Nebulosa bug under microscope and macro bench

[fdupre]

Hello everyone,

I hope that you all are ok.
I share with you a nebulosa bug (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhaphigaster_nebulosa) photographed under a microscope and on a macro bench.
I have ”plenty” of them on the exterior walls of the house. Generally always in the shade because here (20 km south of Paris), it is hot during the day for the month of mid-October (28° in the middle of the day!). Some even come into the house but they don't know how to hide very well so I put it back outside as soon as I find one.

The entire bug:

scarabe_entier.jpg (92.68 KiB) Viewed 1188 times

MICROSCOPE:
The shooting :

pdv600px.jpg (91.11 KiB) Viewed 1188 times

4x objective - side view:

Image stacked from 102 photos in Helicon Focus with C method and smoothing at 4

scarabe_4x_tete_cote_MH.jpg (154.03 KiB) Viewed 1188 times

4x objective - top side:

Image stacked from 80 photos in Helicon Focus with C method and smoothing at 4

scarabe_4x_tete_dessus_MH.jpg (228.73 KiB) Viewed 1188 times

4x objective - bottom side:

Image stacked from 81 photos in Helicon Focus with C method and smoothing at 4

scarabe_4x_tete_dessous_MH.jpg (199.26 KiB) Viewed 1188 times

. . .

[fdupre]

. . .

10x objective - bottom side:

Image stacked from 45 photos in Helicon Focus with C method and smoothing at 4

scarabe_10x_tete_dessous_MH.jpg (161.27 KiB) Viewed 1186 times

4x objective - rear from above:

Image stacked from 29 photos in Helicon Focus with C method and smoothing at 4

scarabe_4x_arriere_dessus_MH.jpg (277.42 KiB) Viewed 1186 times

4x lens - rear from below:

Image stacked from 43 photos in Helicon Focus with C method and smoothing at 4

scarabe_4x_arriere_dessous_MH.jpg (146.2 KiB) Viewed 1186 times

. . .

[fdupre]

. . .

MACRO BENCH:
With a Nikon BE plan 10x 0.25 microscope objective coupled with a Sigma 100mm macro photo objective set to infinity and open at f3.5 all on a Canon 1200D.

The shooting

pdv600px.jpg (83.64 KiB) Viewed 1184 times

Image stacked from 136 photos in Helicon Focus with method C and smoothing at 4 - Exposure time 1/100 s at 800 iso.

punaise1_macro_nikon_sigma_MH.jpg (188.69 KiB) Viewed 1184 times

Image stacked from 276 photos in Helicon Focus with method C and smoothing at 4 - Exposure time 1/100 s at 800 iso.

scarabe2_cor-hf_nikon-sigma_MH.jpg (228.55 KiB) Viewed 1184 times

Image stacked from 232 photos in Helicon Focus with method C and smoothing at 4 - Exposure time 1/100 s at 800 iso.

scarabe3_nikon-sigma_MH.jpg (213 KiB) Viewed 1184 times

Kind regards,
FRanck

[ADi]

Hello Franck,
Very nice photos!
One remark about the difussor.
You get even softer light when the diffuser is around the subject.
E.g. a cylinder on the lens.
LG, ADi

[zzffnn]

Very nice images, Frank!

Would you please explain your lighting fixtures in the microscope photo pdv600px.jpg? What brand and model are those two light sources and the clamps, please? I saw each light source is connected to a clamp with cold shoe sockets, has two arms with speelite bulbs, and a third connected wire which seems not being used (what is that third wire for? Is that a continuous light to assist focusing?)?

Also in your macro bench photo, what kind of holding arms are you using, what is brand and model of those arms, please? And those lights there are continuous LED lights not xenon speelites, correct?

I am building something similar and would like to get my light sources fixed stably.

And yes, as ADi said, diffusion that goes around the subject (insect) (such a a wax paper tube) will provide you even softer illumination effects.

[fdupre]

Hello ADi, I hope you're well and thank you very much for your tip.
I'm going to study this because it's true that there are too many reflections on the macro bench photos.

Hello zzffnn,
Thank you for your feedback and for the wax paper tip.
Concerning the lights on the microscope, they are LEDs from the JJC Macro Arm Light (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EgWpxeTFcs) with a ping pong ball pierced to diffuse the light :

01taille_croix_balle.jpg (69.78 KiB) Viewed 1028 times

02taille_croix_balle.jpg (65.3 KiB) Viewed 1028 times

03taille_croix_balle.jpg (60.13 KiB) Viewed 1028 times

04taille_croix_balle.jpg (56.75 KiB) Viewed 1028 times

00_ball_pingpong.jpg (54.62 KiB) Viewed 1028 times

I also glued a plastic clip on top and soldered a USB cable to replace the batteries and thus have a 5 volt power supply via USB:

Concerning the macro bench, the arm is a welding assistance arm: https://www.amazon.com/Helping-Solderin ... B0865VQVRX
and the LEDs are indeed continuous LED lights

Kind regards,
FRanck

[fdupre]

Hello everyone,

On the macro bench with this time an Amscope 4x 0.10 microscope objective always coupled with a Sigma 100mm macro photo objective set to infinity and open at f3.5 and all on a Canon 1200D.

The shooting :

pdv800px.jpg (111.97 KiB) Viewed 992 times

Image stacked from 123 photos in Helicon Focus with method C and smoothing at 4 - Exposure time 1/100 s at 800 iso.

scarabe1_amscope4x-sigma_MH.jpg (210.37 KiB) Viewed 992 times

Cropped image - down resampled to 60% of the original image

scarabe1_amscope4x-sigma_MHb.jpg (264.38 KiB) Viewed 992 times

I find that the rendering in terms of sharpness of the Amscope lens is not bad at all and even very good for the price, without forgetting that it is a 4x lens whereas the Nikon is a 10x lens if we want to compare the two. I still find that the Nikon is superior in terms of sharpness and contrast.

@ADi - I'm still thinking about how putting a diffuser cylinder on my lenses as you recommended . . .

Kind regards,
FRanck

[Bschnitzer]

Regarding diffuser around specimen, this is what works for me, though some specimens do better with harsher shadows:

IMG_2334.jpeg (227.23 KiB) Viewed 902 times

Just cut a hole in the bottom of the styrofoam cup that is slightly smaller than the barrel of the objective so that the cup slides on with a slight grip.

Cheers,

Bob

[fdupre]

Hello Bod,
Thank you very much for your feedback and the photo. Your macro bench is very professional.
Kind regards,
FRanck