The final project came together quite well. In use, it is clean and functional, both with a digital still camera and with the microscope camera. It folds down nicely into a compact package for storage to avoid taking up much space on my bench.

Configured for the digital still camera:

I used this setup recently for cataloging all of my sewing patterns. This is much quicker than a scanner, and supports objects which are not flat. In this configuration, the arm is in the upper, "normal," position. An 18-35mm lens on the Canon EOS 10D worked great. This is not using a macro adaptor. At 18mm it can cover the entire work surface, and at 35, about half of a page. A longer lens would enable more zoom if desired. In this setup, I have the camera shutter release wired into the front panel buttons, so one button is the focus, and another the shutter release. This made for very quick work, but also aided stability to not touch the camera on the end of the arm when shooting.

Configured for the video microscope:

In this configuration, the arm is in the lower, "close up," position. Using a 20" 4:3 monitor, this works out to an effective magnification of 3.6x to 20x, which I find is a perfect for soldering down to 0402 components. For higher magnification, I can prop the item up to be closer to the camera, for a maximum effective magnification of 75x. Having a board propped up that close is not really practical for soldering, but works fine for inspection of joints.

Here is the final table from before:

I didn't want to do it initially because I wanted to finish the project, but it occurs to me that I could have cut new stops into the top two joints in order to have a lower camera mounting position which would have made higher magnification more convenient. I might do this in the future if I find that I want higher magnification.

Configured for storage:

I this position, it is quite compact. A pop out handle on the front makes for easy carrying, though the whole unit is pretty heavy with it's thick metal frame. The lens and camera can be left on the mount when folded up, though I took it off so it doesn't get bumped into anything.