[bladerunner6]

We are looking to replace a 10 year old industrial type system for macro photography of auto parts. We could budget in a new industrial system but we were wondering if we could use some consumer grade gear to save money.

We were thinking of a APS-C camera, with a macro lens and a set of close-up filters. We would want a magnification range of 1X to 20X. And we would like to tether it to a tablet or desktop computer so you can see what you are shooting on on something larger than a viewfinder or three inch LCD screen.

The only brand preference would be a very slight one for Canon, but let me be clear, that is very slight.

And we are trying to save money over buying industrial gear so a suggestion of something like a D810 with a $15000 lens is not what wearer looking for.

Thanks.

[interested_observer]

I would think that either full frame or ASP-C cropped would work very well - especially with the ASP-C 1.5 crop factor. But the camera body itself is not the driving requirement - it's the 1x to 20x magnification range that is going to drive your system selection. Then for Pentax, the next problem is going to be the tethering. Why Pentax dropped tethering with the K20D, then they futzed around with several other partial solutions - and finally coming up with another tethering solution for the 645Z and the K1 - and I believe for the K3, is beyond me. If their current tethering option works - and you find the optics, I think that Pentax would work well. Here is an article on the K1 with macro for watches - using pixel shift. Slightly different application but very similar. However, I doubt that he is getting 20x at size - but his requirements really do not go to 20x. With the K3Ii and the K1 both supporting pixel shift, you may be able to reduce your 20x requirement.

• Pentax K-1 Review - Pixel Shift in the Studio - REDred Photo School | Photography Classes in Seattle | REDred Photo School | Photography Classes in Seattle

Then there is this, which is probably on the order of 10x to 20x ++++++. Now you are getting into the exotic optics that attach to your macro lenses. If you can control this cost aspect, I think you are home free...

• Vimeo

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When you take in to account the 1.5x crop factor applied to your 20x requirement - you come up with a magnification range of 1x to 14x if that helps any....

[UncleVanya]

I'm not sure if any APS-C Pentax cameras other than the KS-2 support tethering and I'm not certain that it supports it as seamlessly as you might want. This Canon macro lens option allows 1x-5x photos without additional equipment. 20x will be pushing things a bit.

That said, if wireless tethering is ok - the flucard option on the K3II would probably work - it also would allow Pixel Shift photography which gives a serious enhancement to the final detail level. Getting from the 1x size max from a macro lens from Pentax to the 20x you need is possible but not the simplest arrangement. Lens options would be the DFA 50 or DFA 100 or this: LAOWA 60mm f/2.8 2:1 Ultra-Macro Lens | Venus Optics - Anhui ChangGeng Optical Technology Company Limited which offers up to 2x direct on lens.

[johnmflores]

The Panasonic GX85 has built-in WiFi that lets you control the camera from a phone or tablet app. The newly released firmware also supports automated focus stacking - a technique where you take several photos of an object, each time moving the focus point to a different part of the object, and then use software to create a final image where the entire object is in focus. With the new firmware this can be done automatically instead of manually taking a series of shots (manually shifting the focus point each time) and then creating the final image using desktop software.

This feature could be great for product shots where you want the entire product to be in focus. I haven't tried it myself though, yet.

[btnapa]

We are looking to replace a 10 year old industrial type system for macro photography of auto parts. We could budget in a new industrial system but we were wondering if we could use some consumer grade gear to save money.

We were thinking of a APS-C camera, with a macro lens and a set of close-up filters. We would want a magnification range of 1X to 20X. And we would like to tether it to a tablet or desktop computer so you can see what you are shooting on on something larger than a viewfinder or three inch LCD screen.

The only brand preference would be a very slight one for Canon, but let me be clear, that is very slight.

And we are trying to save money over buying industrial gear so a suggestion of something like a D810 with a $15000 lens is not what wearer looking for.

Thanks.

Like a couple of other poster said, the issue is lens not the body. There is no lens that will give you those magnifications. Canon has a 5X or 6X lens. I forgot which magnification. Looks like the job for a bellows extension. I have owned K3, K5IIs and now K1. Any of these bodies have plenty of resolution and dynamic range to deliver superb results.

If APS-c is not a problem, get the K3II. I think it has USB 3.0 which will give you faster downloads and previews when you are tethering. As far as tethering goes, Lightroom has plenty of power to do the job.

[W.j.christy]

Thinking about it for a moment to regarding the tethering, most cameras have an HDMI out on them, at least the k3 series and k1 do, that I have used successfully as an enlarged monitor. Combine it with either a wired remote or infrared and you satisfy your tethering needs as stated.

For macro work pentax has some stellar lenses that can do 1:1, to achieve the higher magnifications there are some options for third part extension rubes and reversing rings as well as some bellows (mostly m42 and kinda rare) options that can be had for reasonable prices.

[Sagala]

We are looking to replace a 10 year old industrial type system for macro photography of auto parts. We could budget in a new industrial system but we were wondering if we could use some consumer grade gear to save money.

We were thinking of a APS-C camera, with a macro lens and a set of close-up filters. We would want a magnification range of 1X to 20X. And we would like to tether it to a tablet or desktop computer so you can see what you are shooting on on something larger than a viewfinder or three inch LCD screen.

The only brand preference would be a very slight one for Canon, but let me be clear, that is very slight.

