MP-E 65mm - High Difficulty Level

[Zeidora]

I've posted before about an Australian who does focus stacking on live peacock jumping spiders.

I asked him how he manages this and he says he uses a battery pack and 'walks' into the subject whilst firing off 10 shots in quick succession. I think this may actually be a very good practise and I'll pick up a battery pack in a few months.

10 shots is not that many for z-stacking at >>1:1. Jumping spiders are rather small (~ 5 mm body length, twice that with legs, so about 3:1 mag for covering entire image on FF body). At f/2.8 and 3:1 step-size at 70% of DOF is about 52 µm. Assuming that spider is about as deep as wide, then you will need 100–200 frames for a full stack. If you use the f-effective/32 rule, then you can set f/8, get step size of ~150 µm, and you "only" need 30 frames or so. To get close to 5 mm depth of field with 10 shots, you have to set f/22 = effective f/88, with step size of 411 µm.

It's kind of scary and awesome to play around with it.

 

[Sabaki]

I've posted before about an Australian who does focus stacking on live peacock jumping spiders.

I asked him how he manages this and he says he uses a battery pack and 'walks' into the subject whilst firing off 10 shots in quick succession. I think this may actually be a very good practise and I'll pick up a battery pack in a few months.

10 shots is not that many for z-stacking at >>1:1. Jumping spiders are rather small (~ 5 mm body length, twice that with legs, so about 3:1 mag for covering entire image on FF body). At f/2.8 and 3:1 step-size at 70% of DOF is about 52 µm. Assuming that spider is about as deep as wide, then you will need 100–200 frames for a full stack. If you use the f-effective/32 rule, then you can set f/8, get step size of ~150 µm, and you "only" need 30 frames or so. To get close to 5 mm depth of field with 10 shots, you have to set f/22 = effective f/88, with step size of 411 µm.

It's kind of scary and awesome to play around with it.

Here's a shot of Michael's. I'm quite impressed and want to replicate the technique for similar results

 

[Gongedan]

Wow, his macros of those Peacock spiders are really stunning. I wasn't aware spiders with such beautiful colours even exist!

 

[Diko]

Here's a shot of Michael's. I'm quite impressed and want to replicate the technique for similar results

Michael Doe - just saw another pic of his of this cute little colorfull fella. His photos are amazing indeed.

This tech with the stack photos. I know it, but haven't tried it yet.