Lovely images! Unusual approach, but it seems to work well for you.

Saul, This particular dome was half of a clear plastic Christmas ball "ornament" purchased from Michaels (hobby arts and crafts). It come in two sections so people can fill it with their own decorations. Here I have very slightly spray painted the inside surface with a matte white paint. (Very light...

Some cameras allow you to choose an "exposure simulation" mode for electronic viewing instead of always trying to show the scene as it would look if "properly" exposed. Apparently this is not a choice on the G6, but there seems to be some type of "work-around". See this thread: https://www.dpreview....

Rik and Pau and others have done a yeoman's job in explaining the problem. Their advice is sound IMO, and it is an "alignment" issue. I'll add a few other thoughts based on some things you said. I used this same combination several days ago for an afocal video shoot and there was no vignetting at al...

Volvox in darkfield is hard to beat! Soothing to watch.

Lacrymaria "hunting" is fascinating in the opposite way... bizarre, nasty, aggressively predacious. If I was shrunk down to protist size they would be terrifying!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZquzlvEEZq8

Very nice photos ! Can you share technical details/technique ? I used a white plastic dome with some LED lights I made (not the Ikea light seen in the picture. The Ikeas are great, but for me not enough light output when using a 50/0.50 objective when heavily diffused): http://www.krebsmicro.com/fo...

If you have easy access to a salt water area you should be able to find plenty of things worth looking at through a microscope. For "free-floating" plankton you should consider a small plankton net. Larger high end ones can get quite expensive, but small ones (5-8 inches top ring) can readily be use...

Saul wrote:Mother-of-pearl ?

Yes! In this case the interior surface of an abalone shell.

Buprestidae?

I thought of jewel beetles often when photographing this. Similar lines and (in some places) colors. But that's not it.

Something all of us have likely seen, handled and admired... but not at these magnifications.

I was going to label this as to the subject, but then wondered how obvious or obscure it is. So I'll post it as a "quiz" but expect a very quick correct ID. :wink: Top two 50X, last three 20X. http://www.krebsmicro.com/forumpix/abalone5.jpg http://www.krebsmicro.com/forumpix/abalone4.jpg http://www....

Very nice specimen, and very nicely photographed!

Wow... these are certainly nice for "first test pictures"!

Look forward to seeing many more.

Really nice!

The "depth" from oblique in 3 and 4 looks great.

I spread out my box of small shells and looked over them with one of the UV flashlights we have discussed on the forum. Some show quite beautiful fluorescence. The ones that interest me most are the shells that don't look colorful at all under normal light, but really come to life under UV. The top ...

Look great. That third one is awesome!