I found these articles to be very informative. I would like to
add some suggestions.
I have two tripods- a Gitzo Studex that I bought for a 4x5
camera that I sold years ago, and a new tripod- a Benbo which is
much more versatile. The benbo has a kind of pelvis (bent bolt)
that tightens 3 legs and an upper arm with a ball head which can
be angled. This allows positioning the camera above the work in a
way that is difficult to impossible with a traditional tripod.
I use two soft box flash heads (Novatron) with a 600 watt power
supply. This allows me to use daylight films. My picks- Kodak
Royal 100 for prints, Fuji Velvia for slides. Velvia reproduces
greens such as emeralds and tourmalines more accurately than any
other film that I have used. My cameras of choice- also Nikon,
though I recommend the 105mm micro nikkor lens for small jewelry
objects because of its longer focal length. It adds several
inches between the lens and the object at close focus. I
currently have an N90 and an N90s- both have professional
features such as an aperture stop down button and manual control,
though the camera models that Charles suggests are solid
workhorses that are equally effective. A motor drive in or
attached to a camera is one feature I suggest- it allows you to
shoot quickly without disturbing the camera position. Drives or
winders are available for the mentioned cameras.
Rick Hamilton
Richard D. Hamilton
Fabricated 14k, 18k, and platinum Jewelry
wax carving, modelmaking, jewelry photography