JHS Loc: Carmichael, CA

Has anyone tried the D850 capability of focus shifting with extension tubes? If so what make of extension tubes works, and any difficulties with them? Finally, did you use flash, and how well did that work? Was the flash able to keep up with the stacking exposures?

I just got my D850, and the combination of the built in focus shifting capability and the incredible resolution of the sensor has me very curious.

Thank you in advance for your advice, John

Hammer Loc: London UK

Hi,

I am waiting for the replies with bated breath as I was going to test this very aspect next month . Thanks for posting it .

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

Realize that if you use the onboard focus shifting you are left with a jpeg, while you can save an externally stacked image to a tiff at 16-bits of color data as long as you capture in RAW.

Mark Sturtevant Loc: Grand Blanc, MI

I don't expect that the flash can easily keep up with a rapid series of flash exposures, but I understand that people sometimes are able to do it with proper preparation. Use fully charged batteries and low flash power. And use wide aperture so that you get enough light at low flash power. The wider aperture is favorable anyway because the little that is in focus then is exceptionally sharp. Under those conditions, it seems possible that the flash can work through a series of exposures. But even a successful series of exposures can easily have trouble with a frame or two where the light levels came out a bit different. Focus staking is rife with technical challenges.
I had thought it more common for people to use constant, external lighting without flash when they do stacking. This of course avoids some of the technical challenges mentioned above. So you might want to consider that option. The True Macrophotography forum has people who do stacking, and they will know plenty more than I do.

jscorbin Loc: Woodinville, WA

Flash works with focus shift only if Silent Photography is set to OFF. Here are the settings I used in the photo of two pyrite crystals.
Lens: 105mm f/2.8 Micro, at f/8; 1/60 sec.; ISO 64
Number of shots: 20, first shot focused on nearest corner of the big cube, which is about 3 x 2 x 2 cm. The far corner is not in focus, which probably would have required about 30 shots.
Focus Step Width: 4
Interval: 5 sec.; probably 2 sec. would have been OK.
Exposure Smoothing: OFF
Silent Photography: OFF

The exposures were combined in Photoshop CC 2018; (a) Open as Layers; (b) Select all layers and Auto-Align; (c) Auto-Merge.

(Download)

JHS Loc: Carmichael, CA

Mark,

Thank you for your well thought out response. I am just in the "getting my arms around the focus stacking concept", so
my questions reflected some degree of ignorance.

John

JHS Loc: Carmichael, CA

JSCorbin,

Thank you so much for all of your data on the focus stacked pyrite crystals. That information will be of
great use when I actually start to experiment with it. I found the macro forum and have been going through
the postings there.

Once again, thank you for taking the time and effort to provide such a detailed response. John

mikets

Well mine does not seem to work with extension tubes. I am still trying to find out why. Which is real nuisance since my best AF Len is a 70mm.