Macro Jeopardy is HERE!
/An exciting week of photography and foolishness starts today.
one reason i don’t live in the mekong delta
Some real treats to look forward to in the coming 6 day! Starting with Macro Talk on Tuesday at 8PM where the discussion is going to be all about enlarger lenses.
These seem to be among the least well understood lenses in our regular arsenal so I think spending a little time talking about the many misunderstandings surrounding these little treasures might be time well spent. The things I want to clear up include:
What is an enlarger lens
Why do we use them in Macro,
Reverse, Extend, or both?
The limits
Aperture, focal length & diffraction
Stacking enlarger lenses - Whaaat!?
Setups that work & setups that don’t
When to reach for an objective
This isn’t everything, but these are the high points. I may be able to include a little demo using some of the enlarger lenses I have been evaluating lately. Come to this livestream and I promise you will leave with a solid working understanding of how to get the very most out of these treasured lenses. Here is a link to the livestream, at 8PM Tuesday!
https://youtube.com/live/RJJsWfgXW4E?feature=share
Four stripped focus blocks ready for stripping, PaiNting and reassembly
I spent the entire weekend cleaning microscope parts, dismantling focus blocks, 3D printing parts, and inventing new tools for the workshop. It was a lot of fun but I woke up exhausted and ready for a break on Monday (today) If I have time I want to show you around the workshop, so that you can see what all goes on in the studio when I am in full-conveyor belt mode. Though it might need to wait for the Pzoom, as I have a special treat for you on Thursday! Macro Talk Too this week features the very first installment of the new MACRO JEOPARDY - the world’s most exciting internet macro photography game show (strictly my own, heavily biased opinion)!
As a teaser, here is a screen shot of the game board for this real time contest of wits! I have spent several hours putting together what I think are an excellent selection of macro-related questions.
If it is a success I will see if there is a way for us to do this with real contestants, using zoom - I am thinking about finding a sponsor or two and putting up some nice prizes. I might even draw the names of contestants from the competition entries. This week is just a trial balloon to see if folks are interested in having a little cerebral fun at the end of a long week. If you want to join in the fun, your link too the stream is right here -
https://youtube.com/live/A55-hCkZhrw?feature=share
Of course, it is not the end of my week as there are a couple of interesting events lined up for Saturday - starting air 10AM with a 2-hour Pzoom - a face to face Zoom meeting with my Patreon Supporters. As always we will have a lot to talk about, including a special segment on how to dismantle, inspect, clean and rebuild a modern microscope. The rest of our time will focus on viewer updates, Q&A, introductions, and a lot of macro-equipment chit chat. Always great fun and an awesome opportunity for us to learn a bit more from one another.
Right after the Pzoom we have this month’s Tangent Show with Larry and me - talking about Fusion 360, modeling, and 3D printing. I am hoping to get some help with a really complicated job that is making me think I may have bitten off more than I can chew. I am making a camera, a real digital camera, and it is proving a lot more difficult that I thought it would be. So, depending on what Larry has lined up for us, I may be trying to get a little nudge in the right direction on this project. This is all happening at 12:30pm this Saturday, April 26th, with the recording released on YouTube early next week.
My sweatshop - only without the sweating
I did come up with a very handy gadget for making sure my motor drive assemblies will fit on a microscope focus block after all the holes are drilled - a ver irritating problem when they do not.
It looks deceptively simple, but these things are designed to clip onto a stripped focus block and stay there until all four holes have been marked. This works extremely well and saves a tremendous amount of time.
Here is a drawing of the gadget, as yet unnamed, and a picture of it doing its thing on a BH2 Olympus focus block being readied for a coat of paint.
A couple of you have asked to see my new bandsaw - well here it is!
It is not nearly as easy to use as it looks. In fact, by the time I have cleaned up all the cut lines, I don’t think it will have saved me much time, if any. The saw was not too expensive and it will definitely be put to good use in the future.
A Happy looking weevil
I have not been taking nearly enough pictures of late, but hope to turn that around soon, as the weather continues to improve - stay tuned!
another partially braided acetanilide and ascorbic acid crystal complex
Hope you can make it to the Jeopardy on Thursday! It is going to be a hoot!
Later, Allan
