A jig is handy.  And digital cameras, improved optics have made  this much 
easier and affordable.  In days of old, the cost of film,  processing, and 
printing cost an arm and a leg.
 
Photos have their place, but photos of frames have limitations - when  
trying to use one photo to profile an entire face of a comb:
 
From a photo, one can discern areas of capped brood and honey easily and  
accurately. 
 
Deciding whether a cell has nectar or is empty is hard.  
 
Seeing eggs and young larvae in cells is almost impossible.  
 
Seeing foul brood scales, etc. across an entire frame is almost  
impossible, although you can focus on individual areas to 'see'  these.
 
The problem is lighting and optics.  Since the cells are tilted and  deep, 
seeing (photographing) the bottom of all of the cells on a frame in one  
photo, virtually impossible.  The lens focuses on the area directly in  front 
of it, can't see to the sides very well, and can't see down in to  peripheral 
cells.
 
Use a ring light and a macro lens, you can see down in to a small number of 
 cells in the area directly in front of the lens.  
 
So, from my perspective, for critical research regarding things such as  
nutrition, pesticides, sublethal effects,  its the eggs and young larvae  that 
are of critical interest.  They set the potential for colony  growth.  The 
larvae is fed food - and any toxic contaminants in the  food are likely to 
be expressed there.  
 
Also, delayed effects can occur in the brood, so a large, contiguous patch  
of sealed brood DOES NOT mean the queen has layed systematically or that 
brood  survival is good.  Low level poisons  tend to kill early stage  brood.  
If this happens, a good queen will re-lay.  If more brood or  re-layed 
brood dies, she lays again.  So, you have to pick caps off of the  sealed brood 
to see what's going on.  If the brood is very similar in age,  usually 
changing in age in a spiral pattern, brood survival and initial laying  was 
probably good.
 
If you see lots of varied ages in side by side pupae, either the queen did  
a poor job in her original laying and came back time and again to fill in 
the  gaps, or you've had a low level kill and the queen replaced dead/dying  
larvae.
 
Now, if anyone can tell me how to take one photo of a frame and SEE down to 
 the bottom of all of the cells, I'd immediately embrace the technology.   
But, we can't see things in photos in the laboratory that you can see in  
the field by tilting the frame, changing the angle to the sunlight, etc.
 
So, I don't trust photos for critical research - they're good to have for  
reference.  But, I haven't yet found a setup that let's me see in to a dark  
cell that could be empty, have an egg, young larvae, or a bit of nectar.
 
Document something odd - that's great.  Want to know  overall  brood and 
honey, photos have use.  Much past that, and you've problems,  unless you want 
to do a series of photos for each face of each comb.
 
Here's hoping someone can prove me wrong.  I want the camera setup  that 
can image the cell contents of the entire face of a comb in one  photo. 
 
Jerry

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