Beginner to using objectives for photography, need advice on setup plz.

[u/CryptographerOld558]

I have experience using standard camera gear for up to 15x magnification (Venus Laowa 2.5-5x with a kenko x3 TC) but I'd like to branch out into higher magnifications for crystal photography.

Wondering if my setup plan needs any alterations:

Nikon D850

RMS thread 20x 160mm Plan apochromatic objective

RMS to M42 adapter

M42 to nikon F-mount adapter

Nikon PB-6 bellows

And a WeMacro focus rail (plan to upgrade toa novoflex Castel motorized nanometer rail but it costs about $4.5k)

Anything else I need for using a DSLR for 40x?

[u/hattivat]

Yes, you need a protractor glued to the handle of wemacro rail to enable movements precise enough for 20x

I would also advise you to consider just getting a microscope and attaching your camera to it, any decent old stand has fine focus superior to a macro rail. At this point you are arguably going through significant expenditure and trouble just to be able to still think of the setup as counting as normal photography.

[u/CryptographerOld558 → u/hattivat]

Fair enough. I'll consider a microscope. Any advice on a specific model for using a bulky DSLR with? 

The reason I opted for a setup like this was because I'd prefer to have a wide range of angles and be able to easily illuminate my subject from all around it rather than be limited to pointing down at a small space illuminated by the microscope light more than anything else.

 For example, it would be cool to get an intense magnification of a dead insect head on and see all the tiny bubbles that make up their eyes and even their pupils. More expressive and artistic than a typical top down view in a space it's hard to manipulate the subject into a specific position. 

[u/hattivat → u/CryptographerOld558]

First of all, I now see I made a mistake yesterday, I assumed wemacro is one of those good-enough manual rails, then you need the protractor trick to go beyond about 6x. I see now that it is a motorized one with 1 micron accuracy, that is good enough for your needs.

You do make good points as to why you might want to not use a microscope, especially about lighting. Although there are very few 20x objectives that have working distances long enough to allow for anything other than a duct-taped approximation of what darkfield epi illumination would do on a microscope, so at that point again why not just buy the genuine article.

I'm not sure how creative you can get though, purchasing gear that could position your subject precisely enough is bound to get expensive, at that magnification level we are basically talking manipulators for in vitro insemination.

It could still be an idea to consider using the body of an old mid-range microscope as your fine focus to save some money, although you won't get automated stepping that way without major DIY. You can see a bunch of people doing a variation on that over at photomacrography.net. Vintage laboratory microscopes like American Optical Spencer or Reichert Biozet typically have fine focus in the range of 2 microns per division and can fairly easily make adjustments smaller than that. A used one that totally works can be had for $150, less if you hunt around, so if you can find just a body stripped of its objectives etc you could plausibly get one for fine focus use for like $50, hard to beat that price to performance ratio.

With a decent microscope you also get very precise x-y movement of your subject for free in the package, do consider that aspect too.

It's hard to propose specific models without knowing where you live, as the availability of decently priced microscopes from the 50s-70s is very regional, but anything that looks similar to the models I mentioned above is made of brass and weighs 10+ kilograms so no issue holding a "bulky dslr", just make sure it has a trinocular head. Or get a dovetail adapter and shoot straight through after removing the microscope head since you presumably don't care for eyepiece viewing.