Hello from Montana

Lets get to know each other better. Here's a forum to post images and short autobiographies of ourselves as well as any other info you would like to post about yourself.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

Phil Savoie
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Feb 23, 2010 9:44 pm
Location: Bozeman Montana
Contact:

Hello from Montana

Post by Phil Savoie »

Hi,

My name is Phil Savoie currently in Bozeman Montana. I'm a filmmaker, photographer and biologist. I'm absolutely staggered by the work here. The images on this site are inspiring to say the least. Wow.

To be frank I thought I knew something of macro photography but I'm amazed, quite pleasantly, at the tour-de-force of brilliant images and shared knowledge showcased here. At 53 I'm reminded how little I know about photography and nature. What an energizing site this is. Absolutely fantastic. Is is so exciting to find so many talented people of like minds.

Presently I'm very much behind the eight ball photographically and just now getting into digital stills; having sold my Nikons last year I now own a Canon 7D. They certainly do not build the digital cameras like film cameras - it tried the chimney magnifier for the 7D and returned it - the build quality was terrible compared to the excellent Nikon DWs. But there is no doubt as an old film shooter it is incredible to be able to see images right away - after stubbornly avoiding digital I'm very glad I did it.

My macro gear, held over from my film cameras, consists of a 60mm PL mount Zeiss T3 for 35mm Cine format, 25,40,63,100 Luminars, PB4 Bellows, Nikon 55,105,200 macros, a bit of a homemade borescope and a few feet of machined extension tubes that break down into different lengths. As well as a shiny new Canon 100L IS macro.

As a biologist I love the complexity of tropical ecology/biology as well as the many fascinating and normally overlooked <but not by this group!> life forms right in our own backyards. I'm very much looking forward to experimenting with the mind boggling stacking images I've been viewing here recently.

Thank you for such a wonderful oasis! I look forward to learning a great deal from the masters assembled on this site.

Respectfully delighted,

EDIT: Sorry I should of added a link for my work; http://www.philsavoie.com/index.html
Phil Savoie

NikonUser
Posts: 2693
Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2008 2:03 am
Location: southern New Brunswick, Canada

Post by NikonUser »

Welcome Phil.

Perhaps we should switch Avatars; you being a frog specialist and me a horse fly specialist!
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.

Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives

Phil Savoie
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Feb 23, 2010 9:44 pm
Location: Bozeman Montana
Contact:

Post by Phil Savoie »

Thanks for the welcome, yes indeed perhaps we should. I just felt the horsefly image was more of a macro shot for this forum. Where in New Brunswick are you - my family hails from Moncton.
Phil Savoie

rjlittlefield
Site Admin
Posts: 23564
Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:34 am
Location: Richland, Washington State, USA
Contact:

Post by rjlittlefield »

Phil, welcome aboard! :D

I hear you, about the difference in build quality (robustness!) between the old film cameras and the new digitals. On the bright side, glass doesn't much care what's behind it so those lenses you have should continue to work just fine. One nice thing about Canon DSLRs, at least the ones I know about, is that the metering works even when the camera thinks there's no lens installed. Some other brands get balky unless they're used with a matching lens they can talk to.

--Rik

ChrisLilley
Posts: 674
Joined: Sat May 01, 2010 6:12 am
Location: Nice, France (I'm British)

Post by ChrisLilley »

rjlittlefield wrote:One nice thing about Canon DSLRs, at least the ones I know about, is that the metering works even when the camera thinks there's no lens installed. Some other brands get balky unless they're used with a matching lens they can talk to.
*cough* are you listening, Nikon? *cough*

ChrisLilley
Posts: 674
Joined: Sat May 01, 2010 6:12 am
Location: Nice, France (I'm British)

Re: Hello from Montana

Post by ChrisLilley »

Phil Savoie wrote:having sold my Nikons last year I now own a Canon 7D. They certainly do not build the digital cameras like film cameras - it tried the chimney magnifier for the 7D and returned it - the build quality was terrible compared to the excellent Nikon DWs. But there is no doubt as an old film shooter it is incredible to be able to see images right away - after stubbornly avoiding digital I'm very glad I did it.

My macro gear, held over from my film cameras, consists of a 60mm PL mount Zeiss T3 for 35mm Cine format, 25,40,63,100 Luminars, PB4 Bellows, Nikon 55,105,200 macros, a bit of a homemade borescope and a few feet of machined extension tubes that break down into different lengths. As well as a shiny new Canon 100L IS macro.
Hi Phil, and welcome.

Since you mention build quality, the PB-4 is a nicely built bit of kit and also has movements on the front standard, which can come in handy if you have a good quality lens with a large image circle.

Since you mention film cameras, would I be correct in guessing that your Micro-Nikkors are 55mm f/3.5 AI, 105mm f/4 AI or AIS and 200mm f/4 AI or AIS?

