Macro Timelapse Technique Improved!
I discussed previously about my focus stacking technique with my FZ-1000 camera. But the problem with this technique is that first it is my main camera and second, it has a relatively large sensor which makes the depth of field pretty narrow and the smallest focus change is not sensible enough to avoid ring effects.
So for longer time lapses, better accuracy and where and I can extend the exposition time as I wish while keeping the ISO to the minimum I developed another technique that work nicely with my old FZ-50 camera. It consists into moving slightly the camera back and forth using a stepper motor and taking picture at different positions. Then using a script I focus stack the picture based on their creation date. The watering is controlled so that it water after a picture sequence to avoid artefacts.
Microcontroller board with the drives:
The water pump is powered with a TIP 120 transistor. I used an old Wet Jet soap pump for my water pump as it runs on batteries. The camera is isolated from the circuit using an optocoupler TLP627. The original design for the camera trigger came from:
Close-up on the mechanical part:
I use a 28byj-48 stepper motor which run smooth on batteries and I used a gearbox of 1:3 in Lego to increase it's torque a little bit. It also made the conception a little bit easier.
Here is the result:
