Not bad for an old FZ30 or 20? Can't remember which was restricted to f8. On the first page of this thread you'll see what snoot/diffuser I use on an old FZ50, may be of some use to you ...

kiernter wrote:

Studio setup by kiernter, on Flickr
hello,is it difference how mount teleconverter and tubes beetwen body and lens-body-tc-tube-lens or body-tube-tc-lens?

kiertner, is that a telescope? This thing is pure love for any photographer.

[
fruitfly 1 edit copyright ernie cooper 2012_filtered by ernie.cooper, on Flickr

Hi all,

Above is a photo of a fruit fly (Drosophila) compiled from a stack of images using Zerene stacker that I posted on my blog a few days ago. The images were taken with an Olympus e-620 DSLR using a Cnscope 5X microscope objective mounted on a vintage Olympus auto bellows.

A cropped version of the image is below.


fruitfly 1 edit copyright ernie cooper 2012 crop 3_filtered by ernie.cooper, on Flickr

The bellows and specimen were mounted on a macro rail I have been building out of a Carl Zeiss Jena Laboval 4 Microscope Focus Arm. The pics below show the set-up: microscope on its back, camera mounted where the condenser would have been and the specimen is mounted where the microscope head should go. The specimen mount is a mechanical stage (for moving a microscope slide) attached vertically to provide movement of the specimen vertically and horizontally.


macro rail MK I_filtered by ernie.cooper, on Flickr


macro rail MK I camera mount_filtered by ernie.cooper, on Flickr


macro rail MK I specimen mount_filtered by ernie.cooper, on Flickr


macro rail MK I specimen mount 2_filtered by ernie.cooper, on Flickr

Lighting is from a Vivitar 283directed through a light diffuser made from a white plastic yogurt container. The specimen was carefully impaled on the point of a needle that had been pushed through a scrap of green foam core.

The pic below shows the lens (covered by a paper lens shade) and fruit fly specimen on the tip of the needle. I removed the outer barrel of the lens and added the shade to reduce the chance of lens flare.


bellows and lens shade_filtered by ernie.cooper, on Flickr

Needless to say, this isn’t meant as a portable field set-up.

Cheers,
EC
www.macrocritters.wordpress.com

You guys have some amazing rigs and gear. I'd have to save up for life to get so much

Another lightweight, cheap but quality macro rig

This is my friend, Steb1's Macro Rig. He uses a small flash which is mounted onto a Cokin P type square filter holder and square filter lens hood. Steb1 is also the one who started the concave diffuser!

He uses a Polaroid PL108AF flash (a Metz 24 AF-1 clone) but you can use the 270EX /EXII or SB400 , or Sunpak RD2000 light weight flash as well.


Side View with Foam Diffuser by steb1, on Flickr

Sample images:


Messy Eater, Another View by steb1, on Flickr


Male March Fly (Bibionidae) by steb1, on Flickr

More info here: http://orionmystery.blogspot.com/2013/01/stephens-macro-rig.html

orionmystery wrote:
Another lightweight, cheap but quality macro rig

What's the lens on it?

MarkB1 wrote:
orionmystery wrote:
Another lightweight, cheap but quality macro rig

What's the lens on it?

Looks like the Sigma 70mm F/2.8 EX DG Macro.

This is a great and valuable thread !

This is my current setup (always a work in progress), please excuse the crappy photo quality, it was taken with my cellphone:



Sample images:

Diabrotica speciosa by raulfragoso, on Flickr


Diabrotica speciosa by raulfragoso, on Flickr

Camera: Canon T3i/600D
Lens and tubes: Sigma 150mm f/2.8, Kenko 1.4x teleconverter, Canon EF25 extension tube
Flash: Canon 430EX + OC-E3 cord
Diffusion: Sto-fen omni-bounce + double folded sheet of diffusion material taken from the box of my DasKeyboard (it's really easy to get it fixed to the lens hood with a rubber band)
Bracket: half a circle of those cheap brackets sold on eBay, mounted on top of the Sigma tripod collar, which is attached upwards

The last addition to my rig was a cheap viewfinder magnifier from eBay. This not only helps to better focus using LiveView, due to the higher magnification and light isolation, but it also provides a great level of stability since my face acts as a second point of support.