The Luminars have a great reputation, although I think that was gained on larger film formats with lower resolutions; comparative tests seem to place the Luminars behind microscope objectives for modern, high resolution and smaller size digital sensors.

NikonUser
Posts: 2693
Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2008 2:03 am
Location: southern New Brunswick, Canada

Post by NikonUser »

Using the reasoning that there can't be too many horse fly images I have changed my Avatar fom a frog eye to a tabanid head.
Phil's current Avatar is Hybomitra nuda; mine is
Tabanus nigrovittatus

Trivia: Some recent texts treat nuda as a ssp. of the European/Asian Hybomitra nitidifrons; but the reasoning is unclear. I prefer H. nuda
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.

Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives

Phil Savoie
Posts: 19
Joined: Tue Feb 23, 2010 9:44 pm
Location: Bozeman Montana
Contact:

Post by Phil Savoie »

Thanks very much for your notes and the Dip ID. My Nikons macros are 55mm 2.8, 100mm 2.8 and 200mm 4 ED, manual focus respectively. The bulk of my work has been natural history field photography, some still examples and film clips can be seen via the link in my prior post. The realm of macro magnification covered in this forum is new to me. Motion work requires the most DOF possible in the single successive frame so stacking isn't an option. And as you say in the past many microscope objectives didn't cover many formats - the fact that they do cover the DSLR sensor opens the door to many outstanding possibilities. One would hope the Luminars would still be useful for digital photography on the 7D. My initial still tests of coins and flyfishing flies yield good images but I haven't tested them critically against others.

I've looked over the impressive tests and images here concerning modern and older optics and microscope objectives. The Nikon microscope objectives do preform very well at high magnification but it appears the sought after objectives are out of production. I have seen comments on the new Nikon objectives available via Edmunds; http://www.edmundoptics.com/onlinecatal ... uctid=2690 But haven't seen tests here with these optics - or perhaps missed the posts. Are these lenses not considered a useful alternative? Why are the older series 'better'?
Phil Savoie

ChrisLilley
Posts: 674
Joined: Sat May 01, 2010 6:12 am
Location: Nice, France (I'm British)

Post by ChrisLilley »

Phil Savoie wrote: I've looked over the impressive tests and images here concerning modern and older optics and microscope objectives. The Nikon microscope objectives do preform very well at high magnification but it appears the sought after objectives are out of production.
Yes, Nikon has moved onto a new series of 'infinity' objectives which are less suitable for direct use on a camera.
Phil Savoie wrote: I have seen comments on the new Nikon objectives available via Edmunds; http://www.edmundoptics.com/onlinecatal ... uctid=2690 But haven't seen tests here with these optics - or perhaps missed the posts. Are these lenses not considered a useful alternative? Why are the older series 'better'?
The new ones from Edmund appear to be equivalent to the old Nikon Economy models. So they give good value and ok performance, but equivalent to the budget end of the previous Nion range. Nikon have made superior objectives in the past (better correction of optical aberrations, higher numerical aperture). Purchased secondhand, some of the better Nikon objectives are not that expensive.

I have the 4x from Edmund and it gives ok results. I don't have a better 4x with which to compare it.

rjlittlefield
Site Admin
Posts: 23564
Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:34 am
Location: Richland, Washington State, USA
Contact:

Post by rjlittlefield »

ChrisLilley wrote:Yes, Nikon has moved onto a new series of 'infinity' objectives which are less suitable for direct use on a camera.
Phil Savoie wrote: I have seen comments on the new Nikon objectives available via Edmunds; http://www.edmundoptics.com/onlinecatal ... uctid=2690 But haven't seen tests here with these optics - or perhaps missed the posts.
The objectives you have linked are the new 'infinity' ones. For some discussion of their use, see http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... php?t=9664. There are other threads in the forum relating to using these objectives in conjunction with ordinary telephoto lenses used as a "tube lens", but I don't have links handy.

Edmund also sells the older finite tube designs, which I believe is what Chris mentioned as being equivalent to the old E-series objectives. See http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... php?t=9393 for a test report on one of those.

--Rik

thartl
Posts: 169
Joined: Wed Oct 28, 2009 8:07 pm
Location: Wyoming

Post by thartl »

Hi Phil - grew up in Billings....Welcome
Tyler
_______________________________________

Still Learning!

Ken Ramos
Posts: 7208
Joined: Thu Jul 27, 2006 2:12 pm
Location: lat=35.4005&lon=-81.9841

Post by Ken Ramos »

Hi Phil and welcome board. Hey, you would not happen to know a fellow by the name of Jim Janoso would you? He is an optical tech that maintains and sells high end optical equipment (microscopes). He and his wife live in a small town called "Roundup," there in Montana. :D

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