Trials with Bellows
 

Hi

Have been experimenting with a set of Nikon Bellows I had for Xmas. Lighting seems to be the chief bugbear, but with two Incandescent 40 watt table lights, managed to get a couple of shots worth persevereing with.
The first is of two cogs from a small wrist watch and the second Uncropped give an idea of their actual size when placed on a penny - this one is uncoped full frame. The working distance is about 4" and in time I hope to get the light right and overcome the vibration problem. I have no mirror lock up on my camera.
Both at f32 1/3shutter.

Very impressive start with the bellows. :)
In some of my trials I found using a bar code label helped a lot with focusing. With the very limited DOF at these magnifications point of focus selection needs some thought on anything but flat objects.

Harry ( wolfie ) has been playing around with a program that looks to be very interesting in this field.

Question - does your camera have a ' mirror anti shock ' mode in the menu. That is what I use with the D100.

Don

Thanks Don

Have the D70, so no mirror lock up or anti shock I'm afaid - I do use the electronic shutter release and I think I read somewhere that useing one of the delayed shutter programs the mirror goes up before the release. so will have to investigate this.
One of the main problems I find is that, focusing with say f2.8 and then winding up to f16-or 32 you have to be extremely careful not move the lens at all, as the working distance is so small that the slightest movement alters the DOF (what there is) hugely, and at the smaller aps you canot see enough to focus at all. Have to increase my dose of Beta Blockers LOL.

Brian

Brian,
To help with focusing why not use an angle poise or any other light that you can turn off / remove before the exposure.

With the light loss using bellows I know focus is a major problem ......... When you've got it right we can call you ' Cats Eyes Brian ' :D

Don

Just an idea, don't know if it will work. Use the lowest ISO available and the darkest ND filter you have. Open the shutter on 'bulb setting' with the lights off. When vibrations have subsided switch the lights on for the required length of time, then close the shutter. No use in daylight of course. In daylight the low ISO and ND filter might allow you to use a piece of black card in front of the lens to time the exposure. A bit tricky but it might work. In any case the longer shutter speed allowed by the low ISO and the ND filter might take it out of the danger zone 1/3 s to 1/30 s for a 50 mm lens.

PS

I have now tried the daylight method and the result is shown. 5s @ f22 ISO 100. I used a zoom lens (40 mm) without macro at a distance of 450 mm. I think it could be sharper with the right lens but looking round the edges of the stamp and at the background I can't see any camera shake. Can anyone else?

HI John

Thanks for the tip - will try the Bulb and Black card method this evening.

Your stamp pic is spot on - no shake there at all - very encouraging.

Cheers

Brian

That is a pretty impressive result John.

Don

I have been wanting to give the bellows a try for quite sometime... I will be following your progress to see if I can cheat on the learning curve:) :)... Very nice results.....Thanks for sharing as you go....Alex