Silverfish

Images made through a microscope. All subject types.

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WalterD
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Silverfish

Post by WalterD »

After a recent search for marine plankton (which was a bit disappointing) I found this silverfish.
I learnt that there are 3 variants (literally from dutch) silverfish, paperfish and ovenfish. Got the impression this is the paper loving type, will update when I'm sure.
Not one of my favourite insects, however at second sight it turned out to be extravagant in its own way.
The specific details in shells and hairs made the use of oil immersion and differential interference contrast (dic) also relevant.

1-5 Leitz Orthoplan refelected darkfield Ultropak; 20W "high power led",single polariser filter.
1= 4x
2= 6.5x
3= 6.5x
4= 11x
5= 22x

6= 40x dic @ Leitz Ortholux

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Last edited by WalterD on Sun Oct 22, 2017 5:32 am, edited 5 times in total.

JH
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Post by JH »

Very interesting set of photos, thank you!
Best regards Jörgen Hellberg
Jörgen Hellberg, my webbsite www.hellberg.photo

Smokedaddy
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Post by Smokedaddy »

... strange looking little creatures.

hkv
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Post by hkv »

Very nice! I have seen these as well, but never managed go capture one.
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Charles Krebs
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Post by Charles Krebs »

Super images of a very bizarre looking creature.

WalterD
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Post by WalterD »

Thanks forum friends for showing your appreciation!
More details in the next 6 pictures:

7= 11x Antenna detail Orthoplan/Ultropak
8= 22x Scales on back (5 was belly) ditto
9= 25x Antenna detail Ortholux dic.
10= 40x Hair detail Ortholux dic
11= 40x ditto, lamda plate.
12= 100x (iris objective) scale oil immersion brightfield Ortholux



Keep an eye on tomorrow's update and higher res images on my website coming soon.

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carlos.uruguay
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Post by carlos.uruguay »

Wooowww super!!

Troels
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Post by Troels »

Very interesting set!
Troels Holm, biologist (retired), environmentalist, amateur photographer.
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WalterD
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Post by WalterD »

Thank you Carlos and Troels,

to finish with this post just a couple more pictures, all made through the Ortholux.
13= 100x (iris/oil immersion) scale detail darkfield (Na 1.20 condenser)
14= 40x dic ditto 11with lambda plate
15= ditto 14, a "white balance shift" in the software was used to focus more on detail instead of colour.
16= 100x (iris/oil immersion) hair detail darkfield (as in picture10)
17= 100% crop of picture 3 You can notice some chromatic abberation. This was far worse in first stack attempt done in dmap (Zerene of course)
Pmax gave more accurate reuslts.
Did not mention this yet, but all dic/immersion pictures were made with object embedded in euparal.
I've actually been using the slide the silverfish had been on, noticed it lost some scales, hairs etc. and added the mountant and coverslip.


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Marek Mis
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Post by Marek Mis »

Nice and very interesting images.

Marek

micro_pix
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Post by micro_pix »

Great set of images and very interesting to see so much detail of a silverfish.

David

WalterD
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Post by WalterD »

Thank you Marek & David
After recent correspondence in this forum regarding flash microphotography, I started thinking about replacing the 20W led by an electronic flash.
This is a Canon Speedlite 580EX (which I already had) that works fine with EOS DSLR's. I just positioned the flash in the upper opening and gave it a go.
Conclusion is that the flash is excellent for making pictures through the Ultropak, noted a more detailed, less blurred image with more contrast.
The light output of the flash had to be decreased one or two stops; the flash -with a guide number of 58m- generates more than enough light for any magnification. As a secondary lightsource I've been using an Jansjo for observing in live view.

To be honest this is goodbye to Led, as far as it concerns Ultropak anyhow.

About the object: Another silverfish, much smaller than the previous one was captured and killed.
In the first new image no.18 it seems to be smiling; probably because it knew that its colleague already got a lot of views on this forum!
In this picture the distinct mouth parts are combined with the scales and hairs you already saw in previous images. It appears the mouthparts are relatively much bigger (compared with image 3). Would this be related to the age of the animal??
19: 6,5x (Ultropak) top view aft part. A bit of the "rainbow effect" can be seen in these back scales as well.
20: 42x (Ultropak) ditto, detail of scales. Clearly more detail and definition than a similar photograph made with previous setup (unpublished)
21: 4x (Ultropak) top view forward part.

18 and 20 are now on my website @ 1536 pixels. http://waltermachielsen.com/silverfish/

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:shock:

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