Macro Photography - Who’s doing it?

[MrPNW]

With my 3 plants defoliated and watered a second time with NLS Girl Flower Power compost tea yesterday, I thought Friday would be a good day to do the macro shots.
I’m going to try taking the same shots using these two setups.

1. iPhone 12 Pro with 15x macro lens (and wide angle lens if needed) and Camera+ 2 app.
2. USB 1000x telescope connected to iPhone by wifi.

The tripod has a phone holder but I’m hoping to rig up the telescope to it also, shaky hands you know.

I took a couple quick shots with the telescope last night. It really does take some great shots. The biggest drawback is no auto focus. It’s a manual dial and takes some finessing to get it right. I’m sure a tripod will help.

[MrPNW]

14 Feb 2021 - two days into week 7

OK I just sat in the tent for an hour messing around with both setups. I turned down the SF4000 to it’s lowest setting.

The microscope does have a variable dial light. Turning it all the way up would wash out the lighter areas of the bud so I had to lower that. With it’s 1000x magnification you can literally lay it on the bud using the tripod and get in there. I prefer the colors the phone takes, they are right on. With either setup even these slightest movement takes it out of focus, there’s no way I could do this otherwise. Once the bud or device stops moving you use the remote to take the shot with the phone and the phone (using wifi) to take the shot on the microscope so there’s no chance of a bad shot on either unless you don’t dial in the focus.

Overall I prefer the versatility of the phone app which has so many settings I still need to figure out.
If you like simple the microscope is the most straight forward. Set the light level and dial in focus.

With both sets of equipment I attempted to take photos set on the lowest zoom level with the app on the phone and (50x power) on the microscope too have images showing more of the bud. Note: the photo with the hair was on purpose, I could not even see that hair with my reading glasses on!

1000x Microscope
The phone holder held the microscope base perfectly.
Please note I wasn’t always focusing on trichomes, I was attempting to takes shots of the various parts of the bud.
The microscope will be fun to cut a piece of the plant off to lay on a table that would fit inside the clear housing to get as close as possible to really take advantage of that 1000x zoom.

[MrPNW]

iPhone 12 Pro with 15x Macro lens and Camera+ 2 app

Equipment

1. iPhone 12 Pro
2. Camera+ 2 app
3. Xenvo 15x macro lense (https://www.xenvopro.com/pdp/pro-lens-kit/)
4. Kodiac shutter remote
5. Ordered a telescoping tripod
6. Phone tripod mount.

These articles pointed me to the Camera+ 2 and Camera+ Legacy (older phones) apps.
How To Shoot Close-Up and Macro Photography With Your iPhone
TOP 10 BEST CAMERA APPS FOR IPHONE
iPhone Macro Photography Secrets – iPhone Landscape Mastery


The Macro and Zoom option were both turned on in the app. This 3rd party app is so impressive even without the external Macro lens.

Please note I wasn’t always focusing on trichomes, I was attempting to takes shots of the various parts of the bud. Thats what I like about the camera and app, it acts a lot like a real film camera.

[MrPNW]

Monday, 22 Feb 2021

Man, the cat hairs are killing me. Now that everything is getting so sticky. The problem is, I can barely see them with the naked eye. To get some “hairless” shots I’ll need to wear my magnifier glasses and pull them with tweezers.

[RagWeedDWC]

Great shots, and i have the same problem but with my ever watchful Dog, I do not let her in when I have the grow box opened up (Can not teach her to wear sunglasses), but she sheds enough and the fans just suck it up into the plants....

[Farmbuck]

Nice shots !!

[MrPNW]

What do you guys think? This is day 54 of a strain they say is 60-67 days. All are the same strain. I noticed one of the plants has some amber trichomes already, but the others look clear to me??? Aren’t trichomes supposed to go from glass to milky to amber? These seems to be going from glass to amber. I do want the late harvest amber to get the relaxed body, anti-anxiety effect.

[MrPNW]

Day 58
Saturday, 27 February 2021

Using the microscope (various settings both focus and led light). The large light in the tent had to be turned off, not even setting it to the lowest setting worked. So the only light was from the microscope. The app Max-See on the iPhone via wifi takes the the shots.

[MrPNW]

[MrPNW]

Using the iPhone, xenvo 15x lense and Camera+ 2 app.

[MrPNW]

[MrPNW]

[Floopydoop]

Macro of Bruce Banner, about a week since paper towel.

Canon macro lens EF-S 60mm.

Ummm.......is that trichomes already? 0_0

Edit: LOL Woulda been better from directly above and on a tripod but just a quickie, figured there wasn't really much to show yet. She furry tho.

[MrPNW]

If any strain grew trichs that early it would have to be Hulk related.

[TOKABIGONE]

Good stuff ! No more squinting through a loupe and guessing. Just take a few shots and study them at your leisure. Count the cloudy and the amber and you know exactly what percentage. I can take some pretty close ups with my 4 year old Samsung S 7 but not like this. I have a 12 - 24 mm lens for my Nikon D5200 but no good hand held so tomorrow I'll put it on the tripod and see if I can do better. Doubt I can beat the microscope.

[MrPNW]

I’ve listed the equipment at top but if you have a tripod this mount is great. The rubber lined clamp holds onto everything and the Kodiac remote meant no more shakes.
Shinewee tripod phone mount

[HowelGrace]

Getting a good macro shot can be tricky with shaky hands, so I use a small tripod or rest my hands on something stable. Also, good lighting makes a huge difference.

[RobTibbits17]

I've been experimenting with different macro lenses, and the details you can capture are just unreal. Lighting has been the trickiest part for me—getting the right angles without harsh reflections takes some trial and error. Lately, I've been using wifi-enabled photo frames to display my best shots, and it's really cool being able to swap images easily without printing. Seeing the trichomes up close on a rotating slideshow never gets old.