ChrisLilley wrote My equipment does not work it out for me (neither flash settings nor exposure) because I choose to use older, manual focus lenses most of the time and my camera (Nikon D90) does not even know a lens is connected if there is no electronic coupling. So I shoot in manual mode most of ...

From a scientific perspective the Electron Micrographs are brilliant as they have seemingly unlimited depth of field and the resolution is superb however as a descriptive tool they tend to fall short in my opinion as the images they produce do not look like real living creatures. Thats just my opini...

Andrew said My working practise is to test exposure for a given setup (lens, diffuser, working distance) on a neutral / inanimate subject prior to approaching a beastie. "Test exposure" for me means evaluating the histogram - I want the maximum info in my saved file so push the histogram to the righ...

I think you will find that most people shoot macro with the flash in manual control and use exposure histograms to check exposure. As we typically shoot at constant distances and constant apertures, and more often than not illuminate through diffusers, theoretical calculations of exposure are somew...

I know that these days most photographers have probably given up worrying about flash calculations as the new equipment works it all out for you however for those experimenting with flash that only have a budget for older equipment this may help. Example: You have a 90mm macro lens attached to your ...

Chris said George these are infinite objectives so they're designed to be used with a tube lens, in a microscope, which would have a focal length of 200mm. Without the tube lens, they're not great. Chris. Do you think maybe the specific tube-lens at 200mm focal length maybe necessary to correct what...

It would seem to me that the BD lens is a dud, maybe there is a loose element in there or something. Why not do the same comparative test using only the microscope objectives ie not attached to the camera lenses. In my macro work I have always found that adding other bits of glass-no matter how good...

Hi Martin. I thought the images seem to show signs of camera shake together with poor resolution, contrast and colour saturation-this is no criticism of your abillity only the equipment and/or setup, put it this way, your images are better than any of mine so far. I am definately no expert at these ...

I have attached a photo of my setup so far. It consists a Nikon PB-6 bellows, meopta enlarger stand, S series Nikon microscope and Nikon D300S camera (not shown as I now have only one digital camera). I will be trialing the setup with various objectives and lighting techniques. I will probably use m...

Rik wrote This all sounds reasonable. If you illuminate with flash then movement will be no problem anyway. If you use continuous illumination, movement caused by shutter action may be a problem. In that case, there are several different approaches to mitigate it. We can discuss those later if need ...

Hi Jay.
Thanks for that. What a great at manual. Heaps of helpful information. I will study it a bit later today when time permits. I have saved it so as to produce a hard copy. I am old fashioned in that respect.

Hi again Rik. I think I have answered my own question re the increase in magnification as a function of len's extension. The answer is yes. From the information you have provided re only using the objective and making the appropriate choice of objective it seems that this microscope is ideal as it h...

Hi Rik. Thanks for all the great information. I will definately investigate the Edmund's objectives. I did not mention that what came with the S series microscope is 1) Po 4 0.1, 2) Po 10 0.25, 3) Po 40 0.65/0.17 ? Are these objectives suitable (I presume the 40 is not). From what you mentioned re "...

Hi. I have recently won a bid on a Nikon PB-6 (haven't taken receipt of it yet) bellows and am looking forward to getting my setup together sometime in the new year. I intend to connect the bellows to my 'S' series Nikon microscope combined with a enlarger stand to support the camera (Nikon D300S) a...

Thanks everybody for the huge amount of information you have either supplied or made accessible. I am particularly interested in the trinocular head setup that seems to be availble if I can only find one. Maybe I could look at obtaining an Olympus or a Zeiss and modify the tapered mounting flange if...