Macro Ring Light for P&S Digital Camera
Crime investigation requires shadowless close-up pictures of things left in the scene. Most point & shoot digital cameras have a close-up mode and can focus a subject within inches. Yet, it becomes an issue when the lens barrel blocks part of the available light. A macro ring light is the best friend then. It has many other applications as well. For examples, taking pictures of stuff for listing on eBay; taking close-up pictures of any part of your body for remote consultation with your doctor. In this project, a macro ring light is built for a P&S digital camera.
Material:
StockerYale ring tube #973-510
12 ~ 14V 750mAh battery pack
Inverter (Commonly found in desktop scanner and laptop PC)
Plastic enclosure
Ring dish reflector (optional)
Schematic and Pictures of real thing:
Adding a reflector is optional but adding insulation on the pins of the ring light is mandatory for safety reason.
Test Shots
Comparison on Colour Rendering
In order to get the best colour rendering, an expensive StockerYale ring tube is used. It has a special phosphors coating on it to produce a colour temperature of 5100K. Picture 1 below was taken with natural light by the window on a cloudy day. Pictures 2 to 6 were taken with the ring light at a dark corner, with various white balance settings.
It can be seen that Picture 5 has the closest colour rendering except the white is a bit reddish. If the white needs to be reproduced closely, picture 2 should be chosen though the yellow is a bit off.
Other Test Shots
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End of the project
