Macro using a copy stand - best set up?

[15ofclubs]

No-nothing newbie with Panasonic FZ-20 (low range DSLR?) wanting to take macro shots of 4cm badges.

have remote shutter cable & about to buy Kaiser retrokid copy stand. (@$300 more expensive than my camera!)

Problem is camera lens is very close to photo subject. I can fill the frame from about 5cm away but then have trouble lighting using lamps (2 x 7W 5000K fluoro energy savers) From further away I can get enough light but optical zoom blurs image after 2x which hasn't even filled frame yet! Manuall focus & auto focus don't seem to work for macro.

No idea what F-stop, ISO, shutter speed to use

Am considering buying cheap macro lens package of Ebay, (2x, 5x, 10x) so as to be able to increase the distance from subject for lighting, or is there a better solution?

Any help appreciated:hug::

 

[Derrel]

WAIT! Don't buy an expensive macro stand when an older Omega enlarger, like an Omega D2, can be converted into the same thing, at a cost of almost nothing. Back in the 1980's, before scanners, before digital,etc, I used to shoot "presentation slides" for a company...35mm slides which were simply photographs of printed graphics and charts and stuff....this was before desktop publishing and PowerPoint were really on the market....but I digress....

The slanted column of an enlarger keeps the lens centered on the baseboard as the head is raised and lowered. The Omega D2 was perfect--remove the light head and the lens and there was a *perfect*, flat cradle that fits a Nikon F3 body absolutely perfectly and parallel to the baseboard!

Perhaps another brand of enlarger would be suitable for the same purpose. I see enlargers now just being given away on Craigslist here in the USA, and on eBay the things cost almost nothing....might be worth a shot.

 

[15ofclubs]

One on Ebay finishing tomorrow near me, enlarger missing a part so should go cheap, perfect. Column, baseboard & enlarger support bracket look very solid & in good condition, LPL so should be decent quality too. Attach a camera thread to bracket & hey presto. I already have a 'swivelly ball thing' if angle wrong.

Thanks!:thumbup:

 

[Torus34]

On 'even' lighting:

An overcast day outdoors provides oodles of bright [relative to indoor] light. Cost: $US0.00.