It's an acquisition, but a gizmo cobbled together from bits and pieces rather than a purchase. Here's the story...

Having recently got a Laowa 25mm 2.5 - 5x macro lens, it was now necessary to be able to move the camera in 50 micron (0.05mm) steps for focus stacks in order to take full advantage of the 5x magnification. I use Novoflex racks (manual, not the £2K automatic!). From the scale on the rack and the standard knurled knob (see below), steps of 1mm are easy, 1/2 mm fairly easy, approx 1/3 mm (333 micron) with a good eye, a steady hand and lots of patience.




With the Novoflex fine adjustment knob attached (see below - costs more than you think it should), each tick is a movement of 1/4mm, 1/8mm is fairly easy and approx 1/12mm (0.083mm, 83 micron) is just about possible with a good eye, a steady hand, and a lot of patience. Nearly 50 micron, but not quite.




I use crossed racks, one forward/back for the stack, the other for sideways alignment (get it right, then leave it). So I wondered whether mounting a protractor on the fine adjusment knob for forward/back motion and a pointer on the stationary, cross-mounted rack would give me finer gradation (a nod to member Coker here, he once mentioned that he does that with the focus ring of a lens to get fine focus steps).

A quick feasibility study showed promise, so in true Blue Peter fashion I knocked up a gizmo from scrap aluminium, a plastic lid from an old margarine tub, a scap of old cloth, a bit of garden wire, cardboard, rubber bands, a small torch and a 1/4 inch screw. It works. So here it is (see pictures below). The angle turned is read from the shadow of the pointer on the protractor. This eliminates the perspective error that arises when simply looking at the position of the pointer itself. Turning the protractor by 1 degree gives a movement of 1/24 mm (42 micron), which is what was needed .













With a good eye, a very steady hand, lots of patience and not breathing, about 1/2 degree (1/48 mm, 21 micron) should be achievable. However, at that point I'd start wondering about how accurate the mechanical movement of the focus rack would be .

And in case anyone is wondering, the stand holding the racks in the pictures is just for convenience here. For focus stacking, the racks would be mounted on a rock solid geared head attached to a rock solid kitchen surface by a big and very solid clamp.

If nothing else, making this gizmo was a good way to while away the time during days when it has been too hot to do much else...

Steve

Never mess with an older brother. But if it's a younger brother...

(OK, that might be biassed, I'm the oldest sibling.)

Steve

Fascinating. That first picture is definitely an alien life form... Come to think of it, the others could be a creature from deep space arriving on a wandering space rock .

And what a photographic challenge! Would you have done anything differently if you had known beforehand how quickly things would happen?

Steve

100% agree. But don't be put off by the technical detail and fancy equipment on the site. Most of the stuff about lighting is applicable to any macro. However, some other things are mainly aimed at magnification that's greater than 1:1 - 'challenges' build up as magnification increases. For example, the gizmo I'm knocking up to get camera movements of 1/25mm for stacks is because I'm dealing with 5x magnification. Most macro lenses (including yours) go up to 1:1 which needs stack steps of something like 1/4 or 1/2mm, still small but much easier to achieve. And even 1:1 magnification can be too high for many things, including many flowers.

Steve

A domestic insurance policy I once had included cover for works of art. If the artist died, the amount of cover immediately doubled. They understood a fundamental truth that many of us don't appreciate: your pictures will only be worth much when you're not around to benefit from it .

Steve

There's a time-honoured tradition in macro-land of making ad-hoc gadgets and gizmos from bits and pieces and rubber bands and of using common items in uncommon ways. It can get you a long way. One of my lighting supports is a retort stand that was in a chemistry set I had as a kid, another is an old microphone stand that belonged to my father when he played in a band (he died 25 years ago). I'm currently making a gadget to help get camera movements as small as 1/25 mm, it's being made out of scrap aluminium sheet, a plastic lid, cardboard, garden wire and an elastic band.

Of course, you can pay £££ for ready made stuff and sometimes there's no reasonable alternative (I draw a line at grinding lenses or precision machining a focus rack...), but even then a reasonably priced used item is likely to appear on an auction site from time to time. The trick is to decide what you really need in order to get the results you want, see if you can knock something up yourself, only buy if you really need it and can't make it, and even then try to buy pre-owned. (I'm not from Yorkshire but my wife is...:wink.

Steve

Not bad at all for a first attempt . As you've no doubt noticed yourself (so why am I pointing it out?), there's an out of focus band near the top which looks a bit odd. Probably due to not having an image in the stack with that area in focus.

Beware the second attempt. Focus stacking is a slippery slope, once you're on it there is only one way to go.... You'll get more critical of the final result, start to see stacking artefacts, try to get more control over the final image etc. etc.. And flowers are tricky because they often look more natural with some part out of focus (to do with giving a sense of depth). So which parts do you want in focus and which parts out of focus? And what images do you need to take to get the effect you want? And of course there's the quality of the transition from in-focus to out-of-focus areas. Then eventually you'll want greater magnification, which means greater stability for the camera and subject, so you start looking for new kit (focus rails, geared heads etc.) in order to achieve it. That's the voice of experience speaking (while still sliding down the slope...).

Steve

Striking minimalism. Gotta agree with Urbanmeister - it really works.

IMHO it would be a lot better having this picture on a wall than that minimalist Rhein II panorama that sold at auction for $4,338,500 a few years ago. Print it big, Gareth, and see what you can get for it!

Steve

And since reflected cloud has appeared, here are a couple from the archives.

1. North Uist, Outer Hebrides, 2013. It must be art because I suffered for it - the midges at tripod level were vicious .




2. Skye, 2011. No midges .




Steve

Can't argue with that. There are beers for really hot climates and beers for the traditional British climate. And there definitely are some decent beers in the USA. A bunch of us Brits on a business trip once drunk a hotel dry of Sam Adams. A decent beer among a whole lot of indistinguishable, tasteless and ice cold Buds, Coors and suchlike.

Steve