Tilt calculation

[jonbarrett]

Hi

I'm setting up a home studio to do spin photography of electronic circuit boards.

The boards are flat, square and measure upto 300mm along their longest length.

The idea is that the user can spin the photo on screen then zoom in to specific components. Thus I'm looking for a good depth of field across the board.

For quality and shutter speed I would like to stick at f8.

Thus I'm going to use a tilt lens. I hired a ts lens any got some stunning results.

I would now like to swap my trial and error for some science.

Assuming I'm using an 80 mm prime lens with up to 8 tilt. It will be on a focus rail. Aperture and focus are both manual. The camera will be angled to the board between 30 and 45deg depending on it shape.

Is there a calculation I can use to set the tilt angle to ensure the dof stretches across the whole board.

The only real variables I have are the angle the camera looks at the board and the distance between the lens and board.

Help appreciated

Jon

 

[jonbarrett]

I should have also said I want to keep the shutter speed sensible for three reasons.

1 I have to do 36 or 72 shots per board
2 even though I'm using a rotary table and tripod I want to eliminate blur
3 I may want to use flash on some boards

Jon

 

[Scatterbrained]

What you want is a Scheimpflug Calculator. Of course with the advantage of digital live view I just open the lens all the way and set my tilt/shift using LV, then stop the lens down where I want it and double check the DOF.

 

[jonbarrett]

Good news I have found a tilt calculator here

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/tilt-shift-lenses2.htm

Jon