New Macro Setup - Latest News

georgedingwall · Post by **georgedingwall** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 11:31 am

Hi Charlie,

Charles Krebs wrote:George... looks like you are having fun, and getting great results!
Rik has provided great advice. A few random thoughts on things already discussed and a few new points.

Charlie

Many thanks for the great tips you've given me. Between you and Rik, I couldn't have 2 more capable advisors. I hope I can implement some of your suggestions in my work.

Thanks again.

georgedingwall · Post by **georgedingwall** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 11:02 am

Hi again Charlie,

Charles Krebs wrote: A last thought would be possibly rigging some support directly under the camera body. Charlie

I took your advice and made a couple of alterations to the support system.

I've put an extra hole in the platform so that the whole camera and accessory assembly can be moved forward enough to put the camera body over the platform. The body now has solid support directly under it.

I also put in place a support structure for the end of the bellows rail. It was pointed out to me elsewhere that there was rather a lot hanging off the end of the bellows. I haven't fixed that support in place yet, as I want see what range of movement I need in it to take account of different accessory combinations. This provides a solid support under the bellows and will prevent any strain at that end.

The camera/accessory assembly now has 3 points of support spread along its length. It feels very stable.

I wonder what I'll change next.

Bye for now.

puzzledpaul · Post by **puzzledpaul** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 11:41 am

Hi George - Interesting looking rig you've got there

Since you indicate the possibility of further changes, I wondered if mounting the camera + bellows on a single board / piece of material was under consideration?

Removing the 2 end stop screws on the bellows rail would allow you to use those tapped holes (4mm I think) - to affix suitable mounts - maybe a couple of bits of ali angle?

You'd then end up with a 3 point mount (as now) but one that made angular mis-alignment of the bellows axis less likely...

Having the whole lot on a single board would also allow you to move it (backwards) so it was mounted more centrally on the XY table.

Cheers
pp

georgedingwall · Post by **georgedingwall** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 12:57 pm

Hi there,

puzzledpaul wrote:Hi George - Interesting looking rig you've got there

Since you indicate the possibility of further changes, I wondered if mounting the camera + bellows on a single board / piece of material was under consideration?

Cheers
pp

Not at the moment. Most of the images I will take with this setup are likely to done without the bellows. If you take the bellows off, it looks a much more balanced system. In fact, the setup was made without the bellows in mind. I didn't know you could get an adaptor so that I could attach my Nikon lenses to it.

You'd then end up with a 3 point mount (as now) but one that made angular mis-alignment of the bellows axis less likely...

If you're saying this because you see what appears to some misalignment in the current setup, then what you see is actually barrel distortion dut to the fact that I use a wide angle lens to take the latest image. When I look at the setup by eye, it looks dead straight. I calculated the dimensions of the supports to keep things as level as possible.

If I was starting over with the bellows in mind, I would probably have mad it as a single platform. However, due to the variable dimensions of the different combinations of accessories, there would still needed to have been temporary support blocks built into the system somewhere.

Thanks for the thoughts.