#HELICON FOCUS STACKING TUBE MANUAL#
#HELICON FOCUS STACKING TUBE SOFTWARE#
#HELICON FOCUS STACKING TUBE SERIES#

You want to aim for the exposure, white balance, framing – pretty much everything except the point of focus – to be exactly the same for each shot in your sequence. The key thing at the shooting stage is consistency. The sharply focused parts of each frame are then combined during post-processing to create a single composite image with an extended depth of field that simply wouldn't be possible in a single shot. Rather than taking a single photograph, multiple exposures are made, with each one focused at a slightly different distance. Some of my colleagues are ditching Nikon and Canon and moving to MFT or the Fuji and these latter companies should wake up.Focus stacking is a two-part process that starts with the picture-taking stage. My only problem is that I am pretty heavily into Nikon and I hesitate to invest in another system.

#HELICON FOCUS STACKING TUBE SERIES#

Does the Olympus focus stacking try to process the stack in camera (which would concern me) or merely produce a series of JPEG or raw files to be processed in the usual way? I have been considering the Olympus E-M1 Mark II and it appears to have these features too. The Olympus sounds very good and those features should be incorporated into Nikon and Canon. No mirror to lock up, first curtain AND second curtain electronic shutter (usable with flash on the PEN F though not on older cameras), and user-selected charging delay time between shots (or automatic shooting of each shot as soon as the flash is ready if using Olympus flashes). The Olympus in-camera focus bracketing function solves all those issues, and I would recommend it to anyone considering this. If using flash, one would want to allow time for the flash to recharge.

Shooting in live view would be an option, since the mirror would already be up. Depending on the camera, this could be difficult to accomplish in burst mode. Also, one might want to use electronic first shutter if available. Lou Jost wrote:'For more extreme macro, one would likely want to use mirror up and allow a settle time for vibrations to die down after raising the mirror and before taking the shot. Like Rik noted, the tube might be useful for stacking in the field for modest stacks. For deep stacks, many would use Zerene but both of these Helicon methods can of course be used with any stacking software. Furthermore, in extreme macro, one would likely use focus with a rail rather than focus by ring, and possibly use a microscope objective. In addition, one can view the images on the larger LCD of a cell phone or, even better, a tablet.įor more extreme macro, one would likely want to use mirror up and allow a settle time for vibrations to die down after raising the mirror and before taking the shot.

#HELICON FOCUS STACKING TUBE SOFTWARE#

The software determines the focus increment and stops when the far point has been reached. This is unlike Helicon Remote where one selects the near and far points in the image space.

One could try to chimp with magnified views, but this could be difficult to determine on the small LCD of the camera. There does not be a clear method to determine when this distant point has been reached and the burst should be terminated. One would start shooting at the nearest object that should be in focus and one would continue shooting until the focus increment moves the point of focus to the most distal object that should be in focus. Once this is done, one shoots in burst mode on the camera.

#HELICON FOCUS STACKING TUBE MANUAL#

In looking at the Helicon web site, I can find no manual for the FB Tube, but I infer from the video that the photo-receptor on the tube is to upload configuration data from a cell phone or tablet. Mjkzz wrote:I do not have Helicon Tube, but looking at the picture on their site, it seems that there is a photo sensor that detects flashes going off, so this is one way to get that signal (camera has taken a picture)

Helicon focus stacking tube