Agreed. The Olympus macro lenses make a nice set, but the 80mm is beatable. It's about half the price of the Rodagon Ds, though, and you get a helicoid. Olympus to Nikon isn't the easiest fit, to arrange. .... The bellows I use is the Canon Auto Bellows FD, so when I purchased the 80OM for the shoo...

Btw, another lens I have in mind and haven't tried yet is the Zuiko 80/4 Auto Macro, not too expensive, I've heard good things about it and perfectly fits my needs. How about this one? I purchased an OM 80/4 bellows lens based on good reviews and it is part of an 80mm shootout that I am (slowly) pu...

I've tested many, many lenses in this mag range and have settled on a few that I use regularly. I say "use regularly" because I occasionally choose others for particular purposes, but not for everyday use, either because they are harder to use (odd mounts, etc) or they are just too expensive and rar...

boomblurt wrote:I have a matched pair of (2nd hand) 40mm OptoSigma goniometers with centre of rotation 35mm above the top - quite smooth and adequate.

Your OptoSigma's are probably the same as my Sigma Koki's. Very nice to work with, and small.

I don't use a StackShot (I use a different stepper system) but I do move the subject instead of the camera. Other than the lighting issue, it seems like moving the smaller mass of the subject rather than the large mass of the camera and lens system seems like an advantage for vibration, settling tim...

Thanks for the link.

The knob arrived yesterday. Will hopefully have time over the weekend to go through install process.

Thanks!

Ray

Thanks g4lab, I had tried DigiKey and Mouser with little luck, but not Newark. They do have a couple options...Ray

I'm having no luck finding small metal knobs for replacing some knobs on several goniometers and XYZ stages which have belt gears. I want to use these stages manually, not with a belt-driven pulley system. I think most of these are 3mm shaft but some may be larger or smaller. Where can I find small ...

I have found that pure axial lighting works well for higher magnifications in keeping a constant illumination when scanning, though it might not give the "look" you are after.

I think it depends on what magnification range you are looking at, or what size objects you plan to scan. The GigaPixel system has a large table so that it can be used at low magnification to scan very large objects such as scrolls, tablets, etc at low magnification. It can of course scan small obje...

The Vivitar system gives you several ways to mount the bellows: - by front fixed rail mount - by front standard - by rear standard - by focus rail (if you have one) I've actually used the bellows in all of these configurations over time. In the setups I build using these bellows, the primary mountin...

Interesting, Ray! Looking just now, it appears that there are different sorts of Vivitar bellows. This one looks mostly good (note the presence of bottom rail): http://www.foundvalue.com/photo/vivitar-bellows-for-35mm-slr-47899 This one looks not so good (note the absence of bottom rail): https://w...

You might consider the Vivitar Bellows. It is T-mount so easy to adapt to Nikon. The accessory focus rail is useful if you want to move both standards together for focusing. The Vivitar is a "tall" bellows with plenty of room for full rotation. It has the advantage over any of the Nikon brand bellow...

Most high mag oculars I've tried were mostly unusable due to the small exit pupil and very short eyepoint. Probably the highest mag ocular I have found with wide field of view and long eyepoint is the 25x AO.

rjlittlefield wrote:

ray_parkhurst wrote:Is 4mm correct? I need to check but I thought it was 3mm?

Definitely check. Would be very interesting if it's different from what's shown at http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... 315#172315.

--Rik

Confirmed, 2.97mm.