Thanks for sending me the files nielsgeode! Zerene Stacker's speed for a PMax stack with the same set of 200 images 24MP each on different Ryzen CPUs: Ryzen 2700x: 6min16s Ryzen 3900x: 5min42s Ryzen 3950x: 4min54s Tested my CPU, it took 10min10sec to complete a PMax stack (and alignment), and 6:35 i...

For what it's worth: I have tested Zerene Stacker's speed for a PMax stack with the same set of 200 images 24MP each on different Ryzen CPUs: Ryzen 2700x: 6min16s Ryzen 3900x: 5min42s Ryzen 3950x: 4min54s I'm not sure, but I would expect that the contents of the images does not affect rendering tim...

Thank you all very much for taking time to comment! Ok, so a Ryzen 5000X or higher seems like a good choice, I would need to get a new motherboard as well though. But to upgrade my Intel CPU it seems likely I would have to replace the motherboard anyway, since they use different sockets in their ran...

I recently got a camera upgrade at work, going from a Canon 6D to a 5Dsr, doubling the MP from 26 to 51. Understandably the stacking times in ZereneStacker have also increased, to the point where the computer cannot keep up with an automatic PMax stack while the camera shoots a frame every ~4 second...

It's matted hair mixed with soil, perhaps because of the rains - the bees stay in their burrows during bad weather, and these are ground nesting Andrena sp. The mite is probably not parasitic, many bees have symbiotic relationships with Acari, just look up "acarinarium" and you'll see. Andrena does ...

it's an Eumeninae wasp, almost all Ichneumonidae have more than 16 antennal segments

Really nice, I like the lighting a lot, soft but not uninteresting, well done!

I would have no clue about the 3D structure, just from looking at one of the full-stack images. Hmm, but would you have an idea of the general shape of the structures from just the lateral picture? In other words, would you have understood the shapes in the very first image as being how they are sh...

Thanks for everyone's input! It gave me the idea that I can maybe try and shoot the same image with different lighting and exposure, without moving the subject, and then make a composite in PS to visually "distance" the different parts. Will be labour intensive though. Looking at some areas of your ...

and here's a dorsal view, showing how well separated the two structures really are, which does not at all come across in the lateral view:

I have some annoying troubles to get details and shapes to render as "readable" in pictures of bee genitalia (it's for work, don't think I sit around photographing bee genitals for fun, no no, I only do that with cuckoo wasps :oops: ). I've tried different lighting, and experimented with different s...

Nice shots, it is however not a mining bee (in the strict sense, that is the english name for the genus Andrena) although it has evidently mined itself a nest - it is a halictid bee, probably Lasioglossum, or perhaps one of the smaller Halictus species

/A

Nice, the bee is not a bumble one, but likely a species of Andrena
/A

it's a bumble bee, Bombus sp., I would say Bombus hypnorum, was the abdomen tipped with white hairs?

Rich color and detail! Loved #2 Thanks! These are beautiful. If I could make some constructive criticism, though, the eyes are out of focus in nearly every one. It looks like you just barely missed getting them in focus. The eye shaprness is psychologically important; the unsharp eye gives an impre...