Beetle

Post your images made through a compound microscope or made with a stereo/dissecting microscope in this gallery. Images may be of any subject natural or unnatural, living or non-living.

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Frez
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Beetle

Post by Frez »

This image demonstrates the viability of shooting insects under fluorescence. This beetle wasn't left in the killing jar long enough and still had some movement while on the slide. CombineZ5 did a good job of aligning the frames with its automatic settings. Some frame offsets were as much as 23 (pixels?). The 50 watt Merc vapor puts out just enough light to let the DP10 image. I had to switch to a .38x c-mount lens, as a lens that gave a 1 to 1 ratio didn't let enough light in. The 10x objective is also the lowest power usuable without light loss. I need one of them fancy DSLR things. :)

Frez

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rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Frez, this is really interesting! Yes, CombineZ5 alignment is in pixels, and 23 is a very big number. But I am not really surprised. CombineZ5 seems to be better at alignment than Helicon Focus, at least for shifts. (HF also handles rotations, which CZ5 does not.)

I think I see some stacking artifacts in here, but they're the same sort of thing that I would expect to see with a DSLR, e.g., whatever caused that bright olive-colored arc at lower right doesn't seem like it would depend on the camera.

What improvement are you thinking to get from a DSLR?

--Rik

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Frez
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Post by Frez »

The DSLR, or a high grade lensed prosumer camera, wouldn't effect the stacking. The DP10's slowest shutter speed is 1/4 second. That's where the problem arises when shooting fluorescence. It's better when imaging chlorophyl based specimens that fluoresce red because of the CCD's increased sensitivity to red. With subjects like this beetle I can't get a long enough exposure. 1/2 to 3/4 second would probably do it. Also I can't access the shutter speeds directly from a menu, but instead have to use an AE menu that ranges from +3 to -3 in 7 steps. Although the fastest speed is 1/10,000 of a second, I can't seem to stop motion of moving specimens well enough either. There is also no option to sync a flash. At some point I have to stop buying scopes and get a more versatile camera. BTW...the arc in the image is an artifact from the perimeter that was beyond the eye when the specimen shifted to the left. I'm going to have another go at this beetle today.

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Makes perfect sense -- thanks for the info.
--Rik

Charles Krebs
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Post by Charles Krebs »

Bizarre and surreal Frez!

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