And we are trying to save money over buying industrial gear so a suggestion of something like a D810 with a $15000 lens is not what wearer looking for.

Thanks.

1:1 magnification give aprox 24X magnification when printed for a 24MP camera.

[interested_observer]

Here is an optical system that will go to 32x and work with full frame, ASP-C as well as M43, but a mount is not identified (Canon, Nikon, Pentax, M42, or ??? - see below supports the K mount), and goes for about $3500 US. Honestly, 20x for car parts appears to be somewhat extreme. Are you really going to individually count the number of lenses on the eye of a bug?

• LM Macroscope 32x: turn your digital SLR into a microscope / macroscope

New LM Digital Adapter for:

Canon EOS 5DS R ( without low-pass filter) / Canon EOS 5DS / Nikon D750 / Nikon D500 / Canon EOS 1D X / Nikon D810 / Nikon D4s / Nikon D800 / Nikon D800E / Nikon D4 / Nikon Df / Nikon D610 / Nikon D600 / Canon EOS 6D / Canon EOS 80D / Canon EOS 70D / Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II / Sony Alpha 7S II / Nikon D7200 / Canon EOS M / Canon EOS 5D Mark III / Sony Alpha 7R II / Canon EOS 60D / Sony Alpha 7R / Sony Alpha 7 / Sony Alpha 7S / Nikon DS-Qi2 (Microscope Camera) / Nikon D3x / Olympus OM-D E-M1 / Nikon D3S / Canon EOS 750D / Rebel T6i / Canon EOS 760D / Rebel T6s / Canon EOS 5D Mark II / Nikon D7100 / Pentax K-5 / Canon EOS 1D Mark IV / Sony SLT-A99 II / Nikon D7000 / Canon EOS 7D Mark II / Canon EOS 600D / Rebel T3i /

To get a deep field of view, you are going to have to focus stack no matter what you wind up doing. Even the bug guy in the video was stacking. A reasonably beefy PC would not be out of the question. Actually a system - 1 for shooting, a server for storage, and a third for post processing, networked together would probably be a good idea, especially if you are doing a lot of high thruput imaging.

I am going to assume that your old system was a turn key setup that was purchased. What you are doing now is the system engineering, development and integration of a similar system that was reflected in the price of your original unit. You should also factor in a "Murphy" factor for things that should go together (in theory and specs), but in actuality don't work well together for whatever reason(s).
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1:1 magnification give aprox 24X magnification when printed for a 24MP camera.

What I am missing here is the translation factor from 1:1 macro to what it wold be in terms of magnification. A 100mm macro lens should be more than sufficient, especially if its on the end of a bellows and some sort of mechanical carriage arrangement to allow for fine positioning and focusing.

• Macro photography - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Sagitta]

Pentax Q + K-mount adapter + Macro lens = Gold (or should be in theory)

[Nass]

Hi,

I have a site about this sort of stuff - extreme macro

You can cover 1:1 to 20:1 in a couple of thousand bucks, probably less if you're prepared to buy used.

APSC or fullframe, both do this just fine. You don't need anything else.
For 1:1 to 5:1 your best single solution is Canon mpe65, nothing comes close.
But if you want to use Pentax you can use reversed enlarger lenses too to cover this range
5:1 to 20:1 you'll want microscope objectives, a mitty is the best option but start with a nikon cfi 10x na.25.
Then all you need is a 20x objective. These are expensive, but fwiw long working distance helps. Again Mitty is good (mitutuyo) but others are good too (Nikon)

Main challenges will be lighting, and you'll want to get stacking software too. If you're just after small webshop and catalogue pics then helicon is fine.

In terms of your tethering requirement, what you describe isn't tethering. Tethering software is software that lets you connect a cord between camera and pc, and use output from camera to pc to take a shot (and to see what youre shooting). What you want is much more straightforward, is just output to a bigger screen. Most APSC and fullframe have this nowadays - just connect an hdmi cord from your camera to some hdmi tx and you can see what you're shooting on your TV.

[BrianR]

We are looking to replace a 10 year old industrial type system for macro photography of auto parts

I'm curious to know more about the system you currently have or the potential replacement models? What kind of capabilities they have, the quality of the output (samples from your current machine would be very interesting), etc.

[Jlnk]

Excuse a photography neophyte for chiming in here everyone, pick up a used B&L Sterozoom 7 with the trinocular photo tube. You'd be looking at maybe a grand and then you could use literally any camera you wanted provided it had a c-mount, or c-mount adapter. It's an industrial/scientific grade system with transmitted, incident, and axial lighting abilities but, if you'll forgive me saying so, there's a real reason you don't see consumer gear in professional settings as much as you see professional gear in consumer use.

That said my suggestion may be ridiculous depending on just what's meant by "autoparts". I wouldn't grab Stereozoom to do failure analysis on a bolt or wear patterns on a bearing anymore than I'd pick up a macro lens to take glamour shots of a spark gap! ;-)

[Kerrowdown]

suggestions for photographing auto parts

Hope this is not the sort of thing you had in mind...

[lesmore49]

Hope this is not the sort of thing you had in mind...

Now that piston had a meltdown !!

[Kerrowdown]

Now that piston had a meltdown !!

It didn't fair too well for the surrounding componentry either.