Weekend Update 10/3/21

[DKS]

I am not sure if there is something similar that is available for iOS phones, but I would assume that by now, an app or two is probably out there.

Nada. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Been digging deep for the last six months and, surprisingly, no one has filled that gap.

[Dave V]

Nada. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Been digging deep for the last six months and, surprisingly, no one has filled that gap.

So it ain't just me!     There are things I love about Apple and things I don't, that's for sure.

In the meantime, I'm trying to decide what this week's "surgery recovery" project should be.  I can choose from:

1)  Building RGS MoW boxcar 01714 (micro-plywood laser kit from Narrow Gauge Colorado)
2)  Building an RGS Type 1 stock car (micro-plywood laser kit from Leadville Designs)
3)  Install a Tsunami 2 and speaker into a Galloping Goose (this one will have to wait until I'm completely off pain killers for obvious reasons) and letter same as RGS Goose 3.
4)  Combine various half-finished Precision Scale D&RGW/RGS short cabooses into either RGS 0401 (with ladder extensions) or RGS 0409 (kitbash a single-window cupola).
5)  Build a Fairmont push cart for the car shed at Lizard Head (this one's a quickie).
6)  Scratchbuild a compressed version of the RGS Ridgway office building.

Sadly while my recovery's been going great, the whole family has had a really bad upper respiratory infection that has hit me twice as hard since my immune system's already pretty busy (with donor bone and screws and plates to worry about).  It's not COVID...in addition to all of us being vaccinated I did get checked just in case yesterday and nope, neither COVID nor strep.  But it has me kind of stuck to the couch rather than the workbench for now.

[davefoxx]

In the meantime, I'm trying to decide what this week's "surgery recovery" project should be.  I can choose from:

1)  Building RGS MoW boxcar 01714 (micro-plywood laser kit from Narrow Gauge Colorado)
2)  Building an RGS Type 1 stock car (micro-plywood laser kit from Leadville Designs)
3)  Install a Tsunami 2 and speaker into a Galloping Goose (this one will have to wait until I'm completely off pain killers for obvious reasons) and letter same as RGS Goose 3.
4)  Combine various half-finished Precision Scale D&RGW/RGS short cabooses into either RGS 0401 (with ladder extensions) or RGS 0409 (kitbash a single-window cupola).
5)  Build a Fairmont push cart for the car shed at Lizard Head (this one's a quickie).
6)  Scratchbuild a compressed version of the RGS Ridgway office building.

7) Introduce self to Josh’s wet/dry vac named “Lurlene.”  That might help you feel better. 

[Dave V]

7) Introduce self to Josh’s wet/dry vac named “Lurlene.”  That might help you feel better. 

I thought we all agreed not to talk about Josh's sexual "awakening..."   

Besides, I don't want Josh's sloppy seconds/thirds/fourths.   

[C855B]

Nada. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Been digging deep for the last six months and, surprisingly, no one has filled that gap.

I would not be surprised if there is no published API for focus control, that this function is done "for you", there there, little consumer, don't worry your little head, we know what you really need.

[davefoxx]

I have focus control on my iPhone 7.

DFF

[BCR 570]

Hi Gary:

You might also consider the etched brake wheels from Gold Medal Models . . .

Tim

[Dave V]

I have focus control on my iPhone 7.

DFF

Right, but that's not the same as "focus stacking."  I have an iPhone 12 and it has the best camera I've ever encountered on a smart phone.  Similarly I can tell it "what" to focus on.  Focus stacking, on the other hand, allows you to take a number of identical photographs with the only difference being the focal distance.  Software (like Helicon Focus) allows you to then "stack" the photos so that you keep only the most focused information from each shot.  Traditionally we would do this manually by keeping the camera in the same spot and manually adjusting the focus between each shot, then importing all of those images into the stacking software.  I think you'll agree that that's a pain in the a$$ if you're just looking to share an update.  What Bob is saying is that there's software for Android that allows you to do that automatically within the phone itself.  Such software appears not to exist for iPhone.

I'll keep an eye out for anything similar for iOS, but otherwise I'm going to continue doing what I've been doing.  Focus stacking and DSLR shots are fair game when I'm getting paid, but when I'm just screwing around in the train room, I feel like my iPhone 12 does well enough.  This is actually the first time I've been told otherwise.  I will try to make a better effort to ensure the maximum focal depth I can achieve with a single iPhone shot.  I don't think Bob's criticism was unfair.  I do think it's worth drawing a distinction, though, between my "good enough for Facebook" shots I share here and my actual published shots for which I use my DSLR.

[GaryHinshaw]

You might also consider the etched brake wheels from Gold Medal Models . . .

Thanks for the reminder.  Actually, I think the MTL Miner brake wheels are even nicer than the GMM ones, and they have a mounting post cast on.  The only challenge is getting paint to stick to them, but I've found that Tamiya metal primer helps.  I just got lazy on this last project...  BTW, here is a thread with links to the 3d files for the Kato well sets, for anyone who wants to dabble.

