I saw Dave's recent mailbag video which had an inspection camera in it and figured I would show off what I have made as a much better alternative.
It is a Raspberry Pi 3B+ with the HQ camera and a 10-55mm lens. The lens has focus, zoom and aperture controls, and it is on a vertical stage for extra adjustment.
It is mounted on some Arca-Swiss rails so it can slide out from the shelf to the working position and slide back when not in use. The shelf is mounted on the wall so it doesn't shake at all when you bump the table like the ones mounted on a retort do.
The Pi boots up into the camera application and is on a read-only filesystem so it can just be powered on and off from the power switch. One could write a quick Python script to save photos at a button press, but I haven't gotten around to it
It runs at 50fps and I don't have any trouble with motion blur or lag for soldering underneath it. And as you can see from the ruler the working height is around 28cm, so very easy to work under.
The board pictured is 80mm x 20mm, and the components on the screen are 0805 and 0402. The monitor itself is 24" 1080p.
The lighting could be a bit better, I plan on getting a pair of lights on goose necks and mounting them to the camera rail. It could also do with an enclosure around the camera and to be generally neatened up a bit, but that's a job for the future.
Just figured I would share as it might inspire someone to do something similar.