Orchids, apparently, are easy, as they do not move much - a daffodil in the wind would be hopeless. Any plant outside might be hopeless to to phototropism.
I have a set of Zeiss Luminar lenses, which should give me up to 25:1... what lenses do you use?
I have a polaroid shutter to use with the Luminars, as it has a separate cable for cocking the shutter, avoiding touching the lens between pictures... Would you consider a Sinar P3 suitable or "sloppy gear"? I would have much preferred a camera stand or a dedicated repro/macro stand from TTI, but it's a side project so I can't go nuts.
Do you re-focus using a focus rail, front standard or rear standard? ... conventional focussing changes the magnification ratio, giving false perspective?
I'm writing up a full report, and this is outside of my job at CI so I'll only respond briefly.
I'm borrowing Luminars from a forum member to complete my project. So far I've used Schneider enlarging lenses. I'm using a Sinar X and a heavy tripod (not a camera stand).
25:1 is insanity. I looked into it, and it's definitely possible, but only with the absolute most precise gear possible. I talked to TTI (copy stand and customs solution manufacturer) and they could engineer a motor-driven system that would be precise (extreme gear ratios) and reliable enough for 25:1 but would cost $10-$20k (little much for a side project ). Of course if you're not stacking images 25:1 would be relatively easy, but DOF is pretty much non-existent (you can't stop down at all because effective aperture causes diffraction immediatly.
I would love to use a focus rail but I found I needed to cover 1 cm of distance in 100 shots and could not find a focus rail able to move in 0.1 mm increments reliably (PLEASE jump in if someone has a device which would be suitable). So instead I used the rear standard. Magnification changes, but Helicon Focus does an incredible job of adapting to this. In this regard I consider it like stitching a panorama; ideally you rotate about a nodal point but the software is so good that this is largely unnecessary.
I also devised a system for Phase One backs that allows you to fire the back/flash without any mechanical movement at all (no shutter release or mirror). I'll be documenting this in full after the project ends. Couple this method with the TTI stand (if you have $10-$20k) and you could capture 100 focus-stacked images without having to touch the system (i.e. set it up, and tell it to start, it does the rest) and the only mechanical movement would be along the extremely rigid vertical stand.
*crap* just realized how OT this is. I'll start a thread in a few weeks when I'm done with my project.
Doug Peterson
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