N scale photography w/ Nikkor 105mm micro lens

[ryourstone]

The closer you get and the steeper the perspective, the greater the feeling of "being there". Yeah you can get more depth of field by backing away and zooming in, but it (to me) destroys the image. Here is a 3/4 shot with a Coolpix and Helicon. I didn't go all out to get the entire car perfectly in focus, just used 3 exposures.

[GaryHinshaw]

Rich - how did you focus the Coolpix?  Does yours have a manual override or do you trick the auto-focus somehow?  Nice model by the way.  Your finish work always looks "just right" to me.  I've learned a lot trying to emulate it.

[ryourstone]

I used the manually focus, a little clumsy on the Coolpix but it works. You have to be set to "user1" or "user2" instead of A, then hold down the mode button and turn the wheel until you get to "M" on the LCD... After that you can change focus by holding down the macro button and turning the wheel. Trying to do all this without moving the camera for a series of Helicon shots is pretty challenging, especially since once you let go of the macro button you have to cycle back through to macro/timer again by pressing the button 4 times. But somehow I seem to get better pictures out of this little Coolpix than the $4000 Digital SLR I bought to replace it!

[Walkercolt]

Yes Gary, I meant diffraction when I typed diffusion. The result of a 54 year-old mind after working all day and typing at 1:00 AM! For you film guys left, KEH Cameras.com occasionaly has the Sigma 24mm and 28mm for sale used. Don't let the brand fool you, they are very high quality optics, with shifting internal elements to provide superior resolution at "infinity" and in the macro range. They don't go cheaply, but they're fine lenses for miniature photography. Fairly modest equiptment and judious use of Helicon(or similar) software can give very good results. Judge your results on at least full screen view on your monitor, or better x2 view. What your eyes see on a monitor, isn't the same quality as when printed. Your eyes make allowences, your monitor probably isn't a graphics quality($2400) monitor, and your graphics card in the computer "smooths" the image as compared to a graphic arts card(which can cost more than many of our computers!). An imaging house I know of is using an "old" Pentium IV computer as a graphics driver for their mega-buck Mac-based direct-to-press digital picture system. They crunch huge RAW files in micro-seconds and send them to the laser plate burner, or to a Heil scanner. All it takes is money.

[wcfn100]

Well, to conclude this thread, I would have to say that this lens doesn't have too much application for n scale photography.  At least not enough to spend the $900.  Even if you had the need to shoot something macro and needed to be at least 5" away, the perspective is just too wacky as shown in the photo below.  I guess if you had a completely flat plane to shoot at it could be different.



I was able to get a good result in this next photo. But nothing I couldn't have achieved with a regular lens unless for some reason I wanted to shorten the background.  And I had to crop out a tree in the foreground do to the distance ahead of the rest of the picture, creating a halo effect in the software compilation.




It was a fun rental and I hope somebody got something out of it besides me. 

More Helicon pics ready for Sunday though...

Jason

[tom mann]

Next time, rent the 50 or 60mm. I bet that it'll work for you.

[wcfn100]

Next time, rent the 50 or 60mm. I bet that it'll work for you.

I probably won't need to rent a 60mm 'cause I know what I'm getting with that.  After taking a few pictures of my dad's layout, my next rental might have to a soft box and reflector for my halogen light to see what sort of setup I need.  The shadows are way too harsh as is.


Jason

[Walkercolt]

Chimera makes the best(if not the cheapest) soft-boxes made, and I've used Photogenics, and Lowels,and Smith-Victors, and Chimeras, and several other brands. An aluminized soft-box will give more direction to the light and sharper shadows, reducing the "hazy day" lighting effect, more to a "partly cloudy day" effect.

[DKS]

When I worked at one photo studio eons ago, we saved some money and made our own set of soft boxes out of Foamcore and tracing paper. Some of the boxes were spray-painted silver on the inside for stronger light, and we also changed the tracing paper for different effects.

[Walkercolt]

David, we did that too. But foam core and a Smith-Victor 1000 W quartz-halogen light on for a few hours proved to be a poor combination. (Go ahead and imagine what happened!) If you can afford and justify it, the good stuff is always better than the make-do. People ask "what's good" and I have no idea of their budget, amount they're going to use it, etc. People used to ask me "what's the best 35mm camera, Nikon or Canon?" and I'd reply "Niether. A Leica M will give better images than any 35mm camera made." I used to look thru National Geographics at the photos and say Nikon, Canon, Nikon, Leica, Leica, Leica, Leica SLR, Canon...We used to have a group of guys who met and showed proto-photo slides. One of the guys had a Leica. Mixed in with everyone elses slides, when his hit the screen, I knew whose they were.

[DKS]

David, we did that too. But foam core and a Smith-Victor 1000 W quartz-halogen light on for a few hours proved to be a poor combination.

We didn't have a problem, as the light fixtures had built-in cooling fans. We also made the boxes really big, like four feet across.