Ant Face

Images made through a microscope. All subject types.

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cube-tube
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Ant Face

Post by cube-tube »

Image

I tiny little ant with Nikon CF Plan 50X SLWD.
One of the first stacks from that objective that came out okay. There are definitely some things that could still be improved.

Advice appreciated!

Saul
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Post by Saul »

Nice ! Is this really 50x or stack-&-stitch ?
Saul
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cube-tube
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Post by cube-tube »

Thanks! It's really 50x. Here is one of the images straight out of the camera.

Image

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

The hard vignette is unusual. What camera is this with, and what's the rest of the optical setup?

--Rik

Saul
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Post by Saul »

cube-tube wrote:... It's really 50x. Here is one of the images straight out of the camera
Ant should be very small
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cube-tube
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Post by cube-tube »

Rik, it was photographed with a Tamron 180mm macro at f/3.5 on a Canon 6D (full frame).

I get the same vignette with my Nikon 10x and Mitutoyo 20x.

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

OK, thanks.

The vignette is due to the tube lens, then. The Tamron's entrance pupil is too small and far back so it fights with the exit pupil of the objective. If the vignette is troublesome, you can get rid of it by switching to a Raynox tube lens setup such as shown at http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... hp?t=35350 .

By the way, I'm a little puzzled by the description "Nikon CF Plan 50X SLWD" used in combination with a tube lens. The CF's that I know are finite. (Infinites are CFI or CFI60.) I assume you've checked that the objective is marked with an infinity symbol and not 160 for tube length.

--Rik

cube-tube
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Post by cube-tube »

That's so interesting! I assumed that the focal length was the issue. I did notice that stopping down the lens produced a more severe vignette, though, so your explanation makes sense.
Ignoring the vignette, would a Rayonox provide any other advantages? If not, I don't mind cropping a little.

The objective is definitely infinity corrected. Here is a link:
https://www.bostonind.com/nikon-cf-plan ... e-mue30501
I do appreciate you asking, though. When I first started experimenting with microscope objectives I was using a coverslip-corrected objective and it took me way too long to realize.

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Post by Jacek »

Nice

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

cube-tube wrote:The objective is definitely infinity corrected. Here is a link:
https://www.bostonind.com/nikon-cf-plan ... e-mue30501
Ah, right, thanks for the reminder. It slipped my mind that I actually have a couple of that series. Before I got Mitutoyo objectives, I had good success with the Nikon CF Plan 50X NA 0.55 inf/0 EPI ELWD (8.7 mm) pushed down to 25X with a 100 mm tube lens, http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... 825#103825 .

--Rik

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Post by rjlittlefield »

cube-tube wrote:Ignoring the vignette, would a Rayonox provide any other advantages?
Probably not, and many people find Raynox setups to be less convenient than telephoto due to overall length and other handling issues. If the vignette is not troublesome and you're otherwise happy, no need to mess with a good thing.
If not, I don't mind cropping a little.
Sometimes a vignette will degrade alignment between frames when stacking, because the stacking software locks onto the vignette instead of other image content that belongs to the subject. If you have trouble with that, then consider making cropped copies of the source images, and stack the crops. If you're using Zerene Stacker, you can do that on the fly using Options > Preferences > Preprocessing > Image Pre-cropping.

--Rik

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Post by carlos.uruguay »

Nice!

cube-tube
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Post by cube-tube »

I have noticed the problems with alignment, but I think it helps to set a dust map, a feature in Helicon Focus. I'm assuming that when you include the vignette in the dust map it ignores the whole vignette when aligning as if it's a giant piece of dust on the sensor.

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