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Well, a lot of people (me too) use a crop sensor dslr so your standard 28mm would become a 42mm. Body cap shifting pinholes for dslr are fun. Posters of violins are very nice to have for sure, but the colours can fade.

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Ben, You are exactly correct about what the  normal lens on a 35mm would be, I guess 42.95 if I remember any trig. Not too many 40mm lenses made.  I think I have a Canon EF that is 40mm or so and a "pancake lens" and a Nikkor 45mm GN lens.  I would hazard a guess that the 50mm 3.5 Elmar was the driving force behind making 50mm the standard "normal " lens for 35mm.  Leica pretty much invented the idea of a 24X36mm camera using 35mm movie film and the giant in the room, Carl Zeiss, followed suit with their Contax.  With rangefinder cameras there was not as much freedom as there is with an SLR.  But you are right we probably should not turn this into a photography forum!

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Am I wrong? Do they use this? I did notice how the back and top measurements seem to add up. Do they photoshop it afterwards to make everything to spec?

I phoned Darnton years ago to discuss the violin photo subject, he told me he used the usual studio with zoom and lights set up. You don't need a Hassy or 100 mega pixies to make poster quality prints Dwight. More than one viola is also overkill ;-)Agree about the waist level finders and ground glass, old quality can be very nice to use.Stanley Kubrick went further in using the now famous Zeiss f/0.7 (!) lenses for some of his candle lit scenes etc. Horses for courses eh.

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"with due respect that's total rubbish Doug, a short tele will compress an image slightly, that's why they are usedto make fashion models look skinny. "

I used to photograph fish parts for proportional measurements and  checked the lenses  I was using for distortion by photographing a grid. I was doing photomicrography, making small things larger.

Many years ago at the firm, I used a Hasselblad medium format film camera.  Loved it, but digital is so much easier to deal with...

I've drawn some drawings myself, mostly mandolins, and found that virtually any modern camera will take adequate front an back shots with more than enough precision that any violin maker is able to hold. If you shoot from fair distance (I prefer across the room - few meters at least) and align the violin well with camera and do not overuse zoom you'll be fine. Just find the settings that are best for your camera.

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I don't what the experts say, but I personally have had the best luck with a fixed 60 mm Nikkor "micro" for "portrait" fiddle shots as well as close detail.  Tried many lenses, and some of the slightly shorter ones were nice, but liked the 60 mm best in the end.  I do use a digital SLR with a sensor that applies a crop translation to the lens length (I think that makes it about 100mm equivalent?).  I shoot from about 10 feet away.  I save my tele for quick shop shots and wildlife.

1.If you take a photo of, say the belly of a violin, how do you determine the "zero altitude plane", that is the plane that is supposed to be parallel to the "film"plane of your camera?

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3. A quick goolge search tells me that a telecentric lens should have a front lens with a diameter of at least 24" if you want to photograph a violin sized object. correct?

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Do you for example interpolate a plane through the four points in which the corners of the sides meet the belly? Or what do you do? At least my (cheap) old violins are warped in every which way.

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Short Teles on 35mm size cameras were certainly the norm  for a number of reasons.  They offer a greater working distance between the photographer and the model.  They also are more flattering to facial features as well.  They tend not to make noses look too big, Etc.  The Nikkor 105mm was a prime example.  I should think a 50mm macro lens on a full frame digital would be a good way to go but a 100mm might be better.  a very good tripod is also a big help, you can never take advantage of the best a camera or lens has to offer without very steady mounting.  The sharpest range for most any small format lens is in the middle of it's fstop range.  With large format lenses they can be better corrected in their smallest stops.

2. What is the magnitude of the kind of lens distortion you are talking about? By how far could, for example a certain point at the edge of an f-hole  the deviate from its true (w.r.t. the orthographic projection) position?

My engraver friend needed to copy steel plates that go into sides of a rifle. Originals were quite pricey so we just scanned the plates on cheap old scanner, measured real size in two axes and then I enlarged the scan in photoshop and traced outline exported to dxf and had cut new plates on CNC. They were perfect airtight fit into the recesses on the rifle. Well within 100th of mm. Who would guess that...

