Sorry about taking so long...
Thanks Roger, i am glad they arnt too bad
.
Err, you hit the wasp on the head there Vince frozen to the bone
.
Denise thanks, after you noticed them in the other shot they must be easy to see now
.
Rob, thanks mate, you are too kind
.
Clive Boom boom boom (do they have basil brush in canada?) LOL
Hey springtide, It is a metal milling machine, a bit difficult to go through everything but i will get something up in a mo...
AScot, LOL, too bleedin big whatever their size, cat likes to eat them though. here you go pic on way, and glad you like it
This is so embarrasingly heath robbinson setup (and you know what the wife lets me keep it in the bedroom)...
Basically it is the camera in a vice on a mill bed, you turn the handle on the RHS and the camera moves to the left, there is a focusing light and a couple of flashes, for taking a picture you need a reflector under the subject. You can just about make out the subject near the center, suspended on a black painted pin in crocodile clips in the chuck jaws of the mill. The camera has a 28mm reversed lens on a 1.4x tc and an extention tube. Wider angel leses are better as you need less extention tubes to get the same magnification than for a longer lens. Thats basically it, you take a picture, turn the handle, take another picture etc. It is very improtant to get rid of vibration, so a mirror lockup is very usefull, and the heavier the camera support the better, this is a bit overkill as you can certainly get away with a tripod and focusing rail. Enlarger lenses are also good, as are lowish power compound microscope objectives if you want to get really close. A lens hood (here black cardboard and aluminum tape) is a real help, and another good idea is to use a ping pong ball with a hole cut in it to see the subject through as a diffuser/light tent and light the outside of it, in this case the rizzla paper and tape in the BL corner worked nearly as well.
O.K now you can laugh
.
tim
