the reason i want to put the microscope objective on a ZOOM Lens it seams its more flexible on adjusting distance
on a fixed lens=non zoom the only option i get when using a raynox lens adapter is stack them, i have 3 raynox
so the distance on lets say short maybe 1/2 inch from the lens then maybe go 3 inches from the lens to maybe 6 inches since i can stack the raynox,
then i herd more glass you add in front of the lens it wont look as good, so far on the raynox it ALL looks good.
pretty much any thing you touch besides shutter speed is a trade off if you adjust F Stop to much then you have to adjust some thing else to compensate by adjusting some thing else again.
then for the ZOOM every thing i herd was you need it at the fullest zoom if you want the best of the best, far as i can see if you adjust the zoom for distance to compensate is you have to change the stepping per images for stacking.
with raynox plus zoom im not stuck at 6 inches at the max. here is one i did with the zoom lens i posted with raynox DCR -150 at 24 inches away, adjusting zoom and focus to match is a bit tricky.
(Link is FULL SIZE And the wheat plant is 8 inches tall)
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/512 ... b45_4k.jpg
its magnifying pretty good to capture the dirt spec on the color paper in the background.
or do i have a dirty monitor screen
tip of the day, a out of focus backround at a further distance from the object = blur = no dirt spec's
second tip of the day if that dont work get some windex glass cleaner and clean your screen monitar.
i used fuji xt-3 focus stacking in camera BKT but i did my different then most people do like turn the focus ring all the way to the (left) then move the object to the
nearest point using focus peaking to final adjust with the focus ring or use a slide macro rail to move it.
but that way some time it does not know when to stop taking images specialy if you have more then one object near each other( there is other ways to force it to stop but what i do is turn my focus ring all the way to the (right) then move the object to the
furthest to it gets out of focus
THEN i move the focus ring back to the (left) a tad after it gets out of focus so that way you know where is starts and you know when it stops taking pictures.
common mistake of getting diffrent result is people dont know where the focus ring is set at on camera there is a display metering option in camera to see this so if your new make sure its all the way to the LEFT
because if its lets say in the middle and you dont know, its going to take less images and if the focus meter is all most to the right and you take BKT shoots it may only take 3 or 4 images and you wont know why.
so set it all the way to the left so it can take all the images to it reaches all the way to the right. it may stop before it reaches all the way to the right if it does not find any objects in focus.
the fuji xt-3 you can trick it to stop but the fuji xt-4 has a option to mark the stop and end so no need to use this method i posted on the xt-4.
this may seem a little long or to much info so ill see if i can shorten this up. there is 2 ways you can do this and each way is all most the opposite of how you do it.
first method.
turn on your focus metering so you can see mine set to CM centimeters now move focus ring to the far
left,
move the macro rail all the way
back until it stops towards you then turn the knob 1 full turn
forwards this will now give you some adjustment to move forward and backwards
NOW move your object in range by hand so it starts peaking to the nearest point now use only the macro rail adjustment knob to adjust the peaking NOT the focus ring.
second method.
turn on your focus metering so you can see mine set to CM centimeters now move focus ring to the far
right,
move the macro rail all the way
front until it stops then turn the knob 1 full turn
backwards this will now give you some adjustment to move forward and backwards,
NOW move your object in range by hand so it starts peaking to the
furthest point
you will need 1 extra step in this method once your done adjusting you will need to move the focus ring back to the left so it starts to peak then gets a tad out of focus.
now for the fun part, no one can give you the best setting in f-stops or stepping unless there using the same lens and camera, every thing has to be the same or it wont work.
so how do you find the best setting is by taking a bunch of stack shot and comparing.
keep in mind the F-Stop and stepping shots need to be adjusted if you touch one you will have to adjust the other to compensate.
after testing using Helicon Focus i find 50 images it works well soooooooooooo if F-Stop 20 is only producing 40 images i can either change the f-stop and it will make more images
or change the stepping, just look at your camera on xt-3 and look when it stop taking images, find the sweet spot about 50 images,
or vice versa if the stepping to taking to many shots or to little change your f-stop.
so after lets say taking 10 stack at different setting at the same object your going to have folder full of the same images and may not know when each sets start and end,
now for the drum roll dont worry Helicon Focus 7 has a option to load all them images from that folder and splits the stack when each sets is took-en
it knows when each set starts then stops if there is a (time) pause in each set.
you will load the folder like this,
in Helicon Focus 7
file>Batch procces(F7)Add folder then the triangle on the far top right> split stack. there website does have a video on this.
the BEST thing i ever came across saves me tons of time
video>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INSo3Kitey4
works for fuji xt-3
im doing a average of maybe 2000 image test shots at 20 stacks in miniutes
and im sure it will work if your using automactic focus rail software.
Helicon Focus renders the images so just because you think more images the better may not work good as you think
when you can shorten it to get the same results of maybe better results in half the images,
i try and not to aim to high in images or to low, i aim for the middle which make it less some thing will mess up or not look so good.
for the lens i use i know 50 images is my sweet spot and once you get the hang of it changiing the stepping or f-stop to produce about 50 images,
there is other factors all so on tiny object and middle size object and large object the stepping and f-stop will play a key roll in it.
once you get the hang of it you understand it and it will all make since, you will know once you get there.
just dont read what others are doing and think thats the only way.
if you want good results you got to understand it rather then just chosing a setting and shooting.
others can give you the basic setting but its up to you to get the best settings for best results.
did i just blab on for about hour? sorry just hard to explain in text it takes the long way,
oh well maybe when i get time i can do a video tutorial so it dont take long as it sounds and more understanding