enquiry about DSLS's

A forum to ask questions, post setups, and generally discuss anything having to do with photomacrography and photomicroscopy.

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volvox
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2005 1:57 pm
Location: Bristol, UK

enquiry about DSLS's

Post by volvox »

For the last 6 months, I have been experimenting with microphotografhy using a 35mm Dynax 5 SLR. Results at total magnifications > x200 have been disappointing due to vibration probably caused by mirror movement and shutter vibration.

Having decided to make the move to digital for general photography, I am also looking for a dslr witha mirror lock to cut down on vibration. Also some dslr's also some form of damping to stabilise he image.

Does any one have advice or suggestions? I have been to local dealers and enquired about mirror lock but they do not seem to know about it.

Any help or advice gratefully received

Robert

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Gerd
Posts: 160
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 2:44 pm
Location: near Cologne, Germany

Post by Gerd »

Hi Robert,
some DSLR's have a pre trigger for the mirror, usually some seconds before
the shutter is triggered. I use a Pentax isds for micrography for a little while now,
you can pre trigger the mirror for 2 seconds, then the shutter is released.
But there is another part of the camera that makes hard vibrations as well,
it`s the shutter itself. This problem is on all SLR's including DSLR's.
If you want to take sharp pics with SLR's or DSLR's you have to use electronic flash.
Flash time is extremely short, from my opinion only this procedure can prevent
camera shake blurr. Pleas look at Charles Krebs' posts too,
http://www.photomacrography1.net/forum/ ... php?t=1228
he also uses DSLR's and has a perfect setup with perfect results as well with flash.

Gerd

Charles Krebs
Posts: 1200
Joined: Tue Jul 13, 2004 10:50 am
Location: Issaquah, WA USA

Post by Charles Krebs »

Robert... as Gerd mentioned, I've been using a DSLR for photomicrography. There are many things I like about it, but the vibration is a significant problem, and must be addressed.

It can be dealt with and eliminated as a problem, but some may consider it to be too much work to set it up. There are several ways of accomplishing this and I can only speak to the methods I have used.

Personally I feel the camera must be separated physically from the microscope, with no "hard" contact between the two. (The exceptions here might be if you are going to set up a secondary, low-vibration circular leaf shutter, or use electronic flash). Having a mirror lock-up or pre-release helps a great deal as the mirror is the largest cause of vibration, but most focal plane shutters found in SLR's also cause enough vibration to be a problem. Having the camera on a separate "stand" above the trinocular tube is the single most effective technique. This alone should solve most vibration problems, and if the camera has a mirror lock-up or pre-release all the better.

I set up electronic flash because a primary interest was photographing living, active subjects. In addition to "freezing" moving subjects, the extremely short flash duration seems to effectively eliminate any slight vestige of vibration that may still exist. I have come to prefer using the flash even for inanimate subjects since I can keep the microscopes built in tungsten at lower levels instead of having to always crank it up to uncomfortably high levels to get 3200k light for photography. I have set up my flash so that it is actually more convenient to adjust exposure than if I had to adjust settings on the camera.

Charlie

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