Stackingrig complete and first results

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microman
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Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2017 2:16 pm

Stackingrig complete and first results

Post by microman »

Two months ago i had not been photographing for 7 years except for some snaps with the mobile. I remember i lost interest becouse photographing things i see everyday did not apeal to me. Then recently i stumbled on into reading about macro and then micro photography.

I was amazed how these microscopic beings looked magnified. I then found this forum and read alot. Started ordering things and finally its almost finished. I had no camera so i bought a Fuji X-T20 and i love it !

Got to use the rig for the first time this weekend.

Specs are.

Fuji X-T20
Wemacro rail
Nikon PB-6 bellows
Reverse Raynox 150
Olympus 10x 0.3 UIS2 objective
DIY 10W Cree LED lamp.
DIY Baseplate with 35Kg weight on. (Works very good)
Rubberbands are for keeping the rail from shifting when it screws ( also works amazingly good ! Found out about it in the forums. )

What i still need to do is mount an flocked extension between the Raynox and Objective for optimal corner sharpness and contrast ( i have read on the forum)

Also got a XYZ linear stage on the way for subject positioning. Its way to combersum to do manually....

Build one more LED lamp to get side lightning. Its only 1 direction now even with diffusor.

I still need to learn Zerene stacker. The picture below is a very small dead night butterfly. If the head looks wierd its becouse i dropped it many times trying to mount it ;D

I pushed the 10X to mayby 12x, not sure. I had problems with haloing and overexposure during stacking so i underexposed during shoot.
The picture is made from 160 separate files at 5um. Mayby a bit overkill but i didnt want to do it twice if it was too coarse.

Hopefully i can improve with training

Image
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Saul
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Post by Saul »

Great result for the first stack !
Saul
μ-stuff

microman
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Post by microman »

Saul wrote:Great result for the first stack !
Thanks ! I remember reading alot of your posts during the research :)
Its mayby my fourth stack, the previus had problems so didnt save them.

zzffnn
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Post by zzffnn »

Very nice image!

Which Wemacro rail did you buy and from which eBay seller? I saw lots of them with the same name.
Selling my Canon FD 200mm F/2.8 lens

microman
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Post by microman »

zzffnn wrote:Very nice image!

Which Wemacro rail did you buy and from which eBay seller? I saw lots of them with the same name.
Thanks !
I only know of one Wemacro rail.
Bought it from http://www.wemacro.com/

$249 plus shipping so payed around $300.

Its great for the price. The phone app works great. I like how it says how many seconds are left so i can look on the phone while its stacking.

MacroLab3D
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Post by MacroLab3D »

Amazing stack. Like your lightning. Nice Ambient occlusion. Already bought few jogurts fro myself ;) preparing my system which I am also building based on info here and other places such as Flickr. Based on MP-e65. Not as close as yours - only 5x. But i will be able to go from 1X to 5X which is going to be interesting too. 2 month more i guess to finish.

microman
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Post by microman »

MacroLab3D wrote:Amazing stack. Like your lightning. Nice Ambient occlusion. Already bought few jogurts fro myself ;) preparing my system which I am also building based on info here and other places such as Flickr. Based on MP-e65. Not as close as yours - only 5x. But i will be able to go from 1X to 5X which is going to be interesting too. 2 month more i guess to finish.
Thanks :)
The MP-E65 is great from what i have seen, then you also can use it for both studio and nature. Microscope objectives are kind of limited that way.

microman
Posts: 122
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2017 2:16 pm

Post by microman »

Added a small extension between Raynox and objective that i flocked with black velour. Also flocked the RMS adapter so the backside of the objective wont reflect back. This seems to have decreased the haloing on bright surfaces If its the velour or extension i cant say but good upgrade.

It can be seen in this picture compared to the last one.

These extensions seem rare. Mayby not alot of uses for them in regular photography.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/52mm-Spacer-Rin ... 1761276862

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abpho
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Post by abpho »

Good job. You are off to a great start.
I'm in Canada! Isn't that weird?

GaryB
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Post by GaryB »

Beautiful picture, that subtle, muted lighting is really appealing.

microman
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Post by microman »

abpho wrote:Good job. You are off to a great start.
GaryB wrote:Beautiful picture, that subtle, muted lighting is really appealing.
Thanks guys.

Here is a picture of the new Swedish "1" Krona. Its the smallest letter on the coin. Mayby 12X

First full frame.

Image

100% Crop. What is that yellow thing ?
I did play with Crocus pollen before, might be that or some residue from the melting of the brass.

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rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

I notice that the letter is brightly lit on its right side, but the yellow thing is lit brightly on its left side.

So, if the letter is raised, then the yellow thing looks like a pit.

You might be able to quickly tell pit from bump by visual exam at high mag, seeing which way you need to adjust focus between edge and center.

--Rik

microman
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Post by microman »

rjlittlefield wrote:I notice that the letter is brightly lit on its right side, but the yellow thing is lit brightly on its left side.

So, if the letter is raised, then the yellow thing looks like a pit.

You might be able to quickly tell pit from bump by visual exam at high mag, seeing which way you need to adjust focus between edge and center.

--Rik
Its raised. You are right, i did not think of the ligthing but now that i look at it it sure looks like a pit.

Or mayby the reflection of the bottom of the S bounces the light to the left side.

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

It could also be partially shadowed.

You would have to play with the focus to tell for sure.

The best thing to do first may be to look at the source frames in your stack. If DOF is equal or smaller than the feature height, then you should be able to tell from the image sequence whether the center is higher or lower.

--Rik

microman
Posts: 122
Joined: Sat Jan 14, 2017 2:16 pm

Post by microman »

rjlittlefield wrote:It could also be partially shadowed.

You would have to play with the focus to tell for sure.

The best thing to do first may be to look at the source frames in your stack. If DOF is equal or smaller than the feature height, then you should be able to tell from the image sequence whether the center is higher or lower.

--Rik
I played around with the focus and it looks like a blob of yellow somthing.

Been testing out Bugslabber and Zerene togheter. Here is 22 pmax slabs and then dmap in Zerene. Worked pretty good. Still some haloing at some parts but that seems to be from out of focus areas that leaks into other parts. Is there some trick to avoid it ?

160 pics and still only very shallow dof.. I wonder how many pics to get whole thing in focus.


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Last edited by microman on Sun Mar 12, 2017 3:07 am, edited 1 time in total.

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