New member

HansH · Post by **HansH** » Thu Jun 04, 2015 12:37 pm

Hello,
I have been lurking for some time, now I decided to register on this amazing forum. Lots of knowledge, experience and wonderful pictures.

My name is Hans Hoes, retired, living in the west part of The Netherlands. English is not my native language, apologies in advance for bad writing.
I have interest in (macro) photograpy, microscopy, target shooting, metal working. I have Nikon camera's, macro bellows and lenses.

I am working as a volunteer in a small scale „public garden”, don’t know the correct term ( in Dutch „Heemtuin”) In the garden are different biotopes (shade, soil, water etc) on which we grow/ maintain/ preserve a collection of plants, specific for that type of biotope. As of 2013 I do the microscopy bits for demonstrations/ educational lessons with schoolclasses. We use stereo microscopes, (BMS ST-30C-2L) magnification 20x/40x, incident and transmitted illumination; certainly not high-end equipment, but it serves the goal. Plant samples are cut fresh, preparation is kept simple by taking apart the flowers, no conservation. Animal samples are found dead in the garden, mainly insects. A source of dead bees are the hives from our bee-keeper.

Recently I bought an Olympus TG-3 camera, which has very interesting features. It is rugged, has microscope mode (up to 44x magnification), build-in continuous lighting, and build-in focus stacking. Processing is in-camera or with external software.

Purchased a license of Zerene Stacker as well.

Greetings Hans.

Harald · Post by **Harald** » Thu Jun 04, 2015 12:58 pm

Hi there Hans,
Welcome to the forum. I must say this is a really great forum for us with interest for macro and micro. I live in Norway and now is a great season for field macro.
I´m not that kind of guy who says what a great equipment you have. It´s the picture you produce that matters to me.
Looking forward to see your images.

Greetings from Norway.

HansH · Post by **HansH** » Thu Jun 04, 2015 1:55 pm

Thanks for your kind words Harald. You are right, the final picture counts. I have never visited Norway. I imagine Norway has a wonderful nature and diversity.

Greetings Hans.

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Thu Jun 04, 2015 3:41 pm

Welkom Hans

That's an interesting camera. It sounds ideal for your use. How well does the in-camera stacking software work?
If you decide to stack in Zerene, are you limited to taking 8 auto-incremented focus images? Presumably you could move the start point and do another 8 though - ?

I see it will focus to 1cm, but that's not so unusual. I have read that you can still zoom the lens, is that right? If so that's new to me. How small a picture size can you go to?

canonian · Post by **canonian** » Fri Jun 05, 2015 4:01 am

Hallo Hans,

Welkom op PM.Net.
Je zult je verbazen over de wonderlijke foto's en veel leraren ontmoeten op dit fantastische forum.

Hello Hans,

Welcome to PM.Net.
You will marvel at the wonderful photos and many teachers you meet on this fantastic forum.

HansH · Post by **HansH** » Fri Jun 05, 2015 11:09 am

@ ChrisR: The camera has a 4x optical zoom and a 4x digital zoom. In microscope program the digital zoom cannot be used for focus stacking. Optical zoom only.
The in-camera stacking restricts the controls: no ISO settings, no digital zoom, eight-picture stacks only, image size 8 Mpix max, At max magnification (5mm scale length on the screen) stacking would give me an extra mm or so DOF.
External stacking: selectable 10, 20 or 30 pictures, ISO settings, image size 16 Mpix max., selectable focus range: wide, normal, narrow.

At 44x magnification the screen shows a scale length of 1,2 mm width.

The macro ring light guide LG-1 is very desirable accessory.

Oddly the camera has no lens cover. Fitted with the LG-1 it fits snugly in a Lowepro Santiago DV25 shell case, not too bulky to slip in the pocket of my coat.

@ canonian: thanks. You are right, it is an amazing forum.