Panacea prola ("Prola Beauty") wing scales II

[rjlittlefield]

Nikon MM-11 microscope, Mitutoyo 10/0.28 Plan Apo, Olympus TLU tube lens, 9X on sensor, Canon T3i

Nikon MM-11 microscope, Nikon CFI 10/0.25 Plan Achromat, Olympus TLU tube lens, 9X on sensor, Canon T3i[/size]

Nikon MM-11 microscope, Olympus 50/0.50 LMPlanFL N , Olympus TLU tube lens, 50X on sensor, Canon T3i[/size]

I'm being driven a little crazy by this mix of frame by Nikon, tube lens by Olympus, and objectives by whomever.

How are you managing to accommodate the very different parfocal distance of the Mitutoyo objective and the different(?) mount of the Olympus tube lens into the Nikon frame??

--Rik

[Charles Krebs]

Again, thanks for the comments!

Rik

How are you managing to accommodate the very different parfocal distance of the Mitutoyo objective and the different(?) mount of the Olympus tube lens into the Nikon frame??

I've put a couple pictures of the set-up over in the equipment section. It should all be obvious when you see them:
http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... hp?t=17656

[seta666]

Well, the quality you are getting lately is outstanding. I had been following some of your microscope works for a while and I am really impressed.

I have a few questions

How does this Olympus TLU tube lens compare to other tube lens solutions (morfanon, APO-Ronars, nikon tube lens etc?

How does the quality of these new Olympus Lenses compare to that of nikon LU lenses and APO mitutoyos?

What kind of lighting/diffusion are you using? The last time I tried to photograph butterfly scales with nikon 50/0.55 and such the quality had nothing to do with this

Regards
Javier

[Charles Krebs]

The Olympus U-TLU works just fine... it is 180mm so the Mitutoyo and Nikon objectives come in at about 10% less magnification. I've not done direct comparisons, but none of the tube lenses I have tried seem markedly superior or worse than another. (This includes the Nikon tube lens, Olympus tube lens, 150 Apo-Gerogon, 240 Apo-Gerogon, 210 Apo-Nikkor).

The Olympus M type "FL" look to be very good. In terms of color correction. Perhaps not quite as "apo" as the Mitutoyo, but not that far off. The 5X Olympus clearly shows better chromatic correction than my 40/2.8 Apo-Componon HM (and the Canon 65 MPE) when those lenses are used at 5X and f/2.8.

For lighting here I am using a small cylinder of Lee diffusion material around the subject with the objective positioned into the top of the cylinder. Two of the Ikea lights are used to shine on the cylinder. The 50X has a 10.6mm working distance so there is quite a bit that can be done.

[seta666]

Thank you Charles,
Only succesfull tube lenses I have tried are the now famous morfanon 172mm and a SOMCO 240mm; I also tried a componon-S 150mm but did not work very well, always talking about full frame cameras.

Also I just had a quick look at a Nikon LU 5/0.15 and it will not cover the border/corners in full frame. I thought bit could fill tha gap between the mitu 5X and the mitu 10X, because of the slight advantage in NA compared to the mitu 5X

I yet have to do a proper stack to see how it really works. I also found a "cheap" Nikon LU 50/0.80 with 1mm WD which I hope might be good for things like scales and such.

I have bought some sheets of lee diffusing material, I see they come in many diferent kinds; any one in particular you would recommend?

Regards
Javier

[NicoVB]

I am in love with picture number 3..!

[carlos.uruguay]

Nice!!!

[peterkinchington]

Amazing images!

[pwnell]

All are great but the first one is special - I love the contrast and texture.

[Lou Jost]

Beautiful images.

Did you decide to give up on the Olympus PEN-F idea?

[Charles Krebs]

Thanks for the comments!

Lou,

Did you decide to give up on the Olympus PEN-F idea?

No, not really. It has a lot of great features and would make a good fit for the scope set-up use for these pictures. The fully electronic shutter is terrific. The issue that gives me pause it that my primary biological scope (Olympus BHS with DIC set-up) gives an unavoidable additional 2.1X magnification to the objective image. As a result even an APS-C sensor gives more of a "crop" of the full image than I would like. A MFT sensor would be even tighter. I got my other camera fixed so I have some time to ponder it more. I also wanted to see the new Olympus E-M1II, but I understand it might be delayed because of the Japanese earthquakes. (I really want an AC power supply and it does not look like the Pen-F will get one).

[Lou Jost]

Yes, the lack of an AC power supply is a big problem, especially since the batteries have a very low capacity. I think it would be possible to gut a battery and wire the contacts to the corresponding contacts of a fully charged battery sitting in the charger. Put the dummy battery in the camera and turn on the charger This would be in effect an eternally-charged battery.

But it would be a lot easier to just buy a power supply. I bought one for the OM-D M5 Mark 2 which uses the same battery as the PEN-F. Maybe there is an easy way to rig it to power the PEN F through a dummy battery.