I would like to contribute to this thread regarding my set up.

When you live at 76 degrees north, means a lot of hours of darkness, and everything deepfrozen during wintertime. It gives you plenty of time to improve your gear. Some will say it's overkill, but what the h... :-) me, i was just amused during the process.

In September i purchased a Novoflex Castel Q focus rack. Nice device, with one caveat: it's made with a toothed rack, and each turn of the knob that moves the camera is 15mm; far too much for fine-tuning or focus-stacking. The handle i made, has a much larger diameter (90-95mm) leaving space for 90 small "dots", where a steel-ball can rest. Now each "click" will move the camera 0,17mm back or forth. it's still too coarse for the 65mm MP-E at 5x magnification, wide open or not. I'm considering another row with 90 dots in the handle, halve the 0,17mm....could be usefull.........By the way: can any of you tell me, or show me, a calculator for that particular lens?

I'm so inspired by the refracted flowers in waterdrops by LordV ao. It's my plan to use the modified Novoflex for stacked shots like this. I know it takes a lot of practice, and even some of the improved light, many of you have shown previously.

By the way: i made a cradle for my Galaxy Note II, meaning i can control the camera via "DSLRController"............basically everything, including bracketing for focus stacking; of course where autofocus is present...........so not the MP-E.



Best wishes Mogens Werth

^ wow, great setup!

As usual, my new setup for 2013 to capture insects in-flight. Again as 2D images but with an external VS14s shutter with very short external shutter-lag only 3.5 msec and the Nikon D300 camera. More general specs:

Nikon D300 camera in manual mode.
DIY adaptor to mount the Nikor AF105/2.8D macro lens.
Nikkor AF105/2.8D macro lens.
A DIY external shutter housing has the super fast Uniblitz VS14s shutter.
The shutter-lag is only 3.5ms, the opening time is 4.5 ms or 1/220 sec.
A DIY HT module control the 65V to the external shutter. The high power current for the external shutter is supplied by a flash capacitor 740 uF/330V.
Detector depth accuracy: 0.25mm at 310mm from object to front macro lens, frame = 60mm.
The 2 flashes are SB-80-DX types (or SB800). They works in TTL mode and are controlled via my hardware modules. Via the keyboard all settings can be changed and stored into a flash eeprom. So the flashes are all controlled from the controller and no more individual on the flashes itself.
The hardware core is a FPGA module from terasic, the DE0-nano. Very powerfull and small. All high-speed timings are controlled from this board. More then 81 I/O pins are used.
All modules in this unit can be reprogrammed via an USB connection.

For high-speed in-flight insects capture I use a laser system to know when an insects come in focus. This laser system is very accurate and quickly. In just 50 us I know when an insects stay infocus. Thereafter the high-speed external shutter is activated into 3.5 ms to take a picture. Even super fast flying insects at macro closeup stay in the picture frame with this ultra short detecton delay and shutter-lag.

The detector has a 128 pixel line array to readout the laserbeam. A distance change of only 0.25 mm can be seen by the line array. Each pixel has an 8 bit value. The value, the position and the noise can be set into the parameters for optimal picture capture. Even super small insects of 0.5mm can be detected at 500 mm from the macro lens and this into the super short time of only 50 us (1/20.000 sec)

I use a power-pack module to powerup all the hardware. The racing pack module gives 7.5V @ 4200 mA. Multiple DC/DC convertors converts this to the correct voltage with high efficience. More then 10 hours autonomy is provided.

