Macro-photography

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

I use Pentax DSLR's with a Sigma EX 50-2.8 (1:1) and a Tamron 90-2.8 (1:1) usually manual focus. The 50 gets used for most of my album photos hand held. I also have a Samsung compact with a useful macro feature, its only shortcoming is not having a viewfinder. I used to have a Cosina 100-3.5 manual focus macro lens (1:2 plus additional lens for 1:1). It goes by the nickname "plastic fantastic" the build is very plasticky but optically wonderful.

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

doubled up posting as usual

Edited By old mart on 15/05/2020 16:27:37

[Oily RagParticipant @oilyrag]

Some really stunning pictures above.

I use photographs regularly to illustrate points in reports – one of the necessities of good photographs is the lighting (and of course the focusing!). I take my photographs these days with my iPhone – sorry to all the photo geeks here but it is always available (in my back pocket).

Below are some photographs taken of a dry sump pump from a race car engine which was losing oil pressure at high rpm. The analysis showed the pump was cavitating and the result was loss of pressure and damage to the big end bearing shells. The cavitaion damage is visible on the gear tooth crests and on the tooth flanks, the spalling caused the scoring damage to the housing.

The final photo shows an in cylinder pressure transducer sleeve which inserts into the combustion chamber of a race engine to measure cylinder cycle pressure, this is used to optimise the engine characteristics (cam, ignition and injection timing as well as intake volumes/runner lengths and exhaust manifolding) The end is 3mm dia with 3 holes drilled in at an angle, the holes are 1.1mm dia. The sensor sits inside this sleeve and is screwed into the base (internally) by a 5mm thread.

Always good to take photos as a record of work done.

Finally the in cylinder pressure sleeve:-

And the damaged bearings:-

 

Edited By Oily Rag on 15/05/2020 18:29:23

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Nicholas Farr on 15/05/2020 14:46:56:

[…]

I can actually count all those little blighters now.

.

Nice one, Nick

Welcome to the world of the very small

… Your journey starts here !!

MichaelG.

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

Video at the botom of the page if you want extreme macro imaging. You just can't get the detail with photons.

**LINK**

regards Martin

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi MichaelG, thanks for your comment. I have actually used this method years ago, not my idea I hasten to add, I just read it in some book or magazine, can't remember which. But of course them days you had to wait until you got the prints back before you knew if it was a real success.

Regards Nick.

[Rod ClemettParticipant @rodclemett60985]

Those of you with more than a passing interest in fine optics, look away now!

More and more I find myself reaching for my smartphone's camera in the workshop, both as an aid to see detail my eyes will no longer resolve, or simply as a record of anything interesting (to me!). I wouldn't class these snaps as "photography", but I was pleasantly suprised by the capability of a device I carry in my pocket.

Clem

 

 

These are uncropped images from a Samsung Galaxy S8. The last one is/was M8 thread in a gearbox casing:-

Edited By Rod Clemett on 16/05/2020 00:13:52

Edited By Rod Clemett on 16/05/2020 00:15:15

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

The performance of the cameras in modern ‘phones continues to astonish me, Rod … and your photos are amazing.

Just think what they were like, only a few years ago !!

MichaelG.

[DanielParticipant @daniel]

Brilliant idea for a thread.

I do agree with Michael G. that modern phone cameras are quite amazing.

I still don't have one, though. It would mean that I would probably part with

my trusty Nikon D90. The lens I use is the Nikkor 105mm Macro.

I'm no expert, but I do enjoy close up photography.

ATB,

Daniel

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Great stuff, Daniel … and that 105mm will give you much more working distance, and better ‘handling’ than my 55 [which is best used for static subjects]

MichaelG.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, talking about phone cameras, a while ago now I bought this out of Tesco's which was one of their clearance items, for about £3.00.

Gave it a try with my smart phone camera this morning with the sixpence in the photo above with the macro lens, while it gets in pretty close, you can see a little distortion and lighting starts to get a problem, also depth of field is shallow, but overall, not bad for a cheapy and could be used for practical purposes rather than high class photos.

Regards Nick.

[mark smith 20Participant @marksmith20]

Another Nikon Nikkor 105 user here but with the nikon D70.

[Raphael GolezParticipant @raphaelgolez]

Oily Rag, Thanks for sharing your close up shots. Cavitation is interesting, the tiny bubbles formed is a force to reckon with. Difficult to imagine those bubbles can cause significant damage to metals.

Thanks for the link Martin. Very interesting.

Nick that's brilliant. I too am amazed at the capabilities of this phone camera nowadays. I remember one of my dermatologist colleague taking close up pictures of skin lesions with this add on lens to his work iPad and thought that's clever and very good image capture. I might look into that. We can all include close up photos of all camera phones here too.

Hi Daniel, lovely composition there of this tiny insects. Love that tiny bee hovering in front of that flower! Don't part with your D90 (I have one also) the crop sensor plus your 105mm will give it a longer reach. Try getting extension tubes or a teleconverter. Did you use any flash on this?

Michael, that 55mm you've got is an amazing lens in my opinion. Wanted to get one also.

