After following excellent discussion on camera vibration and Exposure ( http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... vibrations) I wanted to test my old Vivitar 283 on my setup with Nikon D7000 which I purchased in October of 1976 for $ 76.00 at that time it was advertised as “system flash for SLR cameras”, and it is still in great shape and very functional. More recently, I purchased a similar “system flash” for current breed of DSLRs, Nissin MF-18 macro ring flash ($ 439 at B&H).
My Setup:
http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/u ... ide2_1.jpg
Vivitar 283
http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/u ... ide3_1.jpg
Nissin Macro-ring flash
http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/u ... ide4_1.jpg
My setup consists of D7000, homemade Nikon / Olympus mount adapter, Olympus tele converter 0.4x, Olympus bellows and Nikon 10x FL finite objective. In order to protect my D7000 from high 283 sync voltage I used Wein sync voltage regulator ( http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/2 ... oe_to.html). This is a little handy devise for using DSLRs with any legacy flash systems.
Nissin MF-18 macro ring flash ( http://www.nissindigital.com/mf18.html) will work with Nikon and Cannon DSLRs. It is more versatile than other similar products I have seen. I was impressed by the total independent flash controls available (Auto, E-TTL, i-TTL, wireless, fine macro, manual settings), in addition each half of the ring flash can be independently controlled for fine light modelling. All changes are made rapidly on the module LCD screen itself. In manual mode for example one has total control of flash output (1/1 to 1/64 on side A and B), a very useful feature for reducing camera vibration at high magnification.
Results: I am still testing the process, however my preliminary findings are very encouraging. For the Vivitar 238, setting at 1/32 or 1/64 output through VP-1 Veripower module work very nicely. For the Nissin, manual settings at 1/16 – 1/32 flash output works great with my setup. D7000 was set on manual mode, at 2 seconds. Images taken at 1.3 seconds are soft. For the test 18-20 images are stacked with ZS, and final image was post processed in PS5.
Vivitar 283 vs. Nissin MF-18 Macro ring flash
Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau
Vivitar 283 vs. Nissin MF-18 Macro ring flash
Last edited by Vish_007 on Thu Sep 27, 2012 7:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
Vishnu
Why such long shutter times? Are you in a totally dark room? I use second curtain flash, but set the shutter time to only be long enough to just eliminate ambient light. It's usually around 1/80th of a second.
One way to see if you have a lot of shutter/mirror lockup vibrations is to place a shot glass of water on top of the camera and then trigger the shutter. If you can see the vibrations, try putting sandbags on top of camera. I could see a significant difference in my setup with a 5 pound weight on top of the camera.
One way to see if you have a lot of shutter/mirror lockup vibrations is to place a shot glass of water on top of the camera and then trigger the shutter. If you can see the vibrations, try putting sandbags on top of camera. I could see a significant difference in my setup with a 5 pound weight on top of the camera.
I am using long shutter times to eliminate mirror and shutter curtain vibrations. I tried 1/80, 1/125 and several in between 1 second and 1/80 with no improvement, see the more detailed discussion on this subject at ( http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... vibrations) especially the concluding remarks by BugEZ.Why such long shutter times? Are you in a totally dark room? I use second curtain flash, but set the shutter time to only be long enough to just eliminate ambient light. It's usually around 1/80th of a second
Vishnu
Yes, I tried 1/4 - 1/80 sec with low Vivitar 283 flash output (1/32) still the images were soft. The mass on my current system is approximately 1 kg including all rails, belllows, lenses and camera body etc., and not comfortable adding additional weight as that might effect Stackshot motor. 2 sec shutter setting with mirror up on D7000 gave me the best results.elf wrote:I would expect the flash at low power to stop any camera/subject motion. Adding mass to the camera should also help dampen the vibrations quicker.
Best,
Last edited by Vish_007 on Thu Sep 27, 2012 7:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
Vishnu
-
- Posts: 5786
- Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2008 2:17 am
- Location: Reading, Berkshire, England
I am assuming you mean self-timer, yes Nikon D7000 has self-timer and remote control inputs. I use Nikon wired remote control for shutter release with mirror up.Harold Gough wrote:Doesn't you camera have anti-shock aka time delay? Your chosen shutter speed would be activated at the end of that.Vish_007 wrote:I am using long shutter times to eliminate mirror and shutter curtain vibrations.
Harold
Vishnu
I can understand your reluctance to add more weight to the camera Cognisys could probably tell you the maximum allowable weight for a Stackshot. I suspect that it should be able to handle quite a bit more than you have on it now.
Can you repeat your tests with the camera separately (that is not attached to the Stackshot)?
Can you repeat your tests with the camera separately (that is not attached to the Stackshot)?
Will repeat the test next week, however see below the images taken with totally different camera system on the microscope. Nikon DS-Fi1 microscope camera has electronic shutter and very small mass (<200 gm). This is not a fair comparison with Nikon D7000; however the point being internal camera movements due to mechanical shutter travel are a real problem.elf wrote:I can understand your reluctance to add more weight to the camera Cognisys could probably tell you the maximum allowable weight for a Stackshot. I suspect that it should be able to handle quite a bit more than you have on it now.
Can you repeat your tests with the camera separately (that is not attached to the Stackshot)?
Vishnu