Oh, and it would be great built-in focus stacking came to ios.  The fact that it hasn't seems more like a legal issue than a technical one. 

[randgust]

Brass wire handrails done on the NW3, on to final details and paint.



And if you're wondering how you can possibly cut and solder wire that precisely, you can't.  This is what they look like before I hit them with the edge of a Dremel abrasive disk and do the final profiling.



And building them right on the shell makes it possible to repair or redo just about any handrails out there.

[John]

The only challenge is getting paint to stick to them, but I've found that Tamiya metal primer helps.

I had good luck using a silver sharpie on delrin -- then painting

[robert3985]

Right, but that's not the same as "focus stacking."  I have an iPhone 12 and it has the best camera I've ever encountered on a smart phone.  Similarly I can tell it "what" to focus on.  Focus stacking, on the other hand, allows you to take a number of identical photographs with the only difference being the focal distance.  Software (like Helicon Focus) allows you to then "stack" the photos so that you keep only the most focused information from each shot.  Traditionally we would do this manually by keeping the camera in the same spot and manually adjusting the focus between each shot, then importing all of those images into the stacking software.  I think you'll agree that that's a pain in the a$$ if you're just looking to share an update.  What Bob is saying is that there's software for Android that allows you to do that automatically within the phone itself.  Such software appears not to exist for iPhone.

I'll keep an eye out for anything similar for iOS, but otherwise I'm going to continue doing what I've been doing.  Focus stacking and DSLR shots are fair game when I'm getting paid, but when I'm just screwing around in the train room, I feel like my iPhone 12 does well enough.  This is actually the first time I've been told otherwise.  I will try to make a better effort to ensure the maximum focal depth I can achieve with a single iPhone shot.  I don't think Bob's criticism was unfair.  I do think it's worth drawing a distinction, though, between my "good enough for Facebook" shots I share here and my actual published shots for which I use my DSLR.

@Dave V  Actually, I wasn't criticizing...just offering a suggestion to kill the depth of focus monster for model train shots.  I think your photos are excellent. For illustrative purposes, i wouldn't bother to stack my photos either..oh wait...sometimes I do.  It's nice to have the option.  I also wasn't aware whether the photos you posted were part of what was published or not.  For my shots that Model Railroader used, they kept my slides and also the copyrights, but Railmodel Journal just used my slides and sent 'em back.

"Slides"???  Man, how the photography world has changed!

When taking photos to use Helicon Focus or an equivalent focus stacking app, the hardest part sometimes, is how to hold the camera in the same position for the multiple shots you need to take at different focus points in you composition.  I'm a big proponent of using a good smart phone's camera because of the perspective and location that the relatively small (as compared to ANY DSLR) phone body allows you to get at.  My old Pixel2 XL's camera has a single lens that is an N-scale 6' from the edge of the camera to the center of the lens, so getting a single shot at a scale 6' tall railfan's point of view is pretty easy. HOWEVER...and it is a big however...it's near impossible to hold the phone steadily to get half a dozen shots or more at different focus distances from the same position...and most any holding device (custom bracket, tiny tripod, etc.) is going to raise the phone up so that nifty 6' top-of-the-head N-scale point of view is lost.

What the Open Camera app does for most Android phone cameras (unfortunately it doesn't work with all Android phones), is allow the user to manually set the closest and furthest focus points in a composition, then select how many shots to take between those two points...which I believe is up to a dozen shots (it may be more now, I just got an update but haven't checked it out yet).  Then, using the phone without any bracket or tripod...you press the shutter and it automatically takes all the shots in a fraction of a second using the phone's electronic shutter...zap!  This allows you to take a dozen shots at different focus distances purely hand held.

But, you have to upload the photos into your computer to stack them with your favorite focus stacking app.  The Open Camera app does not stack the photos in your phone, and is not a focus stacking app...it just takes photos that are suited to stack using a separate app in your computer.

Some DSLR's and the new mirrorless cameras have focus stacking style shooting options that do the same thing as Open Camera does for Android smartphones, but the cameras still are not small enough to give you the point of view that a smartphone's camera gives you for shooting model trains.

I haven't looked for an equivalent app for an iOS phone because I'm happy with my old Pixel2 XL...but now that Google has stopped updating my phone, I'll be looking at the new Pixel6 when it comes out later this month (October 2021).  If the same app was offered for iOS, I would definitely be looking at the iPhone 12 or 13 because of their excellent cameras.  I am quite surprised nobody has done that yet.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[Dave V]

That is a huge advantage of smart phones...  I can slip my iPhone into cluttered rail yard or in a rock cut where my Nikon D5100 DSLR won't go.

[NSEGeorge]

Might want to try this one:

https://thehillsline.com/2020/04/10/photostacking/

[Dave V]

Might want to try this one:

https://thehillsline.com/2020/04/10/photostacking/

Thanks for the tip!