Some waterfleas at 5,4:1
I used a pentax k10d and a macroteleconverter 2* and a soligor 135/2,8 m42 and then a reversed attached rokkor 50/1,7 with a couplingring and a slaveflash ,diodlamp, mirror,and handheld
This one uncropped


This one is cropped a little bit from 5,4:1


This one is cropped from 5,4:1


Also this one is cropped from 5,4:1

Kindly regards bjorsa

[Peter Zack]

These are great. I'm really impressed with the image quality with the setup. I misread the comments at first and thought these were handheld. That would have been amazing.

Cool subject and well lit as well.

[bjorsa]

Thanks for your comment ! :-)
And yes they are all handheld
Kindly bjorsa

[bnishanth]

wow..!! beautiful and that setup looks very complex.

cheers
Nish

[Rickst]

Very, very nice!

[Peter Zack]

You gotta be kidding!! You shot this close and managed to do it handheld? I don't have an EXIF viewer at work but you must have had a lot of light to get enough shutter speed from this.

Could you provide some data on one of the shots?

[imtheguy]

When did you get the scanning electron microscope?


Beautiful and beyond me to understand exactly how the hell you pulled this off at all much less hand held.

[thomascdk]

They look almost embryonic. And alien.

Great shots (note to self: get that reverting ring).

[knochelbiter]

Those are absolutely amazing shots! Is that the celluar structure of their little chitony bodies you can see? DAMN.

[Heinrich Lohmann]

bjorsa, these are the most incredible macros that I have seen in a long time, thank you for posting them.

[bjorsa]

Peter zack the exif is
1/180
iso 200
f= as much as I can get without vinjettening so around 4 at the 135 mm and f 16 on the reversed 50 mm

I used an old cheap microscopes bottenpart just by sawing it apart so that I had the bottenpart with the mirror to reflect the light from the diodlamp and also to reflect the slaveflash af360 fgz and then i used a drop of water with the waterfleas at the glass and then It just to aim and shot and hope for the best :-)
The hard part is to stand still and to see through the lenses but it works with some practis (sorry for my schoolenglish )
Kindly bjorsa (Sweden)

[Venturi]

You gotta be kidding!! You shot this close and managed to do it handheld? I don't have an EXIF viewer at work but you must have had a lot of light to get enough shutter speed from this.

Could you provide some data on one of the shots?

Here's one Peter:

Exif Sub IFD
* Exposure Time = 1/180 second = 0.00556 second
* Lens F-Number/F-Stop = 0/10 = F0
* ISO Speed Ratings = 200
* Original Date/Time = 2009:06:24 21:41:07
* Flash = Flash fired, compulsory flash mode
* Focal Length = 30000/100 mm = 300 mm

I'm truly impressed. Light requirements aside, handholding still enough to stay within Depth of FOCUS is astonishing. I'd need to put the K20D in burst mode and then pray ... a lot.

[Maffer]

Very impressive photos! Like from some book of biology And actually, handholding a *long*combo of lenses may allow holding the setup roughly like aiming with a pool stick - one hand holding the camera end and the other the very end of the lens combo providing support. That is, if the subject is at the table near the supporting hand. This could actually be pretty stable.

[bjorsa]

You are right maffer I use my left hand as you explain or more my fingers the tricky part is to see trough and to aim :-)
Kindly bjorsa

[mikeSF]

oh wow - i am glad i clicked on this thread!
well done!!