Kibo informs me that "Scott W" stated that:

Ohm wrote:
Hi,

I am trying to take some closeup pictures of Computer Printed Circuit
Boards with the letters on the chips showing, I need it to catalog
PCB's with what chip or manufacturer id or part#. I have used a SONY
DSC F717 in "M"acro? "P"ortrait and the Flower Icon, but unfortunately
the out come is either too dark when flash not used or washed out when
flash is used. I am using the inbuid pop-up flash. Also I tried using
with extra flurocent lighting, but not getting the result I expected.
Also I tried a +10 Macro lens but no good. I see so many people using
this SONY F717 to take macro picture, but no one has described how they
set their camera to do that or what lighting they have used. Appreciate
if someone can point me to instructions that are useful to take macro
picutres.

Try a flatbed scanner, for most boards this works very well.

This is the method I use too. It works very well, & is much easier than
using a camera.
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W
. | ,. w , "Some people are alive only because
\|/ \|/ it is illegal to kill them." Perna condita delenda est
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