I am hoping someone might have some advice on building a 3 axis camera rig.
My interest is in building a 3 axis macro rig for some creative photography. Something similar to the gigapan but larger and for precise movements in a studio setting. I would like to mount my DSLR with macro lens on a ball head, with a small focusing rail and have the ability to either program the corners where the camera starts and ends and the very small amount the camera travels between frames. I would most likely fire the camera at each stop from a wired or wireless remote. I would like to build it so I can mount the camera facing down over a light table or facing forward for upright subjects. I currently have a 2' x 4' led light table and it would be great if I could build something that can travel the length and width of the light table.
There is currently a commercial rig for scientific research called a gigamacro rig (
http://www.gigamacro.com ); it is way out of my price range and out of my needs but it may give you an idea of something similar to what I am hoping to build. I basically want to build a rig that will allow for very small movements fore & back, side to side and up / down. I had looked at building something out of camera rails from Really Right Stuff (
http://www.reallyrightstuff.com ) but all movement would have to be done by hand.
I do have some basic experience with arduino but have never built anything like this. Maybe someone could point me in the right direction on possible equipment needed.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Scot