Paganel, dobro pozholovat' to the forum! Looks like a solid, innovative setup you've built--thanks for sharing! It's great to learn from other people's approaches. Your use of the Labophot stand to hold lights--in addition to performing the stacking movement--is new to me. My sense is that your ligh...

The CEO's doctoral dissertation is interesting and quite readable, at least so far as I've read. Will have to put it down for a while and do other things. (And if I wait a bit, Rik will likely have already read it and provided an excellent executive summary.)
--Chris

Craig and Chris, thanks for your thoughtful answers. I've spent most of a day thinking about them before replying. A difference may be that I don't want to interact with my camera; rather, I want to interact with my subject. I want the camera to evaporate, leaving me and the subject in as direct a c...

Welcome to the forum, Bruce! I think you are generally on the right track—though the advice so far given strikes me as wise. Your approach is roughly similar to portions of my own rig, the Bratcam . A few questions/observations: Glad to hear you will be going with a flat adapter between your objecti...

Here is a recent discussion that included links to appropriate adapters for mounting your new objective to a camera lens--assuming your objective has the same threading as current Mitutoyo objectives: http://photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13583

(snip)To use manual focus, simply do not press the BACK AF-ON and the camera will not attempt to auto focus when the shutter button is depressed, however, it will meter. I understand this concept. What I don't get is why it isn't easier to keep autofocus turned off and just turn the focus ring on t...

I'm surprised there have not been more responses? When I read your post, Craig, I wondered if you find autofocus workable for macro, or if you were thinking more about other kinds of shooting. In the Nikon world, Thom Hogan has recommended an approach that, iirc, is somewhat similar. I have two of ...

I wonder if the "Better Beamer" telephoto flash attachment (perhaps with some diffusion tuning), would work with either telephoto lens for dragons? Phil, I have a Better Beamer, and find it really useful for shooting birds. However, I'm not sure how necessary or useful it would be for insects. With...

The trick to Ode photography, and for many insects, is NOT to attempt to photograph on a hot sunny day - they are just too active. Try early morning or cool days; above 20C (68F) is too warm. NU’s advice is worth repeating. If you hunt dragons and damsels early on a cool morning, lens choice matter...

The pictured lens looks quite different from the Mitutoyo NIR objectives currently offered at the Edmund Optics Website , from which I snipped the image and spectral transmission graph below. (Current as of June, 2011.) The NIR one has the red tip; the violet tipped one is either UV or NUV. SFEAR, a...

That tutorial is worth a big thumbs-up. Thanks, Phil, for posting the link.

I've played with content-aware fill, but not enough to get comfortable with it. Looks as if it's worth a bit more investment of time.

--Chris

Rik, thanks for your very interesting and informative answer. I'll be re-reading several times. In the meantime, as Papilio users report in, I'd find it interesting if they also note how well stereo images, such as are often posted in the galleries, work for them, as I suspect that there may be para...

Thanks, Phil. Your first-hand experience (and your partner’s) is a help. Prior to purchasing, I’d read this review, which is accompanied by a photo showing a frontal view of the binoculars. By moving the mouse over the photo, one can see how the optics move for close focus. My pair does look like th...

Thanks, Tanner--that set of images really shows the difference between fresh and old specimens. I wonder what goes on when the eyes age, and presumably dry--my first thought is that changes in protein folding occur. Recalling a conversation with a researcher who studies formation of human cataracts,...

My set of the 8.5x ones just arrived. . .and will be returned immediately. Should I try another pair, or are they just not going to work for me? As we know, with binoculars, one adjusts the interpupillary distance until one sees the world as if through a single circle. With the unit I just received,...