MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

This series took a little longer than usual; I hope to generate a video from these, so making sure all the images are good enough took a few days longer than usual. As it happens, there's a second easter egg hidden inside an easter egg... prepare to be amazed!

This series zooms in on one of my favorite examples, a CSR BC5 chip taken from a Blackberry. Starting at 1:1 reproduction: And then using the Luminar Zoom (oblique reflected illumination using a ring light) Continuing with a 4x Epiplan POL, coaxial incident light: What's that in the upper right corner?

And then using a 16x Epiplan POL with INKO (epi-DIC illumination): Ok, that's hilarious. A quick aside (16x again, but not epi-DIC) showing the part number: Ok, now the Elvis portrait makes sense...

Continuing on...

And now back to 'the King of Rock & Roll', this time at 40x (Leica HC PL APO), image stacking (Picolay) to get everything in focus: Another quick aside(s): Remember poor ol' Barney from the BC4? He's back: And, what's this 'other' easter egg? Well, as I was trying out different illumination schemes to see what worked best, I wondered about trying epi-darkfield. Using a 40x Epiplan-HD lens: His belt buckle! I had no idea. And is that a faint twinkle in his eye?

Now, I tried to image this at higher magnification using a 100x/1.25 Epiplan-HD, but for whatever reason it was a total fail. It's a tricky lens that I haven't fully mastered, so I may re-visit this particular feature when I am more confident. Anyhow.. moving on to a 100x/1.47, I had to stitch together several images (16) to fit it all in: And now I just 'digitally zoom' the rest of the way...

Argh... my sensor is filthy! I tried cleaning it with those sensor swabs that look like spongy squeegees, but no real improvement. What do y'all do to clean your camera sensors?

Very cool!

Regarding sensor cleaning - there's a trick that a lot of folks use that I've done with good success. What you do is go into your bathroom, turn the shower on full blast with hot water and close the door. Let it get nice and steamy, then go back in, turn off the water, then close the door again and wait for the room to cool down. The water vapor will condense on dust particles and drag them out of the air - you've created a temporary low particulate space.

Then clean the sensor in the bathroom. You want to buy individually wrapped sensor cleaning swabs sized for your sensor as well as sensor cleaning fluid. Put just a couple drops on the swab - less is more. Start on one side of the sensor and swipe across applying moderate pressure. You can then flip the swab over and swipe again with the unused side. After that, throw away the swab. This takes time - I often have to do a cleaning round, take the camera out to check the flat field, and then go back in until I'm happy with the results. I've gone through 10 swabs in one session before.

Keep in mind that perfect is the enemy of good - if you have one or two specks, just use editing software to heal them.

Cheers,
Jason

Postscript: technical information. Except for the ‘digitally zoomed’, all images shown are full frame 35mm format, camera-generated JPG files. Unless indicated, minimal post-processing (rotating, normalizing).

Image 1) “Normal photography”: 35mm format camera sensor (Nikon D810) and lens (55mm Micro Nikkor + 35mm extension, close focus). Oblique reflected light (Dual-gooseneck halogen ).
Image 2) Camera sensor and Zeiss Ultraphot III/b (macrophotography configuration) + Zeiss Luminar zoom lens. Oblique reflected light (Halogen ring light).
Image 3)Camera sensor and Zeiss Ultraphot III/b (microphotography configuration) + Zeiss 4x/0.1 Epiplan POL objective. Epi-illuminated (Ultraphot 100W Halogen lamp).
Image 4) Camera sensor and Zeiss Ultraphot III/b (microphotography configuration) + Zeiss 16x/0.35 Epiplan POL objective + INKO prism and crossed polars. Epi-DIC illumination (Ultraphot 100W Halogen lamp).
Image 5) Camera sensor and Zeiss Ultraphot III/b (macrophotography configuration) + Leica 40x/1.3 HC PL APO objective. Epi-illuminated (Ultraphot 250W MH arc lamp). Focus stacking (Picolay) was based on a stack of 7 frames.
Image 6) Camera sensor and Zeiss Ultraphot III/b (macrophotography configuration) + Leica 100x/1.3 HC PL APO objective. Epi-illuminated (Ultraphot 100W Halogen lamp). 15 frames (single object plane) were acquired and stitched using Hugin.
Image a) Camera sensor and Zeiss Ultraphot III/b (microphotography configuration) + Zeiss 16x/0.35 Epiplan POL objective. Epi-illuminated (Ultraphot 100W Halogen lamp).
Image b) Camera sensor and Zeiss Ultraphot III/b (macrophotography configuration) + Leica 40x/1.3 HC PL APO objective. Epi-illuminated (Ultraphot 250W MH arc lamp). Focus stacking (Picolay) was based on a stack of 10 frames.
Image c) Camera sensor and Zeiss Ultraphot III/b (microphotography configuration) + Zeiss 40x/0.85 Epiplan-HD objective. Epi-darkfield illumination (Ultraphot 250W MH arc lamp)

josmann wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 01, 2023 7:19 pm

Very cool!

Regarding sensor cleaning - there's a trick that a lot of folks use that I've done with good success. [...]

Cheers,
Jason

Thanks for the kind words and great suggestion!

And I thought the 10 micron snowman was amazing. https://www.microbehunter.com/microscop ... php?t=4327
Would this be common knowledge?

apochronaut wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 02, 2023 12:56 am

And I thought the 10 micron snowman was amazing. https://www.microbehunter.com/microscop ... php?t=4327
Would this be common knowledge?

Heh... that's a cool trick. Here's another ('Nanoputians' or "Nanokids'):

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jo0349227

Now I know for sure who is stealing those tiny screws I can't find when I drop them. They are rolling them away in teams!