Question Macrophotography setup Nikon —> mitutoyo m plan

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Lopka
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Question Macrophotography setup Nikon —> mitutoyo m plan

Post by Lopka »

Hello folks, the first from all as a new member i wanna say hello to you all :)

Iam turning to you with the question as i would like to start with macro photoshoting and want to ask you guyz what hardware i should consider to get.
My idea is making pics of plant details, as a pollen grains, pistils, trichromes etc, so iam thinking about set:

Lens Nikkor 70-200 f2,8 Ed VR2 (i already have) —> adapter m32-m77 —> Mituyoto m plan apo 10x and 20x
Will that works?

Than propably i will need some macro rails with fine tuning, specimen mounting and lights. Shoots will be perfomed with black background.
What would you suggest to look for?

Please correct me if my idea is wrong and what should i be aware of. Any of your advices are very welcome.

Thank you and have a great day!

Macro_Cosmos
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Post by Macro_Cosmos »

I suggest the Raynox DCR150 as a tube lens, better than that zoom you have.

As for mounting and stuff, it depends on what you want to achieve. Anything from a heavy cutting board+drill to a scientific grade honeycomb optical table will do the job.

You can begin with this however: https://www.wemacro.com/?product=vertical-stand
This allows both vertical and horizontal mounting, and it's cheap, it works.
I will personally replace the cheap rubber feet they include with this: https://www.thorlabs.com/thorproduct.cfm?partnumber=AV6
The 4 threaded mounting holes on the stand are 3/8'' types, they can be easily converted to 1/4-20 via a $1 adapter:
Oh look, 5 for $1, cheaper than dirt...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-4-to-3-8-Con ... ctupt=true


For these precision items you mentioned, always look on ebay and BMI Surplus first. Often or not, you can find deals. Two good brands are Thorlabs and Newport. I personally have some goniometer and translation stages for sale at a very cheap price. Used and new: http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... hp?t=37567

I personally recommend Thorlabs stuff because of their customer service. They sent me replacement components for things I bought off ebay, something they aren't required to do at all. My experience with Newport is rather horrible when it comes to customer support, I can get into the story if anyone is really interested...

Last thing to watch out for is imperial VS metric. I use both for my setup, it sometimes gets frustrating, I recommend sticking to one if you can.

Lopka
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Location: Kobenhavn

Post by Lopka »

Thank you for response. Just few questions regarding your advice.
Macro_Cosmos wrote:I suggest the Raynox DCR150 as a tube lens, better than that zoom you have.
I can see this one is not what Iam looking for. I would like to have bigger magnificationas the trichromes are about 25microns in diameter. This is why iam thinking about Mitutoyo 10x and also 20x
Macro_Cosmos wrote:As for mounting and stuff, it depends on what you want to achieve. Anything from a heavy cutting board+drill to a scientific grade honeycomb optical table will do the job.

You can begin with this however: https://www.wemacro.com/?product=vertical-stand
This allows both vertical and horizontal mounting, and it's cheap, it works.
As Iam thinking about focus stacking pictures, what is your opinion about these motorized rails? 1-2 microns minimum per step. Iam expecting this is carrying the camera and the specimen is mounted and illuminated staticaly on some holder - here might be nice to have a possibility to move the sample in X and Y axis to create larger area photos.
Something like this for focus stacking rails might be interesting: http://www.mjkzz.com/product-page/preci ... controller OR https://www.wemacro.com/?product=wemacro-rail
Macro_Cosmos wrote:Last thing to watch out for is imperial VS metric. I use both for my setup, it sometimes gets frustrating, I recommend sticking to one if you can.
Here I would stay with metric system as Iam based in EU :)

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Lopka wrote:
Macro_Cosmos wrote:I suggest the Raynox DCR150 as a tube lens, better than that zoom you have.
I can see this one is not what Iam looking for. I would like to have bigger magnificationas the trichromes are about 25microns in diameter. This is why iam thinking about Mitutoyo 10x and also 20x
I think you misunderstood what Macro_Cosmos suggested.

Macro_Cosmos is not suggesting to use the Raynox DCR-150 as a closeup lens, for example in front of your telephoto.

Instead he means to use the Raynox as a tube lens, behind an objective, for example as shown at http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... hp?t=35350 .

Your choices of the Mitutoyo 10X and 20X are excellent, and the Raynox DCR-150 works very well as a tube lens with them. The Raynox has no issues with vignetting, and the corners are sharp, even on full frame. Most telephoto lenses will vignette when used as tube lenses on full frame.

