Vorticella (with the new Sony A9)

Images made through a microscope. All subject types.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

hkv
Posts: 535
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2013 3:58 pm
Location: Sweden

Vorticella (with the new Sony A9)

Post by hkv »

I have had the opportunity to evaluate the Sony Alpha A9 for microscopy use. The Sony A9 mainly target sports photography which in many aspects are similar to microscopy when chasing a subject to be in focus and keeping it inside the frame. I tried the burst mode with 20fps and captured a moving Vorticella. All but one are single exposures and no stacks. In one occasion, the Vorticella moved through the focus planes and the camera managed to capture it as it glided through the Z-axis. This is the first time I have shot a focus stack where the subject handles the focus adjustments by itself without me moving the objective (!).

I have also included a link to a movie showing the actual capture bursts in action.

https://youtu.be/BGPhCnaCRtY


Here are a selection of the captured images. The last image is a stack of 7 images.

Image
Vorticella by
, on Flickr



Image

Vorticella

Image
Vorticella

ImageVorticella

Image
Vorticella
Last edited by hkv on Fri Oct 06, 2017 2:51 am, edited 2 times in total.
https://www.instagram.com/micromundusphotography
https://www.flickr.com/photos/micromundus
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0UdYN ... YH_litDZjA
Olympus BX51 | Olympus CX23 | Olympus SZ4045 | Carl Zeiss Jena Sedival | Swift FM-31 | Zeiss EVO LS 10

micro_pix
Posts: 469
Joined: Fri May 11, 2012 12:05 pm
Location: Southampton, Hampshire, UK

Post by micro_pix »

Wow! That's very impressive.

Do you use special lighting or is that the standard lighting for the microscope?

Marek Mis
Posts: 2586
Joined: Sat Jul 10, 2010 9:56 am
Location: Suwalki, Poland
Contact:

Post by Marek Mis »

Nice and interesting !

Marek

Beatsy
Posts: 2105
Joined: Fri Jul 05, 2013 3:10 am
Location: Malvern, UK

Post by Beatsy »

Great set! The A9 is pretty special. Stacking on the scope is a breeze if you can get enough light on the subject. Given the dynamic range, brightfield is usually good enough anyway - so light levels aren't a problem. Just fire the A9 at 20fps on full electronic shutter while cranking the fine focus control. Very similar to video stacking but you get 24mp RAW files to stack instead of lower resolution (medium quality) jpgs.

Jacek
Posts: 5357
Joined: Sun Oct 02, 2011 7:00 am
Location: Poland

Post by Jacek »

Wow !

fpelectronica
Posts: 1808
Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2010 3:56 pm
Location: España

Post by fpelectronica »

Very very nice. Very good results.

hkv
Posts: 535
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2013 3:58 pm
Location: Sweden

Post by hkv »

Thanks!

Beatsy, yes the advantage of getting raw images is really great as all of the dynamic range is preserved.
https://www.instagram.com/micromundusphotography
https://www.flickr.com/photos/micromundus
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0UdYN ... YH_litDZjA
Olympus BX51 | Olympus CX23 | Olympus SZ4045 | Carl Zeiss Jena Sedival | Swift FM-31 | Zeiss EVO LS 10

pwnell
Posts: 2029
Joined: Fri Dec 18, 2009 4:59 pm
Location: Tsawwassen, Canada

Post by pwnell »

Really nice. What software are you using to control the A9 if I may ask?

hkv
Posts: 535
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2013 3:58 pm
Location: Sweden

Post by hkv »

micro_pix wrote:Wow! That's very impressive.

Do you use special lighting or is that the standard lighting for the microscope?
micro_pix, sorry, but I missed your question. No, this is no special lightning. Just the normal 100w halogen lamp.
https://www.instagram.com/micromundusphotography
https://www.flickr.com/photos/micromundus
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0UdYN ... YH_litDZjA
Olympus BX51 | Olympus CX23 | Olympus SZ4045 | Carl Zeiss Jena Sedival | Swift FM-31 | Zeiss EVO LS 10

harisA
Posts: 513
Joined: Sun Jul 03, 2011 9:31 am
Location: Greece

Post by harisA »

