camera/lens recommendation for pinball stencil creation

[bayoubilly]

Hello:

I'm a newbie... ;-)

I'm interested in creating stencils to be used for pinball machine
cabinet restoration. The plan is to take the digital image, vectorize
it, and then use an stencil cutting machine to create the stencil. I
was hoping for some suggestions on a decent camera for such a task.


The largest area of the cabinet is approximately 51" in length by 22"
in height. The other sides of the cabinet are subsets of this area
size. Usually the artwork found on the cabinet is two or three color
tones. Some examples can be seen here:

www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=762&picno=12550

www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=762&picno=12552

www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=762&picno=25909

www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=1755&picno=1707


I plan to set the cabinet against a flat, white background to take the
images. As I am making stencils, being able to have accurate
geomentry for my starting image (so no warping/distortion (nomenclature?), etc... on the edges of the photo) is necessary.


If someone could provide some suggestions on a good digital camera, lens, tripod, etc... for getting me good detailed images I would greatly appreciate it. I *think* I want to use a prime lens which will allow better consistency between shots... but I'm not really sure (thus my posting here...)


In case it matters, I do not intend to take this camera out for family
vacations, etc... I just want to try to understand a good camera/lens
suggestion for this specific use.


Thank you,
Bill

[Greg McCary]

You might consider a m4/3rd camera like an Olympus EP-2 or a Sony NEX with a good prime.