Easily finding your subject at magnifications >5x

svalley · Post by **svalley** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 7:33 pm

I am in the process of setting up my own stacking system and I noticed that when my camera was attached to the Stackshot in a vertical position with a Mitutoyo objective mounted on my 200mm Micro-Nikkor I could see a small spot of light on the stage. A bright overhead light was shining through the camera eyepiece and along the optical axis.

At work, my imaging system is in a pretty dark area with no overhead lights so this effect went unnoticed and I have spent countless time trying to line up my subject and find the proper distance for photos. Over the years you get better at it, but still, it is a frustrating waste of time.

Place light at the eyepiece of you DSLR and your specimen under the objective and align it so the light is centered on your desired spot. The closer to the focus point the sharper the dot of light will be.

I expect that many of the old hands have already discovered this, but I was quite delighted to discover it for myself.

I am in preliminary stages of my shakedown of the system and it isn't very pretty right now, but I will post some photos of it in the next couple days. I am retiring for the second time on Friday from my job as insect imaging specialist Oregon Department of Agriculture, so I will have more freedom to work on my own imaging projects.

Steve

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 7:58 pm

Hi Steve,
Welcome back!

svalley · Post by **svalley** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 8:36 pm

Hi Charlie, Thanks!

Chris S. · Post by **Chris S.** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 8:40 pm

Welcome back indeed, Steve!

While you were away, you might have missed Laser aiming and focus in photomacrography.

--Chris

austrokiwi1 · Post by **austrokiwi1** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 9:52 pm

good techniqe and I believe hama used to sell a kit for a similar purpose(Focus light >>Repro<<) and would probably do well in micro shots. For me there is one small problem... the technique doesn't work well with my Sony A7rII and Oly OMD-EM10II

Smokedaddy · Post by **Smokedaddy** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 10:33 pm

svalley · Post by **svalley** » Thu Apr 13, 2017 6:25 pm

See? I knew you guys would have already figured this out.

mawyatt · Post by **mawyatt** » Fri Apr 14, 2017 6:32 am

Thanks for posting. I placed an IKEA Led lamp against the eyepiece on my D500 and got a nice illumination of the area on my subject chip.

Great idea!!

Best,

Mike