By request, my setup

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Pizzazz
Posts: 583
Joined: Thu Nov 28, 2013 7:39 pm

By request, my setup

Post by Pizzazz »

Hi Gang

For some reason, I have been asked to post info about my macro photography setup, so here goes.

I have two major setups or macro workstations. One is used for horizontal work, and the other is for vertical work.

HORIZONTAL WORK
The horizontal station is composed of an optical breadboard and 80/20 hardware, used to contain the lights, camera,
and subject stage. The camera is mounted onto a Nikon PB-6 Bellows, which is attached to a platform controlled by
a ball screw. The Bellows is attached to a Stack Shot base, moving the camera while the subject stage remains still.

The horizontal workstation is presented in the following two views. You can see there are quite a few devices. The camera
mount, an overhead sliding assembly to hold diffusers, reflector cards, etc. The subject stage allows me to control the three-axis;
X, Y, and Z, and Bogen Magic Arms allow me to manipulate the placement of lights, which are small Daylight balanced
LEDs. I also use a Zeiss LFS 200 unit for special fill lighting.



20230602_124247_WEB.jpg

20230602_124236_WEB.jpg


As you can see from the photos, the workstation has a great deal of flexibility.


VERTICAL WORK
The vertical workstation is built around a Kaiser motorized copy stand, specifically, the powered Z-axis. I used to have several
Nikon Multiphots, so I made a custom aluminum dovetail column to attach several components from my Multiphot, specifically
the camera mount, bellows, and shutter assembly. All of these allow me to use my Nikon D850, which is the F-mount camera
and predecessor to the Z series, which uses a completely different lens mount.

As with the horizontal workstation, I use Bogen Magic Arms to hold the light source, which is the same as described above. Again,
I have a Zeis LFS 200 for special fill operations.

The subject stage in the vertical workstation is what the stack shot controls. The camera remains fixed.

Both workstations are separately configured. In other words, I do not have to move support hardware from one to another; I
simply move the camera, so there are some duplicated items, but that saves a lot of time for switching from one to another.

The next three photos show the vertical setup with close-ups of the camera mount from the Multiphot, and the Navitar zoom lens.
In the second shot, you can see the small plastic lid that contains the Polyphemus eggs I recently posted.

20230602_124754_WEB.jpg


20230602_125245_WEB.jpg


20230602_125309_WEB.jpg



Optics

I have Mitutoyo 2x, 5x, 7.5x, 10x, and 20x objectives. I use Edmund Optics hardware to attach the Mitutoyos to the Nikon
Bellows and Multiphot column. This includes the 200mm conversion lens hardware with the capability to drop in filters. I have
all of the Nikon Multiphot lenses and several Navitar macro zoom lenses that are used for machine vision.

I recently obtained some Tominon lenses that were used for the Polaroid land camera, and they are 17mm, 35mm, and 75mm.
I have these on adapters so I can place them natively on both workstations.

For newbies, like I used to be, the growth and maturity in the macro photo world take time. I used to use photographic strobes and
large light boxes for my macro work. I have had many people on this forum provide terrific feedback and reading and observing other
posts has educated me and helped drive my desire to create a good working environment. I am sure my setup could use other tweaks,
however for now, they allow me to get pretty good results from a mechanical aspect.

I appreciate all of the feedback and pointers that this forum has provided me and I hope to continue to grow and share my work with
so many talented members!


Mike

Scarodactyl
Posts: 1617
Joined: Sat Apr 14, 2018 10:26 am

Re: By request, my setup

Post by Scarodactyl »

Thanks for sharing these! Those are a couple of very impressive setups. There'a nothing quite like getting everything customized for your needs and a full suite of lenses.

Marcepstein
Posts: 293
Joined: Thu Oct 13, 2022 8:39 pm
Location: USA
Contact:

Re: By request, my setup

Post by Marcepstein »

Bogen Magic Arms allow me to manipulate the placement of lights, which are small Daylight balanced
LEDs
Which make/model led lights do you use? The setup looks very detailed.

Adalbert
Posts: 2425
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 1:09 pm

Re: By request, my setup

Post by Adalbert »

Hello Mike,

great thing, I like it very much!

Unfortunately I do not have so much space available
and my setup has to be as small as possible, 30*30*60cm :-(
But I use the lenses from Mitutoyo and Nikon too :-)

Best, ADi

physicsmajor
Posts: 108
Joined: Sun May 10, 2020 12:56 pm

Re: By request, my setup

Post by physicsmajor »

Marcepstein wrote:
Mon Jun 05, 2023 4:49 am
Which make/model led lights do you use? The setup looks very detailed.
From the first image, the square lights appear to be Godox LED64 units. Claimed 1000+ Lux at 0.5 meters is quite good for the size; the bicolor temp adjustment range is limited to the cooler side of the spectrum though (5500k - 6500k). They make a similar size light with a larger bicolor adjustment range but it's about 1/3 the light output (the LED6Bi). Price on the LED64 is great.

I've looked at these before but what turned me off was they don't cite the CRI. Godox does on many other LED panels, so omitting it here feels suspect. I'd be interested in the original poster's (and anyone else who has experience with these) experience related to color rendering. They are reviewed pretty well, and most video lights get junk reviews if the color is bad, so perhaps it's an oversight... I just assume the worst when that key stat is missing.

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