Addicted to Stack&Stitch

Have questions about the equipment used for macro- or micro- photography? Post those questions in this forum.

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ray_parkhurst
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Addicted to Stack&Stitch

Post by ray_parkhurst »

I just signed up for paid subscription to EasyZoom, so I'm officially addicted.

I celebrated by uploading a photo of obverse of a 1955-S Lincoln Cent, in Very Early Die State.

The setup has been refined. I purchased the S&S controller from mjkzz, but when it arrived I could not get it to work with my Windows7 machine. Frustrated, I went back to manual XY movements, but this is tedious, limited in range of coin size, and I seem to have to re-do more than half the projects due to misalignments and such. So, I bought a Windows10 laptop (small ASUS model on sale at Fry's) and plugged in the controller. I had to download FTDI drivers, but then it connected properly. Win7 never connected even with new drivers. So I was off and running...almost.

I set up my first project, and ended up running it about 6 times, each with various errors. For some reason the timings for settling and such are not communicated within the program, so the camera can be triggered while the carriage is moving. I tried lengthening the timings to ensure triggering would happen after any movement, but I still ended up with a few missed triggers. Very frustrating.

I then realized that I could use the system in semi-manual mode. I hooked the camera and Z-stacking control (I'm using a vertical setup) back up to the Win7 machine, and left the XY (and powered-on but non-actuating Z box) plugged in. The software has the nice feature of being able to move to any panorama frame from a pulldown menu, so I moved manually to each frame on the Win10 laptop, and launched the stack on the Win7 machine. This is a workable solution for small panoramas, and is certainly better than manually turning micrometers, so I am happy.

Take a look at the first paid-hosting, semi-automated S&S result here:

https://easyzoom.com/image/124951

mjkzz
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Post by mjkzz »

Yeah, I heard some feedback about "not communicating back the position" for the app running on some laptop. I will fix that soon, looks like I have to use timing mechanism for game developers

One fix is to tap on the Up or Down arrow, just once, so the PC gets the right position.

mawyatt
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Post by mawyatt »

Ray,

That's a very nice coin image!!

Are you saying you used one PC (Windows 7) with stacking software to run the main Z axis (DoF stacks), and another PC (Windows 10) with the S&S software to run the X & Y stitch sections?

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

ray_parkhurst
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Post by ray_parkhurst »

mawyatt wrote:Ray,

That's a very nice coin image!!

Are you saying you used one PC (Windows 7) with stacking software to run the main Z axis (DoF stacks), and another PC (Windows 10) with the S&S software to run the X & Y stitch sections?

Best,
Yes, that's how I made the panorama. It was reasonably convenient for now, and hopefully Peter can fix the issue with overlapping trigger and movement.

Smokedaddy
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Post by Smokedaddy »

... ditto on the incredibly sharp image. Sweet rare lens as well. What is this?

Image

mjkzz
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Post by mjkzz »

This is the part I do not like PC, I prefer a MCU platform where you can control timing accurately. A Raspberry Pi 3B based system is under way and no more Cat5 cables :D, and it will be touch screen based.

On the other hand, I do like the PC because it has more processing power, a plan is to incorporate vision processing to automatically determine all parameters, like the boundaries, etc. Even the Z axis -- move the rail till no focused area in the image.

Also large (I mean up to 1 meter long) rails will be used for X and Y axis, this is for artwork reproduction and archiving, now that will be addiction :D

Of course, those are the plans, not reality :D But as soon as I can get a laptop to reproduce the issue, it will be fixed.

ray_parkhurst
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Post by ray_parkhurst »

Smokedaddy wrote:... ditto on the incredibly sharp image. Sweet rare lens as well. What is this?

Image
Yeah, the 95PN is quite the lens at 2x for this work.

That fiber is probably a small piece of protostar. It does flake off occasionally, and the coin is both sitting on it and surrounded by it.

Smokedaddy
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Post by Smokedaddy »

Have you had the opportunity to experiment with the 75mm or 150mm? Just curious.

ray_parkhurst
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Post by ray_parkhurst »

I have never seen a 75PN for sale so have not had opportunity to test one. They are optimized for 4x/0.25x so would be a nice lens for higher mags on FF. If one ever comes available, I will likely buy it as my search has gone on for many years.

