I knew that lens would come in handy

[nfoto]

'That lens' in this case being the 60mm f/4 Macro Novoflex, which I purchased on a whim after reading Ulf's lens post.

 

My aquatic plant project has commenced and field studies are underway. This season will be even more hectic than the earlier years. Duckweeds are early entries as they come out of hibernation. Today, I sampled a population of Red Duckweed Lemna turionifera Landolt which is a neglected and frequently overlooked member of our native aquatic flora. It belongs to the cryptic species complex around L. minor Common Duckweed and is not easy to identify. As the specific epithet 'turionifera' implies, this species survives the cold winter by forming special buds, or turions. They are filled with starch and pigments and sink to the bottom to overwinter there.

 

M y thought was that UV might show additional detail as the pigments possibly could lead to some UV "colouring". So I examined a specimen under UV, using the Nikon D3200 with its built-in Baader U, and the 60mm f/4 Macro Novoflex on a suitable Novoflex bellows. The rig was set up for 3.5X magnification, and UV provided by 2*Nemo torches.

 

Here is the result. Zerene Stacker, 80 frames. The scale bar is 1mm. The plant moves a little around during the UV exposures thus clinical sharpness is hard to get. But one gets the picture as it were.

 

 

The turions are very easy to observe, being rendered UV black (any false green therein probably is an artefact of the stacking process so should be ignored).

 

I need to repeat with other populations to see whether the UV signature is a reliable means of identifying this species.

[colinbm]

Wow, those spacings are 1/100mm ?

[colinbm]

How much extension do you need to get this close ?

[nfoto]

Approx. 19cm total from rear flange of lens to focal plane. The camera itself adds 46.5mm, the bellows about 12cm, and the remainder from an extension tube with the CPU (to allow EXIF data) and mount coupling adapters.

 

The Novoflex bellows device is quite small and pretty robust as the material is not cloth, but some plastic-y fabric. Thus it can stand the odd bit of rain in the field. There is a built-in macro rail there as well. For this capture, I did not extend the bellows draw to its full extent.

[colinbm]

Thanks Birna, looks good.

[nfoto]

For those not familiar with the Novoflex bellows, here it is deployed on a D810 with the Mitutoyo 5x/0.14 metallurgic objective. (this is visual light photography).

 

 

I have several of these bellows devices and one is usually packed for any longer field excursion. The rear rotates. The front is typically equipped with an F mount.

[colinbm]

Jaw dropping.....

[nfoto]

This is the actual shooting setup for the Lemna snapshot. (I didn't post it initially because the bellows is a bit difficult to discern amidst the work space chaos).

 

 

Lemna, like other delicate aquatic plants, don't stand up well to the inevitable heat blast following my usual big Broncolor strobes. So I tried with the Nemo torches instead, which apparently worked quite well. Some shifting is not to be avoided even in this case, as the fronds have to float in a minimum of water and this dries quickly out.

[colinbm]

Mmmmmm