Stackshot vs. Camera - Optimal settings

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fabelfroh
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Oct 16, 2014 5:12 am

Stackshot vs. Camera - Optimal settings

Post by fabelfroh »

Dear all,

I'm doing some reproduction photography of tiny mosses and I'm using Stackshot and a Canon EOS RP with Laowa 2.5-5x Macro Lens.

In order to optimally document the properties, plants are moistened a little.

I usually make between 30 and 50 images in a stack. With my Stackshot settings (see below), this brings me to about 3-4 minutes per stack.

However, when making the photos in the sequence I can literally see the plants drying out and moving. So, I need to speed-up the whole process of making photos...

But what are the optimal StackShot settings for my camera? Any recommendations?

I previously had these settings to work very reliable:
Tsettle: 1.6sec
Toff: 1.6sec
Speed: 3000 st/sec
Tlapse: off
Tpulse: 330.0 ms
Tramp: 400.0 ms
Units: steps
Torque: 6
Hi Precision: off

I tried out many settings and ended up with these settings to be the fastest possible for my setup:
Tsettle: 1sec
Toff: 400 ms
Speed: 3000 st/sec
Tlapse: off
Tpulse: 425 ms
Tramp: 455 ms
Units: steps
Torque: 6
Hi Precision: off

However, as you can see I need to increase the Tpulse, otherwise the camera would sometimes not take a photo. At the beginning, the camera also always takes a photo twice and misses the first in the stack.

How do I optimize the settings to work as fastest as possible for my camera? Obviously, my camera has some kind of shutter lag and does not take any photos for X seconds after the last shot. I have a Sandisk Extreme 175 MB/s card inside which should be fast enough? Maybe you have a similar camera and can report your settings here?

Thanks and all the best wishes

Macro_Cosmos
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Post by Macro_Cosmos »

What's your lighting? I'd think flashlights will decrease the shutterspeed which can make the stack a lot faster.

I'd personally think of ways to keep the plants moist. Maybe make the shooting environment more humid. Not sure if I'm being ignorant here, but there must to be ways to make the droplets evaporate slower.

Or... you can always use glycerin. Not sure if your subject allows that.

More information would help!

fabelfroh
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Oct 16, 2014 5:12 am

Post by fabelfroh »

I use a LED ring lite which is specific to the Laowa lens. I usually have shutter speeds around 1/40s - 1/60s and have the camera configured in M mode to avoid any changes in camera settings.

Unfortunately, the use of Glycerin or any other invasive chemicals/materials is not allowed.

The drying of the plants usually occurs at the end of the stack, so accelerating the process of taking photos to less than 1,5 - 2 min would be enough in most cases.

The camera is much faster when doing shots per hand. It also has a considerable buffering which led me to the conclusion that it "just" needs some optimization of Stackshot parameters.

JKT
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Location: Finland
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Post by JKT »

I don't have optimal result for you, but I have had similar issues with the RP. The settings I had to use in order to eliminate missing shots made the mirrorless actually slower than 7D.

Lou Jost
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Post by Lou Jost »

I have the same problem with delicate bryophytes and micro-orchids. One approach is to put the plant under water. This gives you as much time as you want. Another approach is to make a glass cell with a piece of wet paper in it, with a coverslip roof, and put the moss in it. This gives a little more time than an exposed moss.

Also, fast cards do help.

Ichthyophthirius
Posts: 1152
Joined: Thu Mar 07, 2013 5:24 am

Post by Ichthyophthirius »

Hi,

You can take a 4K video within a few seconds and stack from extracted frames. This compromises on image quality but it should speed up the process.

Regards, Ichty

fabelfroh
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Oct 16, 2014 5:12 am

Post by fabelfroh »

Thank you for the responses. I will try them out. Seems that the camera is really slow when compared to other models.

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