Re: fuzziness around fine suspended structures like these hairlike projections While it won't remove this effect completely (as noted it's due to the optical system), the best method I have found to minimize this is using slabbing leveraging Zerene's PMax algorithm. The PMax algorithm tends to creat...

As an interesting aside/continuation - depending on your subject, in particular if it is in part translucent, you may have to deal with these stacking artifacts even if your optical system is perfect. They'll appear from details behind or included in the translucent material; that translucent materi...

If another appears in a Nikon mount like that one you linked, I'd take a shot at it.

This adapter is intriguing, Ken Rockwell obviously only tested it for normal photography but with 6.5 mm travel of motorized helicoid under the electronic command of the camera it seems like there would be potential for this to be an all-in-one focus stacking solution into the approximate 2-10x rang...

Very nice, I really like stereo views into inclusions and transparent crystal surfaces!

These inclusions are most likely rutile (titanium dioxide). To the naked eye they look like golden needles, but all the lovely crystal texture along the spike is revealed in high mag.

Parfocality is going to be your main limiting factor, most of the usual suspects either aren't zooms, don't perform anywhere close to worth considering, or aren't parfocal. You have a few usual suspects in terms of industrial inspection zooms at hand it sounds like. Other fancy industrial line-scan ...

I have a Minolta 5400 and the 7-element Scanner-Nikkor, which in their appropriate ranges I believe do resolve at this level. I also have a Mity 5x and 10x with CH-200 tube lens, which I believe also resolve at this level, though unsure if Mitutoyo lenses fill a full frame sensor. Within the Nikon s...

The high-end Canon DSLRs are currently incredibly aggressively discounted. Canon has disclosed their intention to shift focus to mirrorless and their new R-series bodies and lenses seem to lead the pack. That has led to the most aggressive discounts I have ever seen on actual top-end equipment: the ...

In the interest of full disclosure, I generally run my images through Perfectly Clear 3.5. However, I strive to use this for whole-image correction closer to actual color/what I see through the viewfinder rather than to apply something like an Instagram filter. I do not change the color balance. Thi...

Thumbnail size specimen of Wulfenite on Mimetite from the Rowley mine, Maricopa county, AZ . A few chips and broken corners but the overall specimen is quite nice. wulfenite_mimetite00_pmax_of_pmax_reduced.jpg After Robert's recent article where he found the Scanner-Nikkor ED 7 element lens did quit...

I ordered a couple of these diodes and heatsinks/mounts. I'm going to experiment with 3D printing a mount for the heatsink, as well as just directly 3D printing a mount for the diode for Nikon.

If successful I'll post the STL files.

I manually swapped because in the preview view, this looked incorrect. Then on revision I opened the incorrect version and manually swapped it again, resulting in the same output (with a bit of cropping on the edges to remove the lines from stereo artifacts). This is the actually corrected version. ...

It's come to my attention the stereo pair from the first 10x image is likely swapped; see if this works better.

Yoweh boulder opal in ironstone matrix, SW Queensland, Australia. This small specimen is presented along its natural cleavage face (irregular, no polish) showing significant multicolored fire throughout dark gray translucent opal in the shattered orange/brown host rock. 2.7x magnification with Minol...

Long story short, bigger sensor isn't necessarily better when it comes to photomacrography. You've got the same body I do one generation newer (I currently use the D7000) and while a bit more resolution might be nice, the truth is I'm getting excellent results. I'm planning to shoot the shutter out ...