to drill a central hole in the end of the bar ant tap it 1/4" BSW (or whatever) and use a short length of studding screwed in there to provide the male thread. Either Loctite it in place, or fit a grubscrew. Certainly when photogrpahing small bits of machienry using a film camera, I use the slowest film I can get (low grain, on a digital camera set the efective film speed as low as possible to resduce noise) and have the lens stopped down to increase depth of field. This leads to long exposures (several seconds in some cases) which are not a problem if the setup is rigit -- PCBs, etc do not tend to go anywhere. Depth of field is much less of a problem on a flat subject like a fice of fiche, of course -tony