Fibre optic goosenecks

AndrewC · Post by **AndrewC** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 5:37 am

To those of you lucky to have one (yes, I am envious

):

Do they have a lens on the business end of each bundle or is it just a plane polished surface ?

thanks, Andrew

Tesselator · Post by **Tesselator** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 6:21 am

I think they would be extremely easy and very cheap to make.

Why are you envious? Are they expensive or something?

LSRasmussen · Post by **LSRasmussen** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 6:25 am

Hi Andrew,

Mine has removable lenses. So you can choose to use the fibers "naked" or you can slide the lenses on and ajust the distance between the fiber end and the lense (focusing/unfocusing the light). You can see pictures of a similar set here :

http://www.dba.dk/koldtlys-fiberoptic-heim/id-65311314/

//Lars

AndrewC · Post by **AndrewC** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 6:40 am

Tesselator wrote:I think they would be extremely easy and very cheap to make.

Why are you envious? Are they expensive or something?

Not that easy actually. I've got some pretty hefty bundles in "floppy" housings. I've been experimenting with different goosenecks salvaged from other sources in order to make them self supporting but haven't got a good solution yet. Then you have to work out how to treat the emitter end. Best solution I've come up with so far is to bind the end of a bundle into some warm/runny epoxy then compress that with heatshrink. Gives you a solid matrix you can trim flat and then polish. Then you might want to stick a focussing lens on the end, ......

Expensive - "no" if you live in North America, "yes" if you live in Europe. Ring lights appear on auction sites quite regularly but the double self supporting gooseneck like this are harder to find.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Dual-Pipe-Goosene ... 19bb216c0d

Andrew

AndrewC · Post by **AndrewC** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 6:42 am

LSRasmussen wrote:Hi Andrew,

Mine has removable lenses. So you can choose to use the fibers "naked" or you can slide the lenses on and ajust the distance between the fiber end and the lense (focusing/unfocusing the light). You can see pictures of a similar set here :

http://www.dba.dk/koldtlys-fiberoptic-heim/id-65311314/

//Lars

hmm, that's what I thought.

Andrew

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 7:18 am

What's "in" those fibre-end lenses? Are they simple short-focal length things?

LSRasmussen · Post by **LSRasmussen** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 7:39 am

Chris,

Yes, mine are simple short-focal ones. Nothing fancy for sure !

//Lars

bklein · Post by **bklein** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 8:00 am

Not fiberoptic but I picked up a bunch of barbeque lights from a BBQ Galore store shutting down for $5 each that are long flex tubes with an LED on the end like this:
http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/20961 ... Light.html
If you do a Google image search on bbq light you'll see that they now are incorporating several high intensity leds in some models that may be cool to try.

Pau · Post by **Pau** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 9:59 am

Fiber optic illuminators and gosseneck bundles are no dificult to find used on e-bay (USA) at reasonable price, in particular Dolan-Jenner that (I think)) are widespread used in industries. In Europe usualy they are rarest and much more expensive.
I bougth a Dolan-Jenner 180D illuminator and fiber optics guides at good price ($110+shipping if I remember well) , the only problem is that it is for 120V, but whith a transformer it's solved. Later I bougth two lenses (leica), much more expensive. They are simple high power single lenses that can focus the light, but I find it unnecesary for most macro aplications, and them can be remplaced perfectly whith cheap 15X microscope eyepieces

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 10:32 am

My fiber bundles have lenses that are both adjustable and removable.

Removable is good, since almost all my work is done with bare ends combined with some sort of diffuser.

Frequently I just form a little "bubble" of Kleenex tissue around the end of the bundle, giving me a light source that is then one or two cm in diameter and can be flown around to give whatever effect I want. Of course this approach loses a lot of light, but except for high power objectives (20X, 40X) there is still plenty left to work comfortably.

--Rik

AndrewC · Post by **AndrewC** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 2:36 pm

If I make my own I'll probably cannibalise some cheap penlights with adjustable beams to make some slipover end lenses. biggest hassle, as I said before, is making the bundles self supporting.

Andrew

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 3:14 pm

Non self-supporting bundles are presumably more flexible, and can be supported with gorilla-pod legs or similar, I suppose.
I'm on the look-out too, since mine came with 2 x 3 metre , yes 10 foot, fibres. I can't imagine why anyone would want such things . At least proximity of fan vibration shouldn't be a problem

In case anyone is looking to put something together, many of the makes use(d) 5/8 inch (16mm) at the light-source end, though Schott on at least some models use 10mm. They claim it's better.

I only know of Maglite adjustable-beam penlights, which wouldn't work cos they have a paraboloid reflector with the bulb shiftable at/near its focus.

Tesselator · Post by **Tesselator** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 3:15 pm

That's what I was going to say. Some of the $5 and $10 flashlights I have/seen have incredible lenses on them - adjustable too. But I kinda wonder if this FO thing is thinking it backwards. I mean copper wire is easier to work with and then just put a white LED or 2 or 3 at the end. For self supporting bendable necks you can try to find some of that tubbing - I dunno what it's called exactly. Or you can just buy a $5 length of soft copper solid-core "rod" like the kind used for 220VAC mains (hint hint) and wrap your shielded leads around that.

I think the main reason FO is used if that it doesn't transmit heat. But for microscope specimens an LED or two behind a ping-pong ball should be cool enough. An old PSU from a computer will serve as a smooth source of power - you could even put a dimmer switch in-line in front of the LED(s). Sounds like a $20 project and about an hour to hook up.

If you wanted to get fancy make the copper rod and supply leads "unplugable" from the base and use a RC car battery to make it mobile. Maybe attached to a camera L-bracket or something handy for the camera.

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 3:53 pm

I saw this today in my local neighbourhood £1 shop.
It lights the balls in a long sequence, or reacts to sound (

vibration detector)
The arms are very bendy. The lights are a bit dim, this was at iso 12800 so it's a bit noisy - rubbish camera, sorry. But a few Cree Leds in there and it could be useful.

Yes that IS the kitchen sink. I wanted a white studio to get some light onto the arms...

Tesselator · Post by **Tesselator** » Fri Apr 02, 2010 5:32 pm

ChrisR wrote: Yes that IS the kitchen sink. I wanted a white studio...

Cool idea, but how are your going to fit you tripod and get the models in there if you ever have a live shoot?