My setup - need some lighting advice

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mawyatt
Posts: 2497
Joined: Thu Aug 22, 2013 6:54 pm
Location: Clearwater, Florida

Re: My setup - need some lighting advice

Post by mawyatt »

If you need optical power from an LED, we did some work with the Godox 150 last year.

https://www.photomacrography.net/forum/ ... =Godox+LED

Or higher power LED COBs.

https://www.photomacrography.net/forum/ ... D&start=45

Anyway, think there are many options available, and here's a couple more.

Best,
Research is like a treasure hunt, you don't know where to look or what you'll find!
~Mike

Ichthyophthirius
Posts: 1152
Joined: Thu Mar 07, 2013 5:24 am

Re: My setup - need some lighting advice

Post by Ichthyophthirius »

Someone in the forum linked to these DIY Bauersfeld light domes recently: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/artic ... ne.0153426

"A Scalable and Modular Dome Illumination System for Scientific Microphotography on a Budget."

JSkory
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Joined: Fri Jan 01, 2021 9:10 am
Location: Wixom, Michigan USA
Contact:

Re: My setup - need some lighting advice

Post by JSkory »

Well, I modified the USB Jansjo lights today. Instead of ordering a set of COB leds I purchased a set of 5 penlights which use a Cree XP-E R3 chip. I was able to unscrew the top of the penlight containing the led, reflector, lens, and heat sink. Basically everything above the batteries. I then desoldered the LED board in the Jansjo and soldered in the top of the penlight. It fit down inside the top of the Jansjo and I then used electrical tape to hold it in tight.

I tried using the USB power supply I had but it obviously allowed too much current to flow as it started smoking. So I have soldered wires to the USB plug and am now using my power supply which can limit amps. This gives about 200 lumens per light if I set it at about 1 amp and it stays cool enough to be ok in the Jansjo plastic head.

Not bad for a $24 investment and I still have two more flashlights to play with.

Ichthyophthirius - thank you for that article. That could be interesting to build. I was actually thinking of buying more penlights and building the reverse of that. I.e. a platform with 3-5 penlight heads mounted on it pointing toward a diffuser such as the ping pong ball. Each lamp would be on a small swivel. That way I would not have all of the goosenecks all over the place. And the light sources would move up and down with my stage to maintain consistent lighting.

Who knows, I might build one of each. :)

JSkory
Posts: 45
Joined: Fri Jan 01, 2021 9:10 am
Location: Wixom, Michigan USA
Contact:

Re: My setup - need some lighting advice

Post by JSkory »

Okay, here are some pics of the modified Jansjo lights in action. Running them at about 2 amps with the three lights wired in parallel (the picture shows 1.2 amps because that was my first run through). As you can see on the monitor and the stacked picture the lighting level and color are much better.

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This image was produced with a stack of 47 pictures run through Helicon.

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