System Question Stacking, Vibration from Shutter and Mirror

rf-design · Post by **rf-design** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 2:29 am

I got infected by macrophotography after I rediscover shooting by digital. After 2 years with a Ricoh R1V I had wonderful 3 years with relative bulky Fuji S9500 everyday, everywhere camera. It nearly has everything what I needed to take only one with me. The 1cm focus attract me more and more, natural and all day objects. To extend the range I bought a raynox DCR-250 and a MSN-202. The shutter of the Fuji S9500 is very silent and have no noticeable vibration. That helps also in other shooting situations. Now I own a used Fuji S100 because I discover the the S9500 have lower resolution in the upper left than in the lower right. Happen sometimes a year ago. And as a replacement I dislike the S200, no folding screen.

Today I want to do macrophotography more serious. I will start with stacking. I bougth a used Sigma SD14, cheap and mirror lockup, and with a 50mm 1:1, a M42 bellow with 3 screws form Pentax is on the way and I have a Rodagon 50mm and 105mm from my old analog 35mm and MF days. I made the first outside shoots with the 50mm macro and the Raynox set. The focus range is much better to control with the 50mm macro and the raynox.

Now the question is what is the effect of using the mirror lockup for stacking? Does it make sense because I could fear more the displacements from the changing focus? Do the silent shutter from the fuji have any advantage. Furtheron the finder of the SD14 is not easy to work with near the floor outside. Is it better to use a DSLR with liveview w/o mirror lockup?

Yesterday I have seen some stuff coming from Ricoh. Is that the best approach for all difficulities?

AndrewC · Post by **AndrewC** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 3:56 pm

So where did you see / get that photo ? I was intrigued by the GXR when it first came out but I've never seen its sensor hooked to a bellows before.

to answer, your question - Mirror lock up can make a huge difference but there are ways around it. Briefly - either use a long exposure or use flash with rear curtain sync if you have it. Search the forums for

mirror and up and lock

and you'll find a lot of info.

Andrew

Edit: found it - CP+ photographic trade show:

http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news ... 53988.html

PaulFurman · Post by **PaulFurman** » Sun Mar 21, 2010 1:37 pm

Those photos confuse me, the Ricoh has different sensor+lens modules but it looks like the module has been taken off the camera and put in another box, but it's still got the lens attached so why bother? Here's a translation of that Japanese link.

It seems the micro 4/3 cameras are more ideal for macro stacking with microscope objectives. If you are doing deep stacks, the mirror/shutter mechanism on a DSLR will wear out and it serves no purpose with live view for this application.

AndrewC · Post by **AndrewC** » Sun Mar 21, 2010 2:03 pm

The GXR concept is that lens and sensor are a single unit.

Micro 4/3 for stacking - exactly, the mirror is a waste of space, and actually so is pretty much everything else you pay for in a normal camera (autofocus, autoexposure, scene selections, etc, etc) ! Anyday now I'm sure that there is going to be an affordable high quality USB scope camera that will be ideal for us. Like the Paxcam http://www.paxcam.com/ - except that I can't find a price for one anywhere !

Andrew