Mark, nice macro. D70 is very capable of taking macro. Keep it coming.

[VicParticipant @vic]

I’ve long had an interest in Macro photography. I’ve got a 90mm Macro lens for my old DSLR but things have moved on in recent years. These days Focus merging, stacking or bracketing can produce some stunning macro shots that make “single” shots look pretty poor in comparison. There are several camera makes that offer this facility as one of their settings. Olympus seem to be the most advanced at this. You can get the same result with old cameras by taking several shots in manual focus and then merging the shots with software.

[Raphael GolezParticipant @raphaelgolez]

 

Bit windy but managed to take some pictures today. Not much critters around but managed to capture a few on the sensor.

Winged Aphids

 

This very tiny spider is swaying in the wind and difficult to get him in focus. I would say life size about 0.25mm, could barely see him.

 

More Aphids. Most of them have no wings. Noticed the ant nursing them.

 

I don't know what this critter is called. Looks like a nymph of some beetle??? Looks great. Again very tiny.

 

Check this very tiny Katydid. Almost invisible to the eye.

 

One of the big guys a took a shot. This just landed in front of me.

 

Caught them red handed!

 

Very tiny jumping spider. This guy is so fast!

 

Possibly a fruit fly?

 

A common fly.

 

Edited By RAPHAEL VAL GOLEZ 1 on 16/05/2020 14:26:10

Edited By RAPHAEL VAL GOLEZ 1 on 16/05/2020 14:28:21

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Some lovely photos here.
SOD mentioned extension rings but have you also tried a reversing adaptor? I have my father's Pentax with all sorts of kit which is a little old now as he died nearly 50 years ago We used to do colour slide development CR50 I think.
Of late I use my company iphone but cloud upload is disabled so it makes it a pan to get the pictures off.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Some interesting photos there!

These days I just use the macro on my bridge camera for most things. Rather than bits of metal, some random insects:

This is maximum close up on a bit of carpet:

Neil

[Chris_CParticipant @chris_c]

Posted by Bazyle on 16/05/2020 14:37:27:

SOD mentioned extension rings but have you also tried a reversing adaptor?

Yes, but not for a few years! I wanted to have a go at macro when I was a student but couldn't justify a lens, I managed to get an reversing adapter (EOS to… 52mm I imagine filter thread), and a Pentax 50mm from the local chemist for £5.

Very shallow depth of field (see the 5p photo!) but good fun. I should dig that out and have a play tomorrow, not used it for years. Thanks for reminding me! Have been enjoying seeing others photos here, some stunning shots.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, I had a go outside with my IXUS 170 this afternoon, the first photo is a fly as close as it would focus, but the photo has been cropped by about 50%.

This next one hasn't been cropped and I think these always look good when the fairies are ready to fly off.

Regards Nick.

[Raphael GolezParticipant @raphaelgolez]

Stunning shots Niel. Thanks for checking in. Enjoyed looking at the wing detail of your dragonfly.

Nice to see your close up Chris. Will wait for more macros from you.

Nick, difficult to sneak up on a fly, great job capturing it on your sensor. Its amazing to think how airborne seed dispersal works for plant.

Keep all you macro shots coming, enjoyed looking at all of it.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

For those that like such things: Here‘s a page [with numbers] about the early 55mm f3.5 Micro Nikkor.

**LINK** http://coinimaging.com/n55-35.html

Using it on the m4/3 body involves only the purchase of a simple adapter … but that does of course mean that both focus and aperture require manual adjustments.

MichaelG.

[DanielParticipant @daniel]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 16/05/2020 08:54:56:

Great stuff, Daniel … and that 105mm will give you much more working distance, and better ‘handling’ than my 55 [which is best used for static subjects]

MichaelG.

Thank's Michael.

As you say, the 105 does give a practical working distance.

This thread has inspired me to dig out the camera and have a play today.

As it probably is with microscopy, what I enjoy is being able to access our

everyday world, which we cannot really appreciate with the naked eye.

ATB,

Daniel

[DanielParticipant @daniel]

Posted by RAPHAEL VAL GOLEZ 1 on 16/05/2020 11:54:05:

"… Hi Daniel, lovely composition there of this tiny insects. Love that tiny bee hovering in front of that flower! Don't part with your D90 (I have one also) the crop sensor plus your 105mm will give it a longer reach. Try getting extension tubes or a teleconverter. Did you use any flash on this? …"

Hello Raphael,

No intention of giving up the D90 …

Although it's more hassle than the modern phones, I still find it worthwhile.

I usually have a ring flash attached to the 105. I would need to look for whether

it fired, or not, on the images.

Super idea for a thread by the way.

ATB,

Daniel

[DanielParticipant @daniel]

Keep the macros/close ups coming people.

They're brilliant.

[Sam StonesParticipant @samstones42903]

Great photographs Raphael, and an interesting opportunity to see the impressive work of others too.

Try this one. What is it?

Sorry, no prizes!

Sam

Edited By Sam Stones on 18/05/2020 03:32:09

[Author]

Posts