The 150mm is an interesting lens. I have avoided buying one for a couple reasons: first, it is too long to fit well in my setup; and second, it has relatively poor coverage, only 30mm image circle, and is already falling-off on APS-C.

Smokedaddy
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Post by Smokedaddy »

ray_parkhurst wrote:I have never seen a 75PN for sale so have not had opportunity to test one.
Neither have I, just thought you may own one.

-JW:

ray_parkhurst
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Post by ray_parkhurst »

Smokedaddy wrote:
Neither have I, just thought you may own one.

-JW:
I wish it were true. If it is sharpest wide open then it would have NA 0.14, but if needing to be stopped-down to f3.3 for best sharpness (like both the 105PN and 95PN) then it's only useful up to NA 0.12. Still quite good for 4x but perhaps not a world beater.

If anyone on the forum owns or knows someone who owns a 75PN, please let us know.

ray_parkhurst
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Post by ray_parkhurst »

With Peter's help I got the S&S system working on the Win10 laptop. Turns out when you start the program, all inputs (pull-downs, entry boxes, etc) must be adjusted in order to set the correct timings. I also found that for my camera, I needed a longer shutter timing, 500ms vs 250ms. 500ms is the default in the standard stacking controller, and I've never had a missed trigger. Now the S&S is working well.

I celebrated by re-doing the 55-S VEDS Cent (see above) fully automated, but also raised the lights to improve the contrast. I think it looks much better than previous. Take a look here:

https://easyzoom.com/image/124996

Now I'm ready to do a few more projects that have been waiting in the wings.

Smokedaddy
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Post by Smokedaddy »

... beautiful image Ray. How do YOU identify VEDS on this coin?
Last edited by Smokedaddy on Sun Sep 02, 2018 12:21 pm, edited 2 times in total.

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

ray_parkhurst wrote:I think it looks much better than previous.
I'm not a connoisseur of coins or coin photography, so it's hard for me to tell about "better". But it definitely looks great to me.

I'm very pleased to see that you've made friends with stack-and-stitch!

--Rik

ray_parkhurst
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Post by ray_parkhurst »

Smokedaddy wrote:... beautiful image Ray. How do YOU identify VEDS on this coin?
Thanks! You can tell the coin is VEDS because there is no apparent die wear. The heaviest regions of die wear on Lincoln Cents are between the rim and lettering; field at back of neck; and field in front of throat. Wear also occurs quickly at the edges of the devices where they meet the field. In the crop below, you can see no die wear at the edge where the field meets the back of head and neck:

Image

Metal flows in these areas, and in the field in general, and as it flows it causes small amounts of complementary die wear. The more coins struck, the more wear, and the flowlines in the die become more prominent than the flowlines on the coin. This is where VEDS ends, probably after ~100 coins struck.

Edited to add: Another factor for VEDS is that details, scratches, etc that get obscured by die wear later in the life of the die are still present. For instance, in the pic I show above, there are numerous small features near the edge of the hair which wear away very quickly due to metal flow in this area causing very quick wear.

For comparison, take a look at the MDS (Medium Die State) 1956-D coin here:

https://easyzoom.com/image/124469

And to see what a Lincoln Cent die looks like at the very end of a long striking life, take a look at the VLDS (Very Late Die State) 1954-S coin here:

https://easyzoom.com/image/124774

In the area in question, the MDS coin shows significant metal flow wear in the field and at the edge of the hair, while on the VLDS coin there is so much wear the field and hair are merging together.



rjlittlefield wrote:
ray_parkhurst wrote:I think it looks much better than previous.
I'm not a connoisseur of coins or coin photography, so it's hard for me to tell about "better". But it definitely looks great to me.

I'm very pleased to see that you've made friends with stack-and-stitch!

--Rik
Me too! Unfortunately I had set myself on a dead-end path. Stacking allows for (apparent) breaking the laws of physics in one dimension, while Stitching allows breaking them in the other two. And I do enjoy breaking the law.

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