KM6VV Loc: Central Coast, CA

This would not be too hard to build without CNC. OK, might need a drill press. And I'd hate to have to cut that thick 3.5" x 1.5" aluminum bar stock with a hacksaw. The Remanent metal suppliers can usually make a cut off for you.OK a lot of filing. I'd hate to pay to have the parts made.

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

Me too. I was on good terms with the owner and he would have allowed me to use the tools....

KM6VV Loc: Central Coast, CA

That's a good deal, I occasionally get time in a real shop when I consult.

KM6VV Loc: Central Coast, CA

OK, I can hinge an additional plate to the end plate (lens end), which will allow the rails to tilt the camera down. Easy peasy. So is that enough? Do I need to tilt up at all?
I just had an idea, I could also put a second pivot at right angles to the tilt plate. It would be a yoke to straddle an upright block that would screw onto the tripod's 3/8"-16 post. Then I'd have tilt and pan.

mawyatt Loc: Clearwater, Florida

Might want to hold onto your Stackshot system because, you can also run your WeMacro rail from the Stackshot controller, at least that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to use Zerene to control the rail, it has the controller built in and I like the interface Rik has done in Zerene.....nothing wrong with the Stackshot controller interface though, just prefer to use Zerene. I built an interface cable to plug into the WeMacro rail and the Stackshot Controller, this makes Stackshot controller thinks its connected to it's rail. Now I can run the WeMacro rail with it's controller and battery pack, use my phone/iPad as the interface, or run the WeMacro rail from Zerene with the Stackshot controller. The WeMacro my the portable "field" rail system, but can also be used with my "studio" system build around Zerene and Stackshot. Keep the Stackshot system if you can.

mawyatt Loc: Clearwater, Florida

Try and keep the lens optical axis (bore sight) in alignment with it's movement as mentioned by oldtigger. Basically you don't want to move the lens away from the optical axis during stacking. With insects and such which don't have precise repeated patterns and/or straight edges (unlike the chips I do), alignment is less important. Actually the alignment isn't difficult until you get to high magnification at high resolutions, then it becomes a problem. Even more so when you stitch multiple stacked images (did a chip image rendered from 6 stitches of individual stacked images with a total of 28 Giga Pixels to create...final image was over 500MB flattened!! This was a bear to get stitched together and look proper).
Must be fun to create your own rail system completely, few have the skills or equipment to do the mechanical or electrical sections, very few have both skills and equipment!!!

mawyatt Loc: Clearwater, Florida

Yep the micro-steps produce vibrations, if you can hear it...it's moving something!! Since this is continuous you can't get away from it with longer exposures, only integrate it over the exposure period....which may or may not help. I've found in my setup that flash exposure works better than continuous exposure. I'm stuck at about 4~5ms flash period because of the strobes and multiple triggers, but would like to get down well below 1ms....maybe as low as a few 100us. The strobes that can produce these short light bursts at very high powers are also expensive. For example, going from 4ms to 250us requires 4 stops more light!!

Agree that a "stiff" heavily damped system is the best and simplest overall solution for micro-stepping induced vibration. Another solution I've been working on is to use a 400 step stepper motor rather than the standard 200 step motor. Since this adds twice the fixed rotor magnetic cogs, vibration should be lower (~6dB) as "seen" from the rail system (assuming a low pass nature) for a given micro-step size. Anyway, this is an ongoing experiment..so we'll see.

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

So if I understand this: you completed several individual stacks and then stitched these? A macro panorama? I stitched three separate stacks of a flower some time ago--but the magnification wasn't even at 1:1, so it wasn't that difficult.
There was a guy on the hdr forum who stacked his HDRs-- but I don't recall which process he did first. Since they were landscapes, it was only about three to stack....
Agree on the alignment importance--particularly as you get into higher magnifications which accentuate every flaw. Frankly, I never noticed the issue until I got to 5x and greater....

mawyatt Loc: Clearwater, Florida

Yes but a X and Y panorama, 3 by 2. Stacks varied from 100 to ~180 individual images. I've also done a 3 stitch of about 200 stacks, and going to be doing some with over 500 stacks. The chip images are very difficult because of the repeated and symmetric nature, and straight features. I may need to create a special "telecentric" lens which has the property that the apparent magnification does not change with lens position. I already use custom lenses I've created with microscope objective and Raynox 150 & 250 as "tube" lenses, so adapting these to become telecentric is what I am working on now.

mawyatt Loc: Clearwater, Florida

For info on Telecentric lenses see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecentric_lens

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

Happy flight.

KM6VV Loc: Central Coast, CA

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. My initial efforts will not be very high resolution, or magnification. The bore sight work will be interesting.
That's a LOT of data! Adding digital photography (past point-and-shoot) certainly makes more demand on my PC editing system. Can't have too much memory or processor power!

Yeah it's fun to be able to think up and then machine parts that I want! I really appreciate that capability. I won't say it's art, but creating and making parts is my creative outlet. I've also designed and built working model steam engines (stationary engines, not the train). However my photography interests go back a long, long time. I like these new tools!

KM6VV Loc: Central Coast, CA

Check out the Gecko drives. They include resonance dampening circuitry, and very fine steps. 400 SPI is a good idea. I'm working from what's in my parts stack. Although I may order a G310X Gecko drive to study the difference. The NEMA #23 drives have greater rotor inertia, which I think should help.
You're talking about vibration, but doesn't the dwell before the exposure take care of most of that? For CNC, the cutter is moving, so any vibrations become problematic.
I've always liked flash. More 'electronic', I suppose. I'm going to try an Nikkon R1 flash system first.

naturepics43 Loc: Hocking Co. Ohio - USA

You will hear a lot of negative comments on the Nikon R1 (Close-up) Speedlight system. The main negative comment being that it is under powered. I have one & really like it for field work. The camera's pop-up flash, as you probably already know, can be used in commander mode to trigger the SB-R200 flash units, which works perfectly. But, if you plan to also use it for studio focus stacking, you might consider the R1C1 kit which includes the SU-800 commander unit. The reason being that if you shoot over 45-50 images on a deep stack, the camera overheats & shuts down the camera's pop-up flash. With your automated rail, you'll end up with a lot of black frames as the stacking controller doesn't know the flash quit working. As you have said, lots of things to think about.

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

I also have the R1 and I've never considered it to be underpowered. Those people must just be reading the tech sheets. What that ignores is that minimum working distance @ 1:1 doesn't require a huge blast of light. It's a physics thing with the fall off of light as the distance increases. when I use flash to stack, the flash is stationary and mounted off camera. I'd be curious to know how you handle the increasing intensity of the light as it moves closer during the stack.

My main criticism of the R1C1 rig is the power source. There's probably a reason they chose to use CR123A batteries...but they are less universally available in a pinch. Of course there!s also the cost. What the system does very well is provide is the ability to modify the lighting ratios and control in all via the SU-800.
At this point, I've chosen to simplify which means the diffusion panel mounted on the front of the lens and the use of a small SB-400 on the shoe. I see the same underpowered comments about the SB-400. Mine recycles fine and I've never had to wait while it powers up. I use it with the camera menu set to ITTL, and it works fine. I've used the pop-up as well. This use is for hand-held single exposure macros.