MP-E 65 sharpness
Jun 28, 2015 22:56:01 #
Bustin my buns but just cannot seem to get any sharpness above 4:1 using the MP-E.
Anyone got any ideas on what i'm doing wrong?
Anyone got any ideas on what i'm doing wrong?
Jun 29, 2015 00:17:01 #
The sharp parts look sharp to me. The MPE65 suffers from a fair amount of LongCA, especially at higher mags. This might throw the stacker off a bit. Is f3.5 the sharpest aperture at this mag? Your camera may also be causing you some issues. Are you shooting in Live View to avoid mirror slap? You'll still get shutter shake but mirror slap is much worse. Flash or continuous light? This looks sharp enough that I'd expect you're using flash.
Jun 29, 2015 00:34:28 #
rmpsrpms wrote:
The sharp parts look sharp to me. The MPE65 suffers from a fair amount of LongCA, especially at higher mags. This might throw the stacker off a bit. Is f3.5 the sharpest aperture at this mag? Your camera may also be causing you some issues. Are you shooting in Live View to avoid mirror slap? You'll still get shutter shake but mirror slap is much worse. Flash or continuous light? This looks sharp enough that I'd expect you're using flash.
I think it may be a bit sharper at F 4.5 but is fuzzy at 6.3.
Continuous light, no flash, 1/6 second, Live view.
There may be some vibration from the rail stepper motor.
Overlap (step distance) is chosen so that each hair is in focus for 2 out of 3 frames worst case but not more than 4 out of 5.
Jun 29, 2015 01:37:12 #
With continuous lighting, any unsharpness is most likely shutter shake. I find that at 3:1 or above, I either need to use flash or very long exposures to eliminate the effects of shutter shake on my D5000 and D7000. At around 1:1 I only notice the issue when I pixel peep.
Jun 29, 2015 06:05:45 #
If I was using zerene I would call this haloing from movement. But if your 2 to 3 shots per hair you would think the software would render the photo much cleaner. Do you ever visit the guys over at microphotography. Rik Little and the micro stacking experts over there may have specific solutions to your problem.
Jun 29, 2015 08:42:58 #
martinfisherphoto wrote:
The stacking artifacts are what you would expect frome CombineZP, using Zerene cleans up most of them.If I was using zerene I would call this haloing from movement. But if your 2 to 3 shots per hair you would think the software would render the photo much cleaner. Do you ever visit the guys over at micro-photography. Rik Little and the micro stacking experts over there may have specific solutions to your problem.
I reran the stack using flash and 8" diffuser only, no ambient light, there was no improvement in sharpness.
Jun 29, 2015 09:51:41 #
However, rmpsrpms got me thinking:
I had flattened my light in an attempt to remove all highlights and omitted the flash for convenience when shooting.
The only thing i accomplished was to shoot myself in the foot.
These two very short stack images show the improvement in the image when i added the flash back into my process.
They are sort of unbalanced apples and oranges but you can get the idea.
I was throwing away the information/detail that were needed to make the image 'feel sharp' and leaving too much area where the stacker had to 'invent' an image.
There just are not any shortcuts in a good macro stack.
I had flattened my light in an attempt to remove all highlights and omitted the flash for convenience when shooting.
The only thing i accomplished was to shoot myself in the foot.
These two very short stack images show the improvement in the image when i added the flash back into my process.
They are sort of unbalanced apples and oranges but you can get the idea.
I was throwing away the information/detail that were needed to make the image 'feel sharp' and leaving too much area where the stacker had to 'invent' an image.
There just are not any shortcuts in a good macro stack.
Jun 29, 2015 18:18:16 #
Jun 29, 2015 22:51:54 #
oldtigger,
I use mirror up, then 2 second delay and trigger strobes/flash off rear curtain on my D800E. This works OK for up to 10X utilizing a microscope objective sitting in front of a 200mm tube lens. The lens assembly is 12" long, so any camera vibration is highly augmented. Mike
I use mirror up, then 2 second delay and trigger strobes/flash off rear curtain on my D800E. This works OK for up to 10X utilizing a microscope objective sitting in front of a 200mm tube lens. The lens assembly is 12" long, so any camera vibration is highly augmented. Mike
Jun 29, 2015 23:07:06 #
mawyatt wrote:
Likewise, long exposure time with flash fired on rear curtain produces clean images. I use mirror up, then 2 second delay and trigger strobes/flash off rear curtain on my D800E. This works OK for up to 10X utilizing a microscope objective sitting in front of a 200mm tube lens. The lens assembly is 12" long, so any camera vibration is highly augmented.
You can also shoot with live view off, keeps the sensor cool(er) employ mirror lock up, single tap on shutter button in EOS Utility, wait a second or two and fire the shot (another single tap on the EOS Utility Shutter button). You can also use remote trigger to do the same thing - camera in mirror lockup mode, single tap on remotre trigger, 1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, fire the shot, move the rail, rinse lather repeat. I use the last method on field tripod stacks with good success.
You are using Stackshot - so you can manually control rail movement in Zerene and fire via EOS Utility or with a remote trigger. More tedious than automated setup but results are usually better in my experience.
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