nie

[Darcy]

Have a new special macro lens. Very hard to focus and I think I can make a better photo of this, but what I did is interesting.

 

The colors coming off of the blade are very evident, as is the fine transitions between crystals of nie. This is one small line of kinsuji in my Go Yoshihiro, the magnification is... big.

 

 

Double the resolution here:

 

http://www.nihonto.ca/go-nie.jpg

 

I'm going to see if I can't improve, the problem is the depth of field is less than a millimeter and the lens does not really focus. You're supposed to move the camera. Things are so fine that just touching the camera on the tripod moves it enough to change the focus. Anyway I will experiment and I'll put up a couple other Soshu pictures when I have something good.

[watsonmil]

Darcy,

I'm wondering if you are going for too large a magnification. The photo gives the impression of a satellite shot of an " Earth " feature. On my screen there are a lot of red and blues coming thru. A most interesting photograph, ... but perhaps somewhat less magnification might show the feature to a better advantage. ... Ron Watson

[Ford Hallam]

Darcy,

 

I reckon you need a focussing rail. These come highly recommended and the price here is generally the best;

Manfrotto focussing rail

 

regards

 

ford

[Gabriel L]

The Manfrotto rail can change focus slightly on lockdown, or at least my old copy did. But if you don't consider the *exact* focus point critical—or you keep the lock partly screwed while adjusting focus, so the change is minimal—it's absolutely the best value focusing rail. Otherwise, I like my Novoflex Castel-L rail, especially since the rail bottom is dovetailed like an arca-swiss plate, so it doesn't need its own tripod plate. But the Novoflex is probably too expensive for what it is; ditto the Really Right Stuff rail (which I've never used).

 

Neat photo, Darcy—for some reason I've never attempted macrophotography of swords, although they're an obvious subject.

[Henry Wilson]

Neat!!!

 

It would be interesting to see the same types of photos on a Ko Tosho or Ko Katchushi tsuba.

[Marius]

Have a new special macro lens. Very hard to focus and I think I can make a better photo of this, but what I did is interesting.

 

The colors coming off of the blade are very evident, as is the fine transitions between crystals of nie. This is one small line of kinsuji in my Go Yoshihiro, the magnification is... big

 

Darcy,

 

The fact that you own a Go Yoshihiro is mind-boggling (well, not really, knowing what treasures you handle). But your picture seems like trying to reflect the majestic beauty of a mountain by taking close pics of the rock it consists of. It might (or it might not) be interesting to metallurgists (although I think they would prefer pics from an electron microscope).

 

Still, very much appreciated :-) You might want to tell us a bit about this sword and its nie? It is on nihonto.ca, I think?