Advice on a Canon Lens for the Kaiser RSX Copy Stand

Hi folks! I'm pretty much a novice on digital photography. I have a Canon 5D Mark II along with the following Canon lenses: 180mm L, 50mm L, 24-105mm L, and 70-200mm L. My question is - I collect maps and cartography books and would like to create digital imagines of my library utilizing the Kaiser Copy Stand so I need to know what lens would be the best for that purpose? Thank you!

Macro lenses are best for rendering flat subjects center to edge. Use the 180L if you can set your rig far enough away to capture a full page or map. Otherwise go for a shorter macro 100mm or 50mm. If you need shorter and don't want to buy a new lens, then I'd go with the 50L stopped down to f/5.6 or 8.

IMHO YMMV.

DRLYON said:

Hi folks! I'm pretty much a novice on digital photography. I have a Canon 5D Mark II along with the following Canon lenses: 180mm L, 50mm L, 24-105mm L, and 70-200mm L. My question is - I collect maps and cartography books and would like to create digital imagines of my library utilizing the Kaiser Copy Stand so I need to know what lens would be the best for that purpose? Thank you!

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Unless you're doing small objects, the 180 is going to be a bit long for doing things like maps. I'm assuming the stand only goes up about 40" right?

Canon's 50 macro is ok, but I've seen better. The 100 macro might cut it, but it'll be close. I'd try your 50L and see what you get at f/8 with it. It should give you pretty good results. If you need to get small details or close ups, then use the 180L

I also like using T/S lenses on copy stands because 1) they're insanely sharp and 2) if I'm doing something really wide I can shift the lens left and right and stitch the images very easily together.

Best of luck.
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~Kurt

DRLYON said:

Hi folks! I'm pretty much a novice on digital photography. I have a Canon 5D Mark II along with the following Canon lenses: 180mm L, 50mm L, 24-105mm L, and 70-200mm L. My question is - I collect maps and cartography books and would like to create digital imagines of my library utilizing the Kaiser Copy Stand so I need to know what lens would be the best for that purpose? Thank you!

Click to expand...

Depending on the size of the maps and how high the stand will go, I'd say your best bet is either the 50mm or 100mm macro. I'd run a test with your 24-105L to see what sort of focal length works best and then take it from there. You may well find that one of your existing lenses, such as the 50mm is good enough for what you need.

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http://www.ashleykaryl.com
http://www.nudephotopro.com/blog

Thank you!

Thank you!