Could you help me check and see if this combination is ok?

Eskasi · Post by **Eskasi** » Sun Jun 03, 2012 11:36 am

I'm a REAL newbie and looking to get more than the roughly 4x to 5x I am getting on my Sony NEX7 and Nanoha X5 lens

After spending a few days Googling and reading various threads on this site, I have identified a few items to put together this full frame rig. I would be extremely grateful if some of the experts here could kindly check my list and tell me if I'm doing anything wrong thus far. Any tips for anything I might be missing would be much appreciated!

1) Nikon D800E (I already have this of course)

2) Nikkor 200mm F4 Ai (As my tube lens)

3) BD M26 36tpi microscope objective to M52 52mm adapter. I believe the Nikkor is 52mm, if not, I will use the appropriate step ring.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/140436592235?ss ... 1423.l2649

4) Mitutoyo M Plan APO 10x/0.28 ∞/0 f=200 objective (I hope to get a 5x also in the near future)

5) Stackshot

I do have a variety of speedlights and macro speedlights but will look into LED options too....

My main concern was if there is any problem with this combination or if something is wrong here. Vignetting issues perhaps? Wrong adapter size? Lens recommendations?

I also read that some cheaper zooms are fine to use. Has anyone tried the 28-200 AF-D or the newer G model zooms? I doubt the optical qualities at 200mm focused to infinity are probably nowhere as close as the 200 prime... but is that a real issue here? If someone out here is using a similar combo (with respect to objective and lens model choice) , I would love to hear from you!

Once again, thanks to anyone who will kindly give this newbie advice and sorry if it may seem a little repetitive to some threads out there. I just prefer some confirmation before dropping some money into this.

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Sun Jun 03, 2012 12:04 pm

Eskasi, welcome aboard!

Your list looks correct to me. Speedlights are the safest way to go, especially when you're just getting started. LEDs and other continuous illumination are more vulnerable to vibration, which is often a problem at 10X.

--Rik

Eskasi · Post by **Eskasi** » Sun Jun 03, 2012 1:59 pm

Hey Rik,

Thanks for the warm welcome and even more so for the checklist approval and advice!

Regards,
Kay Burn

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Sun Jun 03, 2012 3:10 pm

You may experience vignetting on the full-frame (24x36mm) sensor of the D800. If this is the case, and since the Nex-7 has a significantly greater pixel density, you may actually be better off using the Nex-7 body. This also will provide you with an EFSC (electronic first shutter) capability which, if you ever do use a continuous light source, should (in many instances) make for a very noticeable difference in image sharpness over a body without this capability.

I'm not sure if anyone here is using a full frame sensor with a regular camera lens as the tube lens. Personally I have done it with the 10X Mitutoyo and a Nikon 200mm tube lens, but the objective needed to be positioned very close to the tube lens in order to cover the sensor with no vignetting.

Eskasi · Post by **Eskasi** » Sun Jun 03, 2012 5:37 pm

Charles Krebs wrote:You may experience vignetting on the full-frame (24x36mm) sensor of the D800. If this is the case, and since the Nex-7 has a significantly greater pixel density, you may actually be better off using the Nex-7 body. This also will provide you with an EFSC (electronic first shutter) capability which, if you ever do use a continuous light source, should (in many instances) make for a very noticeable difference in image sharpness over a body without this capability.

I'm not sure if anyone here is using a full frame sensor with a regular camera lens as the tube lens. Personally I have done it with the 10X Mitutoyo and a Nikon 200mm tube lens, but the objective needed to be positioned very close to the tube lens in order to cover the sensor with no vignetting.

Thanks for the advice. I actually don't know why I didn't think of using the NEX7! Perhaps it was because I was caught up with playing with the new Nikon... It certainly would make for a much more compact system! Will certainly look into it!

Cheers,
Kay Burn

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Sun Jun 03, 2012 10:28 pm

A flat adapter works on the 52mm of the Nikkor 200mm f/4. It doesn't vignette on a D700, in fact you can stop the lens down somewhat, so there's "spare".

Eskasi · Post by **Eskasi** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 4:54 am

ChrisR wrote:A flat adapter works on the 52mm of the Nikkor 200mm f/4. It doesn't vignette on a D700, in fact you can stop the lens down somewhat, so there's "spare".

Thanks for the validation ChrisR

Just what I needed to know. I am getting the 1 piece adapter so should not have the extra distance of stepping rings to deal with.

I am a little concerned about the Nikon not having the EFSC though. Never occurred to me. And the weight of a 550+gram lens and optic probably won't help either although I could probably fashion some kind of support for it. I guess I could use flash anyway given the Mitutoyo has a generous working distance! My Nanoha x5 lens only gives me about 1cm max and less at times as the lens retracts into the LED cover.... still managed to get some decent stacks with it though. Very happy as it was my first few attempts with the NEX7/Nanoha combo, and I used a cheap ebay macro rail and simply used focus peaking to guesstimate the tiny turns of the knob! Lighting was a bit harsh for the bee below but I had little space to play with for effective angles;

I will be seriously considering Charles Krebs' idea of using the NEX 7. The IQ is pretty good and the package is small. However, using adapters for the E mount, sometimes, the lens won't quite manual focus till infinity properly due to incorrect adapter thickness in microns! And I sure as hell will not be spending about $700 on a crap plastic 18-200 F3.5-5.6 E mount zoom

Perhaps if I can find a cheap old M42 200mm lens (with my M42 to E mount adapter) or even try an old rangefinder lens with my Leica M/L mount adapters for the NEX, I could attempt that... would be a nice small package and I would have focus peaking and EFSC too ....

Thank you all very much for your help and ideas! Looking forward to some nice stacks!

Cheers,
Kay Burn

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 8:34 am

Don't go too "cheap old"! I don't remember anyone posting too rigorous a test of ersatz tube lenses, but there is a difference.

The "tube" lens is effectively working at something like f/22, so it's possible the performance is related to that. None of them working at their best, but some "fall apart".

Note - if you use a 135mm "tube" lens on a 1.(something) crop sensor you get near to the field of view you'd get with a 200mm tube lens on a full frame sensor, so you could look out for a prime that length. A Nikkor 135 f/3.5 isn't a huge price. (And it's a length I've always liked on full frame.)

With either combination you're working outside the designed image circle of the Mitty 10x, and the quality does suffer in the corners. The Nikon 10x CFI60 0.25 is more flexible.

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 10:34 am

Eskasi wrote:Lighting was a bit harsh for the bee below but I had little space to play with for effective angles

I think you will find the popular microscope objectives to be a treat in this regard. The Mitutoyo's are especially nice because the barrel is only a little more diameter than the glass.

--Rik