Does A High Magnification Digital Camera Exist?

[sarasara]

I am doing very intricate, detailed, minaturised work and I want to use a videocamera or webcam attached to an anglepoise arm facing my drawing board so that I can see a magnified picture of my work on my 24" monitor at the back of my drawing board.

I need a camera with a wide range from low; to capture the whole work, to high magnification for detail.

(I do have a glass magnifyer but they are not much use, no magnyfication adjustability and lots of distortion).

Anyone have any advice?
Thanks,
sara. :smile5:

[Photo-John]

I don't have an answer for you, but it sounds like you need something pretty specialized. And you're talking about video, not a still camera, correct? For that reason I've moved your post to our Digital Video forum. You didn't mention budget, but it sounds like you need something that might cost a lot of money. It would probably be a good idea if you told us how much you're willing to spend. My guess is you're going to need a camera with an accessory macro lens. I'm not video expert, but hopefully one of the video guys here will be able to make some recommendations.

[Skyman]

as far as I am aware you can have a wide angle lens or a macro lens (close up detail) but not successfully both at the same time. If you go to a broadcast camera you can have the full range of lens options you would with 35mm cameras. The cheapest option in this would be the canon xl2 and xl hd. you can get an adapter that will let you connect any lens that uses the canon eos af system (except the digital afs lenses) the downside to this would be a magnification factor of at least 7.2 X on your normal 35mm focal lengths. this makes it very hard to get good wide angle. You may find that close up filters will give you acceptable quality. this allows you to focus the camera very close to the subject to capture detail, you could then unscrew it and zoom out to get the entire work.

[sarasara]

as far as I am aware you can have a wide angle lens or a macro lens (close up detail) but not successfully both at the same time. If you go to a broadcast camera you can have the full range of lens options you would with 35mm cameras. The cheapest option in this would be the canon xl2 and xl hd. you can get an adapter that will let you connect any lens that uses the canon eos af system (except the digital afs lenses) the downside to this would be a magnification factor of at least 7.2 X on your normal 35mm focal lengths. this makes it very hard to get good wide angle. You may find that close up filters will give you acceptable quality. this allows you to focus the camera very close to the subject to capture detail, you could then unscrew it and zoom out to get the entire work.

Thanks very much for you kind advice. I will look at those options.
Regards, Sara.