Thorlabs ITL200 Tube Lens -- Update

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Macro_Cosmos
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Thorlabs ITL200 Tube Lens -- Update

Post by Macro_Cosmos »

Finally got some time to work on this. I disassembled both my old stacking setup and tube lens, rebuilt everything, and ran a stack.

Setup is more stable, diffuser greatly improved, and most importantly, the ITL200 is now connected in reverse. I had to purchase some extra tubes from Thorlabs to get it right.

The tube setup is now:
245mm from sensor via SM2 Tubes -> ITL200 in overpriced SM2A20 adapter -> 75mm via SM2 tubes -> Objective

The tubes have flocking material inserted. Without that, it's a nightmare with hotspots everywhere.

The results are a great improvement compared to anything I've previously been able to accomplish. I'm quite happy with what I have now.

Still lots of room to improve on lighting, and I need to fix by convoluted flimsy specimen stage, but it's getting there!

Sunset Moth:
Image

Here's the full resolution photo:
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1956/454 ... c1f9_o.jpg

Here are some crops, snipping tool on Capture One preview:
Centre:
Image

Four corners:
Bottom Left -- Bottom Right -- Top Right -- Top Left
Image
Image
Image
Image

The corners aren't as good, but they are not significantly worse compared to my previous ITL200 attempts. This is also shot on fullframe. When I get my D500, it should yield consistently sharp results across the entire frame.

Thanks!

~ MC

Macro_Cosmos
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Post by Macro_Cosmos »

Here's an example of what I was able to get previously:
Image

It has a lot more dimension, however the image quality is significantly worse. I need to work on getting the lighting right as well.

Centre and corner:
Image
Image

The stack illustrated above is Dmap as well, which in my experience tends to produce a lot more... well... depth, as the name suggests.

It's 6am here and I should have been asleep 6 hours ago. Enjoy :D

JH
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Location: Vallentuna, Stockholm, Sweden
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Post by JH »

Nice :D
Best regards
Jörgen Hellberg
Jörgen Hellberg, my webbsite www.hellberg.photo

RobertOToole
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Post by RobertOToole »

Hi MC,

Looks great! Even the corners look very good, especially the last crop, top left?

Good work!

Best,

Robert

Macro_Cosmos
Posts: 1511
Joined: Mon Jan 15, 2018 9:23 pm
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Post by Macro_Cosmos »

RobertOToole wrote:Hi MC,

Looks great! Even the corners look very good, especially the last crop, top left?

Good work!

Best,

Robert
Thanks! :D
Kudos to your "stepping outside of the box" discovery too, I never could have imagined fitting the lens backwards whilst the website shows a "correct" setup.

Notice how the corners for the reversed stack is significantly better than the centre of the "correct configuration" stack? :)

I did notice slight motion blur on my original stacks. Left a window open, no wonder I have a gnat infestation...

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