Experimental tabletop macro set-up Part 1
I have been a bit slack on the picture taking front so far this year. Lots of other stuff to do and then I got involved in another workshop project that is photography related, the results of which may be of interest to some. So here goes.
It all started in early June when I picked up a dead bumble bee in the garden, and had a good look at it with a workshop magnifier. Saw lots of detail I had never seen before like the hairs on its tongue. So the obvious question was how to photograph at sufficient magnification to show that level of detail without spending on more kit. A net search came up with a dedicated forum for this type of photography ........ Photomacrography.net. I found a thread detailing several set-ups ....
Link
http://www.photomacrography.net/foru...pic.php?t=2825
Eeeek !!!!!! some serious cash has gone into most of those setups. Generally those guys are primarily using microscope lenses, also the final images are stacks between 50 and 100+ frames. All pretty daunting stuff, but even at lower magnifications a challenge I just had to pick up. Especially as I was not looking at spending anything like their budget. I was not sure how I would get on but I thought it would be an interesting exercise anyway. Last year it was Infrared on a budget, so this project could be this years photographic 'never done anything like it before' challenge.
I set an initial buget of £10 and make use of whatever I had around just in case the whole thing turned into a total disaster.
Starter was the base and that is from my old Phillips PCS2000 enlarger. To this I could attach stuff as I went along, and it could sit on the workshop bench as I cobbled bits together. First up was a precision slide for stacking and for this I picked on part of a swivelling vertical slide from my lathe. A mod to make the slide lockable and bolts to attach it to my Manfrotto sliding plate and I was off to the races.
Next up the subject table. I was looking for movement in 3 orientations, so I used the compound table from my bench drill ( workshop steadily being dissmantled
). To save the compound table scratching the enlarger base it is mounted on 4 rubber feet I bought in Maplins. Bolted to that is a vertical rising table to sit the subject on. This is the focus stage from my enlarger topped of with a bit of aluminium held in place by electrical tape.
I had to do a mod to my 1980's Panagor Auto bellows. In its native form this is not stiff enough to resist vibrations at high magnifications. So the front standard was drilled and tapped and the bellows attatched to a length of aluminium. The rear standard has the main fixing point and a groove was cut in the ally base to allow the front standard a degree of front rear movement before it is locked down. The bellows gave 150mm extension to which I could add a further 94.5mm using my Nikon PK12, 13 and PN11 extension tubes, and of course I could add a teleconverter for even greater magnification.
Next up was lighting, and for that I spent the last of my buget on a gooseneck microphone stand also from Maplins. As bought this was not stiff enough to support the flashgun so I inserted 6 lengths of fencing wire to stiffen it up. This is topped off with a ball head taken from an old Jessops mini tabletop tripod.
To test it I used a ballpen tip as the subject and a few things came out of that shot.
1) DOF is so thin that lots of frames would have to be taken for focus stacking and the micrometer collar on the slide did not have fine enough graduations as I might need to get to 5 or 10 microns.
2) Vibration. A major issue at these magnifications. My setup fell down in two areas. a) The Manfrotto Micro plate just did not tighten up sufficiently so would have to go. b) The bellows mounts are a cheapy aluminium jobs so did not provide adequate rigidity.
3) Getting the lens lined up and focused on the subject was another issue to be solved.
The story will continue as soon as I take some pics of the latest version ( still not quite finished ), but by now the spend has gone up to the dizzy heights of £117. Still I have spent so much time in the workshop I have saved more than that in petrol money.
Don