Thanks, Dave. Good ref. The site I usually use to make sense of sensors is http://www.dpreview.com/news/0210/02100402sensorsizes.asp . It has a nice table that translates archaic notations like 1/2" (meaning outside diameter of a vidicon tube!) into 6.40 mm x 4.80 mm (meaning actual sensor size). --...

Sorry for the delay in responding to Will's concerns. My life has been a bit busy lately. First, I would like to apologize for using an incorrect expression. In my original posting, I wrote "equivalent exposures" when I should have written "equivalent images". That error led Will off in the wrong di...

Do any 'subject movers' have any tips on how to line up the axis of movement of the subject stand with the camera lens in both x&z directions? Laurie, There's a similar problem with camera-moving, if you don't get the camera pointed straight along the axis. I solve that by carefully aligning it onc...

Why you say that with the MP-E 65 can shot look like the microscope? MP-E 65 magnify 5X and stereo microscope for example go to 40X... 40X is better 5X... Roberto, I'm sorry -- I did not see this question of yours before today. The 5X and 40X are different kinds of numbers -- cannot compare directl...

Thanks for shrinking the avatar, Carl. It looks good, BTW. :D ...for some stupid reason PS doesn't save as gif... In Photoshop, you have to explicitly convert images to Image | Mode | Indexed Color. After you've done that, then it'll show you the gif option. But not before. Confusing... --Rik

A zillion pixels from a cheap device -- kind of a "poor man's scanning back", eh? It's an attractive approach, but I haven't heard much about it and I'd be interested to read any reports from people who have tried it. I can imagine there are some difficulties with sensitivity and noise since scanner...

...trying to get some really good images of insect flight aparatus... Everything that I can recall seeing in this forum is either completely static or a single short exposure. I've seen a few references posted to literature involving dynamics, mostly for dragonflies, but that's all that comes to mi...

By the way, it's a separate issue, but please note that members of this forum have a wide diversity of backgrounds and specialities. As a matter of policy -- and I get to say this since I'm the Editor -- I want to see posters "seek first to understand, and then to be understood". It really doesn't h...

Reduction in resolution with decreasing aperture is predicted by ray theory if you understand that fine detail requires high angles into the object lens. Sure, but there's an important issue of background and terminology hiding here. The "ray theory" I've always read about is the one that says ligh...

Oh, by the way... I do have to enforce the limit on 80x80 maximum pixels, no matter where the avatar is hosted. The reason is that avatar size affects the page format. A large avatar in any reply may cut into the original poster's space for their image. Offhand I don't see any ill effects from the s...

Well, actually my comment was meant to be a suggestion about how to reduce the size of your avatar, not a suggestion to host it someplace else. Avatars have to load on everybody's pages, so the smaller the better. But it's not worth spending hours of effort on. I simply had not paid any attention to...

frequency ... post great shots ... magnification It gets easier with practice as you hone your setup and procedures and accumulate holding jigs etc. But it still takes quite a bit of time, for me at least. A lot more gets done during vacations and holidays. :wink: brass wire ... epoxy Specimen prep...

PNG files are not normally very tight for images. 3 bytes/pixel, often with little or no compression. Try it as JPEG and GIF, one or the other is likely to be a lot better. My avatar is now 13.3 KB as PNG 24-bit, 7.3 KB as PNG 8-bit, 5.8 KB as GIF, 5 KB as GIF if reduced to 65x56. Thanks for prompti...

Welcome back, Carl.

Been wondering if you'd gone away and left us!

--Rik

That sounds like a wise course. However, I just this evening read an article in IEEE Spectrum that said IBM tests its cpu chips by 1000 cycles of "ship shock", described as "simulating a trip from scorching Arizona to frigid Alaska". I wouldn't be surprised to hear that their model of a delivery van...