--Rik

Macro_Cosmos
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Post by Macro_Cosmos »

Lopka wrote: I can see this one is not what Iam looking for. I would like to have bigger magnificationas the trichromes are about 25microns in diameter. This is why iam thinking about Mitutoyo 10x and also 20x
Yeah, if you're intending to use it as an ordinary add-on lens, then it's not what you want. I'm actually talking about using the Raynox DCR150 as a
tube lens instead of the 70-200 you have. It is by far the cheapest, most versatile, and overall near best for such applications. I personally use an ITL200 from thorlabs, however I wouldn't recommend it. The entire setup is extremely costly, the extra high three digits of cash isn't worth the tiny amount of improvement.

Lopka wrote: As Iam thinking about focus stacking pictures, what is your opinion about these motorized rails? 1-2 microns minimum per step. Iam expecting this is carrying the camera and the specimen is mounted and illuminated staticaly on some holder - here might be nice to have a possibility to move the sample in X and Y axis to create larger area photos.
Something like this for focus stacking rails might be interesting: http://www.mjkzz.com/product-page/preci ... controller OR https://www.wemacro.com/?product=wemacro-rail
I have both the Wemacro and the Stackshot rail: https://www.cognisys-inc.com/products/s ... ckshot.php
No experience with the MJKZZ rail. I also have a manual stacking setup, which I will always recommend if one has the time. I'd rather do other stuff, hence I went with automation.
If you want me to comment on the Stackshot and Wemacro, both are great. The stackshot has a far better controller box user interface, however the Wemacro offers smartphone bluetooth options. Spec-wise, they are similar. Wemacro claims a 1um and Stackshot claims 2um, both however are fine with 1um. Stackshot offers a high precision mode and their Stackshot 3x allows 3 motorised devices instead of 1, which I use. Wemacro is a lot cheaper though.

Lopka wrote:Here I would stay with metric system as Iam based in EU :)

Not always economically feasible. I recommend sticking to one of the two, but surplus items won't cater to this. Going with both is fine as long as you have suitable adapters, thorlabs offers a lot: https://www.thorlabs.com/newgrouppage9. ... up_id=1745
I have some of these, along with other branded adapters. The two can be mixed, 25mm is approximately 2 inches. An imperial stage can be mounted onto a metric breadboard and vice versa, it's just going to leave some screw scratches since 25mm isn't exactly 2 inches.

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Macro_Cosmos wrote:
Lopka wrote:Here I would stay with metric system as Iam based in EU :)

Not always economically feasible. I recommend sticking to one of the two, but surplus items won't cater to this. Going with both is fine as long as you have suitable adapters, thorlabs offers a lot: https://www.thorlabs.com/newgrouppage9. ... up_id=1745
I have some of these, along with other branded adapters. The two can be mixed, 25mm is approximately 2 inches. An imperial stage can be mounted onto a metric breadboard and vice versa, it's just going to leave some screw scratches since 25mm isn't exactly 2 inches.
I agree, but can't resist pointing out that 25 mm is a lot closer to 1 inch than it is to 2. :wink:

Ahh, the trials of unit conversions and typos! :)

--Rik

Lopka
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Joined: Wed Oct 17, 2018 1:02 am
Location: Kobenhavn

Post by Lopka »

rjlittlefield wrote: Instead he means to use the Raynox as a tube lens, behind an objective, for example as shown at http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... hp?t=35350 .
Thanks a lot for good tip, the macro extension you mention in the link is really nice solution once you have couple of adaptors lying around. I would think to get hand on https://www.wemacro.com/?product=raynox ... -tube-lens or similar tube and RAYNOX DCR150 reversed to Mitutoyo.
Macro_Cosmos wrote:Yeah, if you're intending to use it as an ordinary add-on lens, then it's not what you want. I'm actually talking about using the Raynox DCR150 as a
tube lens instead of the 70-200 you have. It is by far the cheapest, most versatile, and overall near best for such applications. I personally use an ITL200 from thorlabs, however I wouldn't recommend it. The entire setup is extremely costly, the extra high three digits of cash isn't worth the tiny amount of improvement.
Thank you for valuable advices. I will also triple-check the equipement to be set in metric ikf possible, otherwise will check the Thorlabs.

What would you suggest as a specimen holder in case I want to make high resolution pictures? Iam thinking something with the XY axis with very precise movement and be able to make multiple pictures which will be possible connect together.
Is it the camera or specimen which should be moved in XY axis? Iam in doubt about the light source angel changes which may be problem for blending the pictures together.

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