Best kit for dental photography

[victormora]

A dentist recently asked me for advise on getting a good camera that will work for dental photography (is that

how you call "portraits" of teeth?). Of course you would be needing a good macro lens as well as a ring flash,

but I want to know what camera+lens+ring flash you would recommend? Hi Rez is not really needed since most of the

pics are going to be used in a digital record.

 

Also, if you know of a good point and shoot that can do the job i would also appreciate your advise.

[colin carron]

Have a look here :

 

http://thedigitaldentist-site.org.uk/default.asp

[tommyinca]

Best (as in most impressive)? The up coming brand new Nikon D3X with an old 120mm Medical Nikkor. Overkill?

Yes. Dental work are not cheap either :-)

[godfrey]

My first photographic work was for my father, who was a dental surgeon. When my aspirations to do photography

became apparent to him and I started high school, he asked me to go to his office at various times and do before/after

records of jaw reconstructions.

 

For this work, at first, I used his Leica IIIf fitted with a Visoflex housing and bellows, a Hektor 135mm short mount lens,

and a ring flash. Later, I used my Nikon F fitted with a 105/2.5 lens and an extension tube, and the same ring flash.

 

Any similar setup today will do a good job: a medium focal length lens which will can acquire a 2 x 2.5 to 3 x 4 inch

subject field with about 1.5-2.5 feet of working room and a good lighting source (one of the LED type ring lights with

modeling controls would be perfect). Manual override/exposure/focus control is important; 5Mpixels is more than enough

for most needs, everything else is gravy. You're going to stop the lens down to maximise DoF so a fast lens is

unnecessary.

 

An Olympus E-1 body fitted with a lens set to 75-100mm and one of those LED modeling ring lights, would be just about

perfect. And pretty inexpensive too.

 

Godfrey

[MichaelChang]

Victor, there is a simpler solution than compact digitals or dSLR cameras. The two links below are video/still

megapixel cameras shaped like a toothbrush completely self contained. The advantage of an all-in-one solution is

the lessened demand on required operator skill, and it's much less expensive. <br><a

href="http://prodentalequip.com/pro-dent-38mp-dental-camera.html?gclid=CO3_rI_Jp5cCFQu-Ggod9XrO_Q"

>link-1</a><br><a href="http://www.nationaldental.com/products1.html?c_id=15" >link-2</a>

[ted_smith2]

<p>You can never go wrong with Lester Dine. I've used them for years. They only sell dental cameras.</p>