Camera Labs

Thought you all might be interested in seeing some micrographs taken using a scanning electron microscope. I had the pleasure to "play" with one for a few weeks several years ago. Saw a lot of crazy things and got some neat shots. Dug these up last week when I ported all my stuff to a new computer, and decided to share. Enjoy!

Ragweed Pollen


Centric Diatom


Dinoflagellate


Duck Feather


Butterfly Wing Scale


Cottonwood Leaf Xylem


Chain-Forming Diatom


Bacterial Colony around the Hair of a Midge Fly Larvae


Lilly Pollen


Hair Filaments on Female Copepod


Diatom


Tapeworm Eggs


Comments welcome...

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Nikon D300 / 35mm f1.8 / 300mm f4 / TC-14E II
Pentax K200D / DA 18-55mm / DA 55-300mm
Flickr

Oh wow. That last one is quite awesome, it looks like some futuristic building!

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--Zoeff
Panasonic GH2 user
My photos can be found on flickr.

I really like those diatoms.

The scale interests me too. I wonder if I can photograph them with my macro setup, as I can get better theoretical resolution than 1 pixel = 1 um (diffraction allowing!). It would still be significantly less than those of course.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Thanks, Zoeff. The last one is one of my favorites, too. Believe it or not, the image is techincally "overexposed." If we had the capacity to view diatoms, we wouldn't be able to see the honeycomb structure beneath the sheath. It's a little wild to think about the different forms and how they're constructed. Little living organisms with that honeycombing, overlayed with a band of tissue round the center. Very strange.

popo, not sure about macro photography. Greg's fractal-sharpened butterfly wing is the closest I've ever seen someone get to the individual scales using something other than a microscope. I don't know how your setup differs from his, nor am I knowledgeable enough to comment on the actual resolving power of a macro DSLR lens + TC.

Just as an example, though, most snowflakes are somewhere between 7000 and 10000 um in diameter, whereas butterfly wing scales are on the order of 100 um or less. I'm curious about it, though, so it would be great for you to give it a shot!

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Nikon D300 / 35mm f1.8 / 300mm f4 / TC-14E II
Pentax K200D / DA 18-55mm / DA 55-300mm
Flickr

I think I had a poor choice of words back there. I was referring to general image scaling, not the butterfly scale. I fancy a go at diatoms if only I knew how to get some.

Having said that, I had a play with a moth in the past. I could *in theory* more than double the optical magnification from that, but shallow DoF and diffraction are highly limiting, and I'm almost certainly pushing the lens way beyond its design limits.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Ahhh! I understand now.

Diatoms can be found in several places: plankton tows and soil samples (which would be really hard to sift through if you're looking to separate the little buggers from the rest of the mush) and on the surface of fallen, decaying leaves. That might be your best shot. If you've ever seen a leaf where the surface tissue has been eaten away, leaving on the veins, it's the work of diatoms. If you can pick up some fallen/decaying leaves from riparian areas, you might get lucky.

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Nikon D300 / 35mm f1.8 / 300mm f4 / TC-14E II
Pentax K200D / DA 18-55mm / DA 55-300mm
Flickr

I have seen the leaves you describe, but didn't know how that happens! Might be a bit late in season for that now.

I did do a search and found a place that sells prepared slides so I think that's a lot easier for me to find

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Updated 12/21/09: Additional micrographs added.

_________________
Nikon D300 / 35mm f1.8 / 300mm f4 / TC-14E II
Pentax K200D / DA 18-55mm / DA 55-300mm
Flickr