Progress Report And Thanks For Your Generous Sharing

At present my copystand sits on a round 3 1/2 ft diameter oak table top which is supported by four integrated 4x4 pedestal legs. Nothing is loose, but the floor is wood and it is a second story, so vibrations do develop.

It might surprise you that I already have a granite block 24x18x3 inches (607 x 455 x 76 mm). This fits atop a 24x18x18 inch steel stand made for it, all of which is the base for a 6 foot animation stand. I no longer have a ceiling that will accomodate the upright stand when assembled (it is computer driven) so the block isn't doing anything at present. Unfortunately at my age that block weighs too much (126 lb) for me to cart it up two flights of wooden stairs to my studio, even with a hand truck. However, it could form the base for another dedicated macro-table in my basement office. Subterranean, windowless, controlled climate, I can't think of a more advantageous environment for a vibration-free setup. The hard part is finding the space. Maybe time to kick out the Xerox office machine?

The steel stand has 4 one-inch diameter pedestal feet that would sit on the basement floor concrete slab. I wonder if there would be any real advantage to using the Sorbothane with that, since the feet would just cut into it, and there isn't much vibration coming up from the floor to be conducted through those points.

If a space cannot be found, would those pads do any good beneath the feet of my present oak table?

From my perspective if you have to turn off room fans in to stop vibrations while shooting stacks then you do have a concerning vibration problem. To elaborate: if the fans are causing a noticeable issue then your rig is probably experiencing other vibrations that you may not notice( from cars passing by in the street through to a Fridge or Freezers compressor starting and stopping. Given that the Vibration Isolation should cost less than US$50.00 I think it is ideal for any one who wants to produce High resolution images and high magnification stacks.

I would suggest that if you need EFCS for your work then Vibration isolation is a necessary and complimentary requirement. At the cost the ROI strongly recommends it.

My experience was that I was unable to produce decent high magnification stacked images until I introduced external Vibration control.

In 2014 and 2015 I spoke to people who did the advanced and beginners photography classes at the ANA Summer seminar. The classes are held in the Armstrong class room block and people noticed that even at 1-1 they had problems with external Vibration. Indeed I spoke last year with the instructor of the advanced class and he made a passing comment that he was frustrated with the vibrations being experienced in that building. The Armstrong building is large and solid.

RMPSRMPS I infer, perhaps incorrectly, from your comment here and previous comments some considerable time ago that you have never tried this technique. {Before I go on I apologize if I am incorrect with that perception.} I would note that someone with your substantive skills and experience would really appreciate and exploit the advantages a Vibration resistant rig.





From your description then it really reads like you would benefit from using the technique. Like you my rig is on the second story of our house. Our house is a typical Austrian Massiv-Bau Its built of permanent materials and the second story floor is concrete so one would expect it to be vibration resistant ... but it isn't.

As far as your granite slab goes all I can say is WOW! However like you I would have great difficulty getting it up stairs.

My experience has been that just the slab on its own is pointless. Using the principle of the conservation of momentum, the sorbothane feet allow the room around the slab to move while the slab and equipment on it remain still. I can jump on the floor while the camera is shooting a stack and the rig isn't effected. If I bump the rig or granite block it wobbles very slightly (as if it were on stiff jello) but the movement settles out very quickly: that exactly what is supposed to happen.

Irbguy, like you I don't think the Sorbothane feet would survive the stand your granite slab sits on. There are other options but they are outside of my experience and knowledge. These options are Industrial Vibration Isolation mounts. I did a quick search on ebay and found a whole range of different types but I have no idea which are the best value for money( all are more expensive than four Sorbothane feet). Here is one example, but the cost of four of them is such I would recommend serious research before pulling the trigger on them:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BRB-60-50-V...AOSwMHdXSw3K

From the pictures you provided I had guessed that your table was a nice Oak piece. However I suspect( I don't know) placing the table on the Sorbothane feet may not be ideal. I have no idea why I have that "gut-feeling". If the Sorbothane feet are not a major expense to you then perhaps its worth a try.

Opps my wording was bad. As you point out Sorbothane feet/ vibration dampers don't assist with vibrations originating in the set up its self.

