>>3424252They’re improving, still. I’ve started using my extra lamp to backlight; I’m revisiting basic lighting techniques to improve. I might want a fourth lamp and another stand.
I still want to experiment with a slightly brighter lamp, although getting bulbs with more wattage is hard because they aren’t produced in anything but 2ft tubes. Preferably I’d get something brighter, but smaller and easy to control/modify.
Once I get a fix on a better source of income, I can revisit it with some LEDs intended for science applications. I found a bunch a year ago, but they can only be purchased as individual units or very large sets. Then I’d need to build and wire them. A lot more money and planning is needed.
Right now I’m still trying to narrow down focus compensation. Even were I to have a background in optical physics, it might be the case that I wouldn’t be able to find detailed enough information on the EL-Nikkors to nail down a compensation factor mathematically. Of course, that’s naive speculation. I could probably come up with a reasonable one empirically using my calipers to measure changes in the helicoid’s extension.
This lack of ability to reliably hit focus is particularly killing me up close. At a distance it is totally manageable by stopping down.
As mentioned in my thread, the focus problem is exacerbated by the models’ moving while I screw in the filter. I can’t perform the initial focusing with the filter on.
Another approach would be to establish a focus scale through trials, and tape it to the helicoid. Then I wouldn’t need to look through to focus.