Excellent images but I 'm very curious to know how the camera is focusing by itself.Are you using an af telephoto lens as tube lens? A photo of your setup will be very explanatory. Also do u use A9 in crop mode?

hkv
Posts: 535
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2013 3:58 pm
Location: Sweden

Post by hkv »

pwnell wrote:Really nice. What software are you using to control the A9 if I may ask?
Waldo, I use Capture One Pro. I find it very good. Perhaps it has evolved the last two years, but the new version is really good. The learning curve is rather steep, but they have excellent webinars which are free. And it is only $50 for Sony cameras. I have made a customised "Session template" that allow me to automatically tag all images with magnification and all other relevant metadata in the EXIF. For every "Session", I name the session with the current date and the sample ID. Then these gets stored in a directory with the same name, E.g. "Royal_Castle_Pond_2017-10-06". Then all images are named like "Sample_Name_Magnification_Sequence_Number" (Royal_Castle_Pond_60X_0001.ARW). The EXIF then tell all the rest, DarkField, DIC, EPI, Immersion method, etc. The keywords are in a custom keyword library that automatically gets loaded during session creation.

Also, I use an external trigger cable, so I do not use the mouse or keyboard to trigger the camera. Capture One is poor in this respect and there is a lag in the key press. Not so much for single images, but for continuous shooting. With a trigger cable the triggering is instant and stops instantly when the button is released. I have a foot pedal trigger to fire when I chase fast moving subjects. Then I can handle the X-Y movement with the right hand and focus with the left hand and I fire the camera with the foot. Images are automatically downloaded by Capture One Pro and stored in the correct place and following my file naming conventions. The camera has a 240 images buffer, so rapid fire is possible and then Capture One can work and catch up (download) in the background. I only use the capture one interface to set shutter speed and ISO and to click on the right metadata button. Normally I set ISO to "Auto" and only decide on shutter speed depending on the subject. This does not work for darkfield and fluo, when I normally need to force a certain ISO. I have buttons for setting the lightning and contrast method used, the objectives series and magnification. That gets into the EXIF automatically. I must say it is a huge improvement in my workflow compared to the Canon EOS utility I used to rely upon.
https://www.instagram.com/micromundusphotography
https://www.flickr.com/photos/micromundus
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0UdYN ... YH_litDZjA
Olympus BX51 | Olympus CX23 | Olympus SZ4045 | Carl Zeiss Jena Sedival | Swift FM-31 | Zeiss EVO LS 10

hkv
Posts: 535
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2013 3:58 pm
Location: Sweden

Post by hkv »

harisA wrote:Excellent images but I 'm very curious to know how the camera is focusing by itself.Are you using an af telephoto lens as tube lens? A photo of your setup will be very explanatory. Also do u use A9 in crop mode?
Hi, no I need to manually focus using my left hand. Xy with right. Fire with foot. No crop, i use the full full-frame sensor area. I use a 2.5x photo eyepiece before projecting on the sensor.
https://www.instagram.com/micromundusphotography
https://www.flickr.com/photos/micromundus
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0UdYN ... YH_litDZjA
Olympus BX51 | Olympus CX23 | Olympus SZ4045 | Carl Zeiss Jena Sedival | Swift FM-31 | Zeiss EVO LS 10

carlos.uruguay
Posts: 5358
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2012 8:05 pm
Location: Uruguay - Montevideo - America del Sur
Contact:

Post by carlos.uruguay »

WOOOOWWW

pwnell
Posts: 2029
Joined: Fri Dec 18, 2009 4:59 pm
Location: Tsawwassen, Canada

Post by pwnell »

hkv wrote:I must say it is a huge improvement in my workflow compared to the Canon EOS utility I used to rely upon.
Thanks for this info. I used to try Capture One Pro too with my A7RII, but the lag, the limited magnification in live view (if I recall correctly) and the horrible support for capturing my comment with the microscope settings in to Exif caused me to abandon ship.

I use DSLR Remote Pro for my Canon system and it is fantastic. Perhaps I'll take another look at C1 Pro, but I sold my Sony gear.

Sumguy01
Posts: 1715
Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2013 11:05 pm
Location: Ketchikan Alaska USA

Post by Sumguy01 »

:smt038 Very nice set.
Thanks for sharing.

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic