Is the background straight out of the camera or composited in?

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Full frame vs. APSC is something that you probably want to think about. Full frame will give you better center sharpness and better low-light performance, but also lower magnification, more vignette, and sometimes lower corner sharpness. If you're thinking about doing super quick stacks with live sp...

This is unrelated to this image but I just spent a half hour looking through your flickr and I want to know: How do you pose your insects? The insects all look very natural and alive in your photos.

Now look what you've done!!

Very cool. I love how the stepper motor is linked to the focus knob. Very well-constructed. How are you controlling the motor?

@rjlittlefield Thank you for the information! I think that it's fascinating that the limiting aperture controls perspective like that. I don't find that very intuitive, to be honest, but it is interesting. Maybe I will look at a ray diagram. The "position of the limiting aperture" refers to the appa...

Simple question. When the front element of the objective is significantly larger than the area covered by the image (as is the case for most Mitutoyo objectives, or the Nikon 50x SLWD), does that mean that the objective is hypercentric? I imagine the "viewing angle" would be negative, pointing in fr...

Also, is there a consensus on whether a forward or reversed raynox is better?

@mawyatt thank you so much that is all very useful.

@harisA I have both Nikon and Mitutoyo objectives and I get similar vignetting with all of them.

Also @Pau I have that Nikon 10x (the one in my profile photo?) and get a vignette.

@JohnyM is the diffraction happening because the effective aperture of the tube lens is so small, or because the effective aperture of the objective is so small?

I'm thinking it is probably worth it to just get a rayonox or similar.

@Pau: I'm using a Canon 6D (full frame) Something else I'm confused about: How do people connect camera body, rayonox, bellows, and objective? Is there some diagram that you know of that has a list of all of the adaptors etc.? That would be very helpful to me. Edit: I think I found what I'm looking ...

I am using a 180mm f3.5 tube lens, and there is a significant sharp vignette with all of my objectives. I may buy another fast telephoto lens soon, but only if I could use it as a tube lens for my microscopy. I understand that the vignette is caused by the small aperture on my tube lens, but how do ...

Bought!