Abstract: An optical inspection system for determining the positional information of a leaded electrical component with respect to a reference is provided. The system has a datum placed in proximity to leads of the leaded electrical component that provides the reference. It also has a light source that provides light that impinges on the leads and the datum so that the images of points on the leads and the datum are formed along various optical paths. The light source is set up so that a point on the leads and a point on the datum will lie in the same plane as their images along at least two optical paths that cross each other at an angle. In addition, the system has an imaging subsystem that captures the images along the two optical paths. The subsystem also correlates and analyses the captured images to provide positional information of the point on the leads with respect to the point on the datum.