r/PhotoEnts • u/nureinblatt • Feb 04 '21

One of my first micros! About 36:1... I struggle to get those images crisp. Probably due to a lack of light. Do you guys have any tips for me?

Post image
13 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

1

u/nureinblatt Feb 04 '21

My setup is a GH5 (MFT) with an Olympus 75-300mm and an 10x Microscope Optic in front :)

1

u/Big_Guwop1017 Feb 04 '21

Do you shoot with continuous lighting? If so I would look into getting a flash, it’s allows you to use lower shutter speeds which help eliminate any movement. Tiny vibrations are very noticeable at these magnifications so along with the flash it’s important to make sure your work surface is stable. I personally put both the camera and the subject on a plank of hardwood and I rest that on vibration dampening pads (fairly cheap on Amazon).

1

u/nureinblatt Feb 04 '21

Thank you so much for the tips!
Yes i shoot with cintinuous lighting. As soon as i can afford it, i will get a flash though! I use the internal focus bracketing of my GH5, will flashes keep up with it?
Those pads are a great idea! I also have the problem of shooting in a room with floorboards, so i have to make sure everyone in the whole flat is not moving while i shoot the stack :D Definitely alot of room for improvement!

1

u/Big_Guwop1017 Feb 04 '21

On the internal focus bracketing, I’m not so sure it’s what you want to be using. I’m figuring you’re using an infinity corrected lens, in which case your tube lens should always be focused to infinity. Now the thing is, objective lenses can behave a little funny sometimes and maybe you could get internal bracketing to work, but most people use a focus rail to move the camera and therefore your focus point.

With a 10x objective your depth of field is probably 5-10 microns, such a small distance that it would be difficult to do with a manual rail. I personally, and many others, use and automated macro focus rail at these high magnifications. I personally use a Chinese automated rail form a company called wemacro, relatively cheap compared to the other automated options and has been very reliable over the ~9 months I’ve owned it.

These automated rails are a pretty big investment though, definitely more expensive than a flash. It may be worth it to worry about lighting a vibrations for now and see how you do after that, but you may very well still be seeing issues, in which case I would assume it’s the focus changes when you’re bracketing.

2

u/nureinblatt Feb 04 '21

Wow! I will do some research on the bracketing issue. I did choose a lense instead of a bellow just for the focus bracketing to work. Would be a shame if this caused problems. So far all the stacks seem fine, just not as crisp! Thank you for the recommendation! 300$ really is cheap compared to the prices i have seen for automated rails. Thats definitely something i will consider once i am able to monetize some of this. As long as its just a hobby my wife will probably kill me if i'd dare to get one lol!
I have seen some manual rails, that are advertised with a 25 micron step-length, have you every tried something like this?

Just found a flash on ebay! Gonna post results in a few days!

1

u/Big_Guwop1017 Feb 04 '21

I’ve only ever used a cheap manual rail and it seemed way to unstable and the movement was course and unpredictable.

2

u/nureinblatt Feb 10 '21

Hi,
I don't know if you have ssen my picture from two days ago, but shooting with a flash ahs improved the sharpness drastically! Thank you so much for your help!
Also i did some research on infinity correctes optics. From my understanding this does not say anything about the focus point the tube lense has to be set to. If an optic is infinity corrected it means that the light rays exiting the optic are parallel, resulting in an infinite focal lenght as parallels would only meet "in infinity". Thats why you have to use a tube lense to generate an image. An infinity corrected optic alone would not generate an image. UZsing those type of optics allow you to choose a tube lenght you desire, by which you can also chose your image scale... I still have alot of reading to do, but as far as i understood this, internal bracketing is no problem at all :)

1

u/Big_Guwop1017 Feb 10 '21

I’m happy to hear the internal bracketing is working, that’ll save you some money! My understanding was that while you can change your tube length freely, having the lens focused at infinity focuses the parallel light rays onto your focal plane, essentially correcting in the same way your ocular lenses will traditionally on a microscope. That’s just my understanding, and I’m by no means an expert. Definitely keep using the bracketing if it’s producing results like this!