I seem to remember pinhole cameras have the least of some kind of perspective distortion intrinsically.  Do you know how Neil's photos are made?

What is this magnitude compared to the magintude of the distortion you are introducing if the violin is not 100% parallel (whatever that means) to the film plane?

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'As with portrait photography, in order to minimize perspective issues, you need to use a moderate telephoto lens,'- with due respect that's total rubbish Doug, a short tele will compress an image slightly, that's why they are usedto make fashion models look skinny. 'I seem to remember pinhole cameras have the least of some kind of perspective distortion intrinsically '- Also complete rubbish, the pinhole makes a perfectly correct image in perspective, that's why Dutch paintersused camera obscura (same as pinhole really) as a basis for painting over with a grid. Of course, pinhole images are soft and would not be good enough for modern poster quality, my commentwas only in regard to the perspective they give. Lens cap pinholes are fun and easy to make for a dslr. 'do zoom lenses give the same quality as fixed focal length these days'- No, but the very best of them are very good. If compared to a top prime not so great.  Generally the best modern zoom lenses are over designed / corrected with aspherical elements etc which flatten subjectsmore than a classic prime, if you know what to look for. 98% of people don't care anyway so it really doesn't matter,  Darnton used a zoom with studio lights. ;-)Use what you like, there is no holy grail unless you make one.

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on their own not in woodworking forums, otherwise you can spend years reading bollocks online, and see the same link for Adorama 15 years later.

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I'd forget 'telecentric' lenses. Generally I agree with Bill. A nice 'flat field' normal focal length prime on a good 35mm dslr would be more than adequateproviding distortion fee super high resolution (depending on sensor quality) photos, if used properly. Most poster photos are shot using zoom lenses at short telephoto range, because they're shot in studios that use pretty much the same set up for everything that comes their way.Not my cup of tea, but I gave up worrying about it. The 'drawings' on the back of the Strad posters are pretty vague, the f hole shapes are not taken from direct pencil rubbings, as would be best / better. I gave up trying to make an 'exact' copy of anything because I think it's a sterile way to work. I think the drawings by Pringle for Hill are better, not taken from photos. Regarding lenses, if you wanted (or really needed) the nearest to perfectly correct perspective possible, you'd usea bog standard 'normal' prime for the appropriate format. For 3/4 angle photos you could even use a pinhole camera (yes you can make yourself a digital one) or one with movements, or a tilt shift lens...as you can see from the excellent photos on Neil Ertz's website : http://www.ertz-violins.com/

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Re: the violin posters, I think any tele lens would compress the thickness of the subject such that in for example a straight shot of the front or back the arching would appear flatter than it is.  I'm curious, do zoom lenses give the same quality as fixed focal length these days?

I know Mr. Darnton used to do photography for Bein and Fushi.  He used a Hasselblad, etc. back in the old days.  I would say a digital Hasselblad would be almost the ultimate for most anything.  I have two film Hasselblads but the digital versions could pay for a pretty nice viola, I think the new ones go up to 100 Meg.Pix. A color temperature meter would be a great help as well.

I don't exactly need a new camera/telescope. Just watnting to know if they happen to use compensated lenses for capturing their violins for the posters.

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If they did, then the images would be more akin to mechanical sight, which is good for us makers. More like working off of a blueprint.

I have a nice Celestron C-5 telescope  (f-10)  that I willl sell cheaply to an interested person.  Comes with trunk and tripod.  Where are you?

As with portrait photography, in order to minimize perspective issues, you need to use a moderate telephoto lens, and shoot from several feet away. I'm not an expert, but I use about a 100-135mm equivalent, and shoot from about 7 feet away. That works OK for my purposes.

Dwight, the 'perfect' normal angle of view lens for full frame 35mm is 42mm, not 50.  105mm is a short tele (as you know)

' Well, that would make them proportionally shorter also, so no difference in height to width. 'No. Dwight, the 'perfect' correct angle of view lens for full frame 35mm is taken to be 42mm....although a 55 Micro Nikkoror it's equivalent would be a very useful lens for violins.   105mm is a short tele (as you know) and would compress the shapes a little.I use both.