Hi dental fans, I'm Dr. Rich.
Ever wonder how dentists get close up photos of teeth and smiles?
Well today I will show you what camera gear I use in my office to take pictures of teeth.
So my go to camera currently is a Canon Rebel XT DSLR that I bought back in 2005 from a
place called Norman Camera. They are still in business,
you can check out their website at www.normancamera.com I’m not sponsored by them,
I just had a great experience buying from them. So I bought the camera as part of a dental kit
for taking close up photos of teeth, smiles, as well as full face photos.
As I’ve mentioned, the camera I bought is the Canon Rebel XT digital slr.
Outside of the USA it was called the Canon 350D. It has a 8 megapixel, cropped sensor. It has a
built in pop up flash, the flash pops up by itself when the camera is in automatic mode
and the flash is needed. I’m currently recording this video on a Canon M50 which has a built it flash as well
but the pop up is manually controlled. This camera uses a compact flash card to save the photos.
It originally came with a 32 MB card. Over the years I’ve bought bigger cards. First a 256 MB,
then a 512 MB, and I’m currently using a 4GB card. The camera body can fit EF and EFS lenses.
The camera is old enough that it doesn’t record video, it only takes photographs.
The camera came with a handy reference sheet from Norman Camera which lists the recommended
settings for both macro and portrait photos. I found that very helpful. My previous experience
with SLR cameras was a Konica Autoreflex T film camera that I got as a gift
way back in the early ‘80’s, and my previous macro camera was a Polaroid Macro-5 SLR.
The polaroid was easy to use since it had only 5 settings controlled by one knob on it.
Unfortunately the quality of the photos it spit out wasn’t very good.
I ended up selling it to a Polaroid collector. So the main lens I use to take tooth photos is the
Canon EF 100 mm 2.8 Macro lens. This lens lets me take closeups of individual teeth, close ups of several teeth,
a whole arch of teeth, a whole smile, as well as full face portraits. Since the lens is a
fixed length with no zoom, I have to move the camera closer to or further from the subject,
depending on what type of I am taking a picture of. The second piece of kit that I use to take
macro photos is a good flash. I bought the Canon Macro MR-14EX ring flash. It runs off of
4 AA batteries. The control box mounts onto the hot shoe of the camera body, and the flash itself
mounts onto the end of the Macro lens. The ring flash is needed to minimize shadows, and because
the mouth is a pretty dark place. Here are some photos I’ve taken with this setup.
I also bought the kit lens for the Rebel XT. It’s a Canon EFS
18-55. I bought this lens because I wanted to use this camera
at home and on vacations as well. Here are some photos I’ve taken with it over the years.
The kit came in this hardsided Pelican 1450 case. It’s a waterproof case with foam padding inside.
My case came with velcro secured padding that can be arranged to fit your equipment.
Mine was setup to to fit my camera with macro lens mounted on as well as separated spots for
the kit lens, the ring flash, and room for the charger, Compact Flash card reader, and extra Compact Flash cards.
Overall, I’ve been very happy with it. The only downside may be the weight of
the entire camera/macro lens/ring flash setup. The weight is sometimes an issue
if my assistant uses the camera for photos. Or if I’m trying to take a photo one handed.
I bought the Rebel XT rather than a full frame camera because it was smaller and lighter.
When I need to replace the Rebel XT, I’ll try to find a camera with a smaller body.
Here’s a photo of my Rebel XT macro setup next to my M50 with the kit lens. Here is the Rebel
XT with it’s kit lens next to the M50. The other items I use regularly when
I take tooth photos are some retractors. My main retractor is this set of wire retractors.
I slip them in the patients mouth and ask them to hold the ends.
There is a large end and a small end. Since they are metal, the are steralizable after each use.
I occasionally use a disposable retractor called the Optragate. This item comes in 2 sizes, small
and large. I’ve found that it either works really well or it doesn’t work at all. I
actually can’t remember the last time I used one. This black piece of plastic came with an implant
kit I bought. The idea behind it is when you are taking a close up photo of a tooth for
color purposes, you place this behind the tooth so it blocks out the tongue and the tooth will pop
out more.
So that’s how I take close up tooth photos. What do you use to take macro photos?
Anyone have any recommendations as to what camera I should get to replace my Rebel XT?
when it needs to be replaced?
Please let me know in the comments below. Thank you very much for watching! Please
subscribe and hit the like button. I try to post new videos every week.