Such an amazing amount of information. For the record, I would like to say we were interested in seeing the sand grains that made up the pottery sample. It took over two days to get the shot we needed, with stacked lenses, a stage made from a milling vise, and a heap of lights. A fun project, but hardly worth the cost and effort. I think I will stay with CLOSE UP photography. At least until I read and re-read the mountain of information I now have. Thank you to all who have contributed to my understanding.
Then I would guess that I would still be doing macro photography as I only go to sand grain or slightly smaller size. I have seen plant cell structure but not what is in a cell. I don't think that is getting as small as 10:1. .... Reading the links and using the calculator provided I am able to get 10.714:1 with the 150mm base + 14mm stacked mount and 21.429:1 with the 300mm base + 14mm stack. They give the formula of 1/S1 + 1/S2 = 1/F but I don't know what the ratio is for the reverse mount with the 300mm as I don't know my cameras optical center dimension, but it has to be smaller. I think I understand this is now called extreme macro and not MICRO because of the equipment used. I'll stay with that understanding unless corrected. Thank you all for helping me to grow. Also didn't know about ho to geeet to forums and search them.. My appologies. I will learn to do that now.
I have done a bit of photography using a reverse lens mount for a local museum. They didn't need anything super small and were only interested in the sand grains and crystallization on some native american pottery. I also play around using the macro setting or macro lenses to take pics of bugs and things. Is what I am I doing with both setups referred to as macro photography or are they differentiated by other terminology? I figured what I do is all macro as I don't use a dedicated microscope (even though my reverse mount is about the strength of a grade school microscope).
How did they taste? :) Seriously though I think it is a very nice image. I'd like to see the downloaded view. It looks like you captured a good bit of detail. I also like the background. You composed the shot very well.
Nothing but a mix of heavy fog, drizzle, and downpour here in the Piedmont. No chance to see the moon tonight. Perhaps it will be visible tomorrow night.