Versatile macro rig

Have questions about the equipment used for macro- or micro- photography? Post those questions in this forum.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

keks
Posts: 44
Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2011 10:41 am
Location: Austria

Versatile macro rig

Post by keks »

Hi guys,
Some years ago I have presented my all-directions macro rig:
http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... hp?t=12586

Time has passed and I have little by little improve that rig. Actually every time when I was annoyed by some limitation during shooting I worked out a way around it. In fact, I guess I have built the whole rig twice till I had it right. The result is something that I guess deserves to be called versatile.

The optical part is based on M42 tubes or bellows for shooting with loupe lenses or finite microscope objectives. I got the tubes from Zörk/Geramany, they are (were) available in 25, 50 and 100 mm length, wall thickness is about 4 mm, which makes them very sturdy. On camera side and lens side I use the respective (easily available) adapter.

Shooting can be done horizontally, vertically or in any other angle, changing the angle can be done in an instant. The rig works fine with magnifications at least up to 20x (I am shooting with electronic shutter and continuous light).

The positioning system offers fine positioning and more or less every direction (xyzr + goniometer). It’s mostly made of China parts, using self-made adapter plates when necessary. What I find very useful is having the option of fast horizontal movement along these acra swiss plates when changing the setup.


And last but not least I have worked out a rear focussing system, as it has several advantages discussed elsewhere. I don’t know if anyone has made an automated version yet, which I am presenting here.

Subsequently some pictures, I hope this is interesting for some here.
Last edited by keks on Sun Apr 23, 2017 2:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

keks
Posts: 44
Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2011 10:41 am
Location: Austria

Post by keks »

Adapter plate on stack shot. This is important: I have drilled 2 additional holes for better fixation (the 2 original holes are a joke). The plate allows me to mount acra swiss quick release clamps or the 45 mm pipe clamps for the M42 tubes.
Image

Thats the whole rig, adjusted for shooting vertically, using M42-tubes
Image

Shooting horizontally, lowest possible position for maximum stability:
Image

keks
Posts: 44
Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2011 10:41 am
Location: Austria

Post by keks »

Downwards shooting, very helpful for objects that cant be pinned:
Image

An example shot that way (sugar crystals on a mirror plate):
Image

Using a bellows (gives much less stability than the M42 tubes, thats why I use it mostly for investigating new lenses for their vignetting behaviour)
Image

keks
Posts: 44
Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2011 10:41 am
Location: Austria

Post by keks »

As I have mentioned above, I have made an automated rear focussing mechanism. For that I have modified a cheap M42 bellows in a way that it can be mounted on acra swiss clamps:
Image

The front part mounted in a fixed Position, the rear part mounted on the stack shot:
Image

And the whole thing in action:
Image

keks
Posts: 44
Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2011 10:41 am
Location: Austria

Post by keks »

To complet the story I present a Picture of a 20 Euro note, shot at somewhat above 20x with a Nikon M Plan 20x ELWD and the stack shot. Depth of field is about 3 um, but the calculated rear step size is about 1.3 mm (DOF*Mag.^2).
Actually I shot 48 pictues with rear step size of 1.0 mm, distance camera to lens from about 210 up to 260 mm. As the distance between camera and lens is changing 48 mm, the effective aperture is changing, thus I shot in aperture priority mode. Another consequence is a change in magnification during the shooting, but obiviously Zerene Stacker does handle that without any problem. The final image after processing in Zerene Stacker has the magnification of the single picture with the highest magnification.

First image of the stack:
Image

Last image of the stack:
Image

Final image:
Image



Ok guys that's it for now, I hope it is intersting and I did the explainations properly (english is not my native language).

Lou Jost
Posts: 5943
Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2015 7:03 am
Location: Ecuador
Contact:

Post by Lou Jost »

Inspiring. Those pipe clamps are fantastic. Can't seem to find them online under that name outside of Europe. Has anyone seen a US source for them?

abpho
Posts: 1524
Joined: Wed Aug 17, 2011 7:11 pm
Location: Earth

Post by abpho »

Nice set up. Love the sugar crystal image.
I'm in Canada! Isn't that weird?

zzffnn
Posts: 1896
Joined: Thu May 22, 2014 1:25 pm
Location: Houston, Texas, USA
Contact:

Post by zzffnn »

abpho wrote:Nice set up. Love the sugar crystal image.
Indeed!
I really like how you can angle your camera.
Selling my Canon FD 200mm F/2.8 lens

Sharks
Posts: 388
Joined: Sun Jun 30, 2013 8:05 am
Location: Turkey

Post by Sharks »

Very good setup :)

dickb
Posts: 342
Joined: Mon Jul 05, 2010 1:54 am

Post by dickb »

Lou Jost wrote:Inspiring. Those pipe clamps are fantastic. Can't seem to find them online under that name outside of Europe. Has anyone seen a US source for them?
I have had a quick look for these clamps, they are called the ParKlamp series from Parker. Searching for the product codes makes things easier:
- R for tube clamp
- A light duty, B double tube, C heavy duty
- materials P for polypropylene, N for nylon, A for aluminium
- a group size number, either 5 or 6 for diameters useful for these applications
- the size in mm
- sometimes an X, not sure, maybe metric screw sizes?


So RAP655X is a light duty polypropylene tube clamp designed for a tube size of 55mm.

Most sources I've found are in Europe, there are some US eBaysellers but I haven't come across a US supplier yet.

nathanm
Posts: 222
Joined: Thu Jun 02, 2016 8:13 pm
Location: Bellevue, WA
Contact:

Post by nathanm »

Very nice set up!
nathanm

Lou Jost
Posts: 5943
Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2015 7:03 am
Location: Ecuador
Contact:

Post by Lou Jost »

Thank you very much for that info.

keks
Posts: 44
Joined: Sun Mar 13, 2011 10:41 am
Location: Austria

Post by keks »

Thx guys:)

For the clamps I have some info that may help to get them: at least in europe they are also sold under the product name Ermeto.

Here another detail of my rig; this is about placing backgrounds, lights, diffusors or the object of interest itself. The profiles used for conctruction of the rigs frame allow clamping stuff onto them. So I have got some aluminium rods, brackets, gooseneck tubes.

Image

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic