Harry Harrison

Actually Alex I think you mean specifically the Alamy Portfolio feature, you get to that from your dashboard, one of the options at the bottom below the graph. There are threads on how to set it up. it's a bit clunky in my opinion.

Incidentally it seems he uses something called ZereneStacker https://zerenesystems.com/cms/stacker a little pricy perhaps but then his requirements are about as high end as high end can be.

I can't help thinking that there's an element of this when it comes to focus stacking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f19hF7-nT8g

Absolutely extraordinary results, reassuringly Heath Robinson look to the setup, but not to the results of course. There's another article about him here, as well as what appear to be other interesting features (requires free registration): https://lectureinprogress.com/journal/levon-biss He's clearly a very focused individual in every sense.

Thanks, I've long had a macro focusing slide, now I know what to use it for!

I wondered if I'd read that correctly in one of your previous comments, look after yourself and get well soon.

I'm completely out of my depth here, but in theory would it be better if the lens could be clamped in position and the camera (sensor) moves back or forwards as focus is changed? I'm wondering if there is a parallel here with using a shift lens to do a panoramic in an interior, with a view camera the lens would stay in the same place and the back would be shifted left and right which is more or less impractical with a shift lens when obviously the body is mounted to the tripod.

Went to a local town to the supermarket yesterday, hadn't been out for quite a few days. This is a very busy A road, part of it is know locally for very good reason as the "notorious 13 bends of death". There was very little traffic, a revelation, but we came across a fox strolling in the road, and the pheasants were getting very casual, the animals are reclaiming the streets. Clearly, particularly at night you now need to take even greater care to avoid foxes, badgers and deer in rural areas.

I know nothing about it but I've been very interested in what I've seen on this thread. Would I be right in thinking that everything has to be completely still for this to work?

I don't think it's possible to read that article in any other way than to conclude that getting the population of China to wear, and to continue to wear masks was and continues to be an important factor in beating this disease. The other crucial factor was testing and more testing together with tracking and using phone apps to detect and warn others of areas of risk. Those are the lessons from China and they have worked and in theory we could use those lessons here but there are major problems with this for our society. The most obvious one on simple practical terms is that we don't the have masks in sufficient quantities and we don't have the testing facilities, we still don't even though there's been at least an 8 week lead into this crisis. Of course China made most of the masks anyway but I've read that they also bought up and imported large stocks from around the world as soon as they could see what was going to happen. Foreign companies have their production facilities in China but their production was diverted to the home market where it was most needed at that time, now I think things are changing and China is in a position to export again. The other difference is of course our society, people don't take kindly to being told what to do, only to go out once a day, to keep 2 metres apart etc. etc. I'm very grateful for the society that we live in and we all saw videos of how transgressors in China were dealt with. However the downside is that proven effective measures for dealing with this crisis have had to been brought in and introduced too slowly to the British public as responses to the severity of the bad news on the day. In a crisis that grows exponentially that's a terrifying delay. I'm prepared to take Mr. Gau's word that we are making a big mistake by not requiring everyone to wear masks but here that would most definitely mean depriving those on the front line from having them, and shockingly they still don't seem to have them anyway.

I think the Mk.II would be a camera that you could easily use alongside your Fuji X-Pro2 (itself an excellent camera) whereas with the Mk. 1 I think you might find 12MP a little frustrating, and there is also the matter of sensor cleaning as Kumar says. Looking on MBP in the UK 'excellent' versions of each go for £279 & £499 respectively. I use the MK. II, very happy with it, though as with anything I imagine if I used the Mk. III or IV I might be less so. However I use it on manual, usually at low ISO, always back-button focus, so maybe not.

I'd be very surprised if the measurements that Kevin gave won't be the same for your lens but using your tripod arrangement you can set your lens for 1:1, or thereabouts to give you a little bit of cropping leeway, and then measure the distance from the lens to the slide. Then deduct the length of the ES-1 as Kevin has explained and then work out which combination of extension rings and step down rings you need. MDM preferred to buy 52mm rings but the 58mm rings would be just as good and come in a good range of suitable lengths. Obviously you'll need to buy the appropriate step-down ring(s) according to whether you go for 52mm or 58mm diam. extension rings. It will be worth the effort but you do need to invest a bit of time in understanding what we are describing. It will be so much better than what you are doing at the moment.

Thanks, I think this thread turned into a very good resource for anyone wanting to use the ES-1 on any lens, it's all here.

Excellent Kevin, thank you.

My mistake, I thought it was 81mm to the slide, including the ES-1. Hopefully Ian will measure the distance to the slide himself but then he would need to deduct the length of the ES-1 to get the extension required. With that 81mm extension does that get you to the middle of the range of adjustment built in to the ES-1 itself, and roughly how much is that in fact?