What I was meaning is if EFCS is important for shooting ( for internal vibration control) then sorbothane feet combined with some suitable mass are a complimentary technique that reduces the effects of external vibration.
For those whose imaging requirements don't require EFCS they are less likely to require external vibration control as well. ( I hope that is clearer).

As for turbulent air: Air from a fan operating in the same room doesn't effect my rig. I had assumed the comment regarding the fan related to vibration from the fans motor and mechanical movement not from the movement of air. To be honest I had never thought about air turbulence being an issue. Thinking about it perhaps it might be a problem for smaller rigs

I do recall one form of vibration my rig doesn't cope well with. Mines exploding in the Danube. Luckily it has only happened once in the last 15 years. Seems the Brits had left one behind and it went off one Saturday( or was it a Sunday). It was 5 km away... and the whole house felt like it had been hit by a truck... I am pretty sure my rig, had it been in operation at the time, would not have compensated for that ground wave.

EFSC/EFCS is Electronic Front Shutter Curtain (Canon) or Electronic Front Curtain Shutter (Nikon). I don't know what other mfrs call it. It means that the shutter remains open when in Live View, and the photosites are electronically-quenched just prior to beginning of exposure. The shutter remains open during exposure, then closes at the end of the exposure time. The lack of shutter action at the beginning of exposure eliminates the small vibrations caused by the shutter movement.

Looks like you're mounting the PPB "above" the objective, ie holding the PPB in place with the objective. This is generally too high. I usually mount either PPB or flat diffuser "below" the objective, ie I attach the diffuser to the bottom of the objective, usually with double-stick tape. For lower mags, with longer working distance (WD), this works very well for PPB. But for high mag objectives that have short WD, I just use flat diffusers (masked outside a certain radius).

One thing that might help is to remove the front trim ring. This might reduce the diameter of the objective a little and allow more light.

Last night I redid the stack of the axumite coin at 10 X. I just only back lighting to illuminate the hemisphere I use. I believe a Ping pong ball half would be better as the translucent nature of the half sphere I used required a 2.5 second exposure for each shot. I masked off the lower part of the hemisphere. as below:



I tried to different methods for stacking the shots ( over 200) the pyramid method ws disappointing, as I had previously found the depth map method was best. I do have an issue now with Helicon Focus.... have a look at the bottom edge( the bar code like pattern) I believe this is a feature that is typical of trial versions of the software. Last night my stacks were getting trial version script superimposed on the pictures. I have had a number of similar issues with this software and it is annoying to contact the seller and ask how to fix it all the time. I will be emailing them again today asking what is going on. I am seriously thinking of switching to zerene stacker when my current license for helicon focus has expired.

Here is the back lit and partially masked result:

I have learnt that in photography there is never only one right way to do something. Often it takes the photographer time and experimentation to find the techniques that suit. I know from my own learning curve that what works well for some one else does not always work well for me. So perhaps you need to find another method However, I believe, your 12MP sensor should still be capable of shots of greater detail than I have seen so far.


I do not believe in a single right way and I rankle when any one says "this is the only way", except when it comes to the laws of physics. This leads me to ask (rmpsrmps some time ago, gently, made this same point) What step are you making between photographs? At the 10X magnification you are using you should be using steps less than 0.050mm probably around 0.014mm(assuming you are using F4. Have a look at this link( if you haven't already) third table for microscope objectives:

http://www.zerenesystems.com/cms/st...acromicrodof

I was being very conservative and using 0.003 mm( massive over kill) and this required a stack of 273 photographs for that last photo(hence my annoyance with the Helicon focus software playing up. I have noted your claim its the surface of the coin that gives the soft effect your final images portray. However to my eye ( could well be wrong) it does look like you have been using too large a step.

You may have already covered this so forgive me for asking:

Are you using mirror lock up? ( if not you should as it reduces vibration)

Does your camera have EFCS(Electronic front Curtain shutter)? At this level of magnification your 12MP sensor should still be capable of shots of greater detail than I have seen so far. If you do not have EFCS you may have to take longer exposures ( perhaps around 2-3 seconds) but rmpsrmps can advise you better

Although my camera has some advantages over yours, with good technique you can equal or exceed my shots.