List of frame versus distance (object to frontside macro lens):

Free Distance ...... Frame
410 mm ............... 80 mm
360 mm ............... 70 mm
310 mm ............... 60 mm . . . Detector depth accuracy 0.25mm
280 mm ............... 50 mm
235 mm ............... 45 mm
215 mm ............... 40 mm
190 mm ............... 35 mm
165 mm ............... 30 mm
147 mm ............... 25 mm
125 mm ............... 20 mm
112 mm ............... 17 mm

A few pictures:


Final high-speed setup with the Nikon D300 camera C1B9390 by fotoopa, on Flickr


Final high-speed setup with the Nikon D300 camera C1B9384 by fotoopa, on Flickr


Final high-speed setup with the Nikon D300 camera C1B9406 by fotoopa, on Flickr


Final high-speed setup with the Nikon D300 camera C1B9409 by fotoopa, on Flickr

For the insects in-flight, I've to wait a few days/weeks the temperature now here in Belgium are exceptionally low and snow prevented any recording.

Frans

Impressive. Awaiting your spring ...

Do you use any diffusion on those two flash heads?

frans_vdm wrote:

Final high-speed setup with the Nikon D300 camera C1B9390 by fotoopa, on Flickr

Frans

I've tested with and witout diffusion on the 2 flashes. In full sun you need minimal 3 to 4 extra stops light on the flashes as you have to come above the sunlight. In cloudy weather or at night you have no longer these problems. So I can put a small diffuser on both flashes.

An other solution is the addition of a ring flash. I've done this a few days ago, here are the configuration:


High-speed setup with extra ringflash SB29s 1B9412 by fotoopa, on Flickr


High-speed setup with extra ringflash SB29s 1B9423 by fotoopa, on Flickr


High-speed setup with extra ringflash SB29s 1B9430 by fotoopa, on Flickr


High-speed setup with extra ringflash SB29s 1B9447 by fotoopa, on Flickr

The SB-29-s ringflash helps a lot for macro work. I drive this flash via the X and Q signals to control the flashpower from my central unit. This gives fare more possibilities and a much better exposure. Now the Nikon macro lens stay manual at F22, this prevent hosting in full sun due to the 4.5ms openings time of the external shutter. The shutter-lag is 3.5 ms.

I'm still waiting for higher temperature, last day we have snow again here in Belgium very exceptional for this period. There are no insects at the moment.

Frans.

I don't see the value of a ring flash myself as it will tend to give circular highlights on reflective surfaces - which I find unattractive, though it's an easy third flash fix. And regarding the additional flash output in high ambient light; if you were to snoot the flash, or just aim it (limit the direction) through a short tube you would have less light loss to the environment and need less additional flash, and so save on the power requirements - according to my understanding.

frans_vdm wrote:
I've tested with and witout diffusion on the 2 flashes. In full sun you need minimal 3 to 4 extra stops light on the flashes as you have to come above the sunlight. In cloudy weather or at night you have no longer these problems. So I can put a small diffuser on both flashes.

An other solution is the addition of a ring flash. I've done this a few days ago, here are the configuration:

---

The SB-29-s ringflash helps a lot for macro work. I drive this flash via the X and Q signals to control the flashpower from my central unit. This gives fare more possibilities and a much better exposure. Now the Nikon macro lens stay manual at F22, this prevent hosting in full sun due to the 4.5ms openings time of the external shutter. The shutter-lag is 3.5 ms.

I'm still waiting for higher temperature, last day we have snow again here in Belgium very exceptional for this period. There are no insects at the moment.

Frans.

PS You could also wear a wide rimmed hat in the sunshine ...

Thanks MarkB1,

The ring flash helps me in taking pictures as the background is most of the time very dark due the need for supressing ambient light. It remains a task for perfect balance. I should really suppress the ambient otherwise I can not freeze the rapid movements. For more static shots you have not this problem. But additional reflections may indeed occur.

I have the unit right now adapted for 3D shooting with the Olympus E-PL3 camera, the 3D lumix G12.5 F12 lens with 1 mm extra spacers for closeup macro work:


Simple setup for 3D, picture C1B9489 by fotoopa, on Flickr


Simple setup for 3D, picture C1B9504 by fotoopa, on Flickr

A few examples of 3D cross-view pictures:


A swarm of mosquitoes Cross-view 3D picture P4114800 by fotoopa, on Flickr


Gehoornde Metselbij - Osmia cornuta Cross-view 3D picture P4114785 by fotoopa, on Flickr

I know that there are less 3D users. If you have a real 3D monitor there is certainly an added value for these images.

Frans.