I have used both FF and MFT systems, and I don't think it is realistic to rely on pixel-shifting to make up the difference in resolution between FF and MFT. The results of pixel shifting are excellent, but as others have stated above, it takes too long to use as a standard procedure, unless you only...

Thanks for the information, Macro Cosmos.

"Another water immersion objective with some weird housing: eBay item number:263140217445"

Does anyone know what WLSM means on that objective?

Wow, what a strange item. A very interesting find.

Nice test! Many exotic lenses have bigger image circles than we typically use. We should really take advantage of that, like you are doing.

I use several Nikon focusing blocks bought cheaply on eBay, and two of the three are excellent. The third was unacceptable but I could have returned it if I had lived in the US and been able to inspect it on delivery.

Wow - what kind of rail are you using to reach ~250 nm steps? That is closer to linear servo territory.

You can get step sizes almost that size with simple, cheap off-the-shelf microscope focusing block driven by the cheap WeMacro MicroMate.

I think black or white are safe choices, but I also think that other backgrounds are often interesting. But they only work if they are carefully chosen to nicely harmonize or contrast with the subject.

I very much agree with Kevin. The choice of background is almost as important as the choice of subject, and these textured industrial-green backgrounds are unpleasant to look at and distracting from the subjects. Diffusion would greatly improve your pictures. It is one of the most important things w...

One thing many forum members have noticed in the past is that those cone-shaped adapters can cause flare and should be flocked. Additional diffusion would also help, as you noted. But I suspect the main problem here is objective quality. There is no way anyone can make a good 10x 0.25 objective for ...

Aha! Now the negative beta makes sense. The image is inverted.

I want one!!!! That depiction of the light path is crazy. I had no idea things had gotten that complex. projection optics with a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.33 I am a little surprised at the low NA. Some of my own visible-light photolithography lenses have larger NA. For example a 10x 0.38 for 436n...

Such beautiful optical technology.

Great to hear you have this working. I have been doing this as well, and there are some very easy ways to do this for those of us with more limited ambitions. Limited shift adapters exist for MFT, APS, and FF; of course one needs to use a lens with a larger image circle than the sensor size. These a...

Thanks for the info on the 80mm lens, I will have to try mine at those magnifications. I look forward to learning about the QV microscope.