Macro with 4x5

[jp80874]

Willie Jan,

In addition to working with more light add a Fresnel or brighter ground glass. I added a Boss screen to a Linhof Technikardan 45. Unless you are using strobe lights or lots of ventilation, only adding more light can make the project very warm. Good ventilation to dissipate heat may cause subject movement if the subject is not heavy. If the subject is heat sensitive you can easily melt your project or make it turn brown, black or dead. I have experienced all of the above.

John Powers

[Bosaiya]

Here's a four-way rail I've seen.

I practice I find it easier to compose the subject and scene n a small platform and just nudge that around. Simple ane effective.

[Bosaiya]

It would be interesting to devise a mechanism of attaching the lens to a tripod / focusing rail, thereby freely moving the camera body backwards when focusing. Hmm...

I use two tripods, one attached to the lens area and one to the back. It's simple matter of putting the lens-end were you want it and then moving the back around. I use this method on my large format monorail systems as well as my MF Fuji GX680 as it has detachable rails.

On a related note, Bosaiya, I would *love* to see some of those 20:1 mcro shots on 4x5, I have never seen examples of such extreme magnification. I can imagine you need some very strong light on the subject to focus and compose, as well as extreme bellows extension and a subject mere millimeters from the lens. This will take some doing I imagine. 2:1 on 6x7cm is tough enough already.

Go to my Angels & Insects collection, you'll see quite a lot. I also exhibit the collection quite extensively so it my show up at a town near you.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Go to my Angels & Insects collection, you'll see quite a lot. I also exhibit the collection quite extensively so it my show up at a town near you.

Beautiful work!

[Bosaiya]

Beautiful work!

Thanks, David!

[Willie Jan]

Willie Jan,

In addition to working with more light add a Fresnel or brighter ground glass. I added a Boss screen to a Linhof Technikardan 45. Unless you are using strobe lights or lots of ventilation, only adding more light can make the project very warm. Good ventilation to dissipate heat may cause subject movement if the subject is not heavy. If the subject is heat sensitive you can easily melt your project or make it turn brown, black or dead. I have experienced all of the above.

John Powers

when looking through a 10x peak loup, i can see the grid of the ground glass (there is a fresnel attached) which somewhat blurs the image at 3:1.

A friend of me adviced me to create a setup where a plain glass is positioned (at the right location) which gives a bright image when looked throug a loup for focusing.

[paul_c5x4]

I have been thinking about building a similar thing. Can you buy those? What are they called?

The heads themselves are called micrometer heads, and occasionally you see complete tables on ebay - These are often listed as "microscope stages" or "miniature table". One such example is here

A slightly more crude table can often be found in machine tool dealers listed as a "two way vice" or a "cross vice" - See this offering for a picture. These do not offer the precision of a microscope stage, and many of the chinese made offerings are, for the want of a better word, crap quality.

[verney]

The heads themselves are called [I]micrometer head...

Thanks but not what I had in mind.

Actual moving of subject could be achieved with a relatively cheap two-way focusing rail. What I want is something that allows me to twist the subject accurately as well as move it. This would allow me to fine tune the plane of focus. Maybe a two-way focusing rail combined with a geared head would do the trick.

[Bosaiya]

I use a small pedestal made out of old tobacco tins. I slide it around and twist it until everything looks right. It's cheap, easy, and works well. There were other solutions but I didn't want to overly complicate things.