Close-up photography with the Raspberry Pi HQ Camera

In the previous blog I ended up photographing the Moon with the adaptation of the view camera with a large telephoto using a Raspberry Pi HQ CameraRaspberry Pi HQ Camera and a Raspberry Pi 4BRaspberry Pi 4B.

Now we are going to try macro photography using a lens used to print 6x6 cm medium format negatives.

Full moon 2021-07-23 Spain with the Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera and a Schneider - Kreuznach Tele - Arton 1:5,5/270

Macro photography

Macro photography is close-up photography of small subjects.

Normal-type lenses that produce excellent images with objects at moderate to long distances may not produce satisfactory images when used to photograph small objects nearby.

The reason for this difference is that the lens designer can minimize the aberrations only for one object distance for fixed focal length lenses.

The problem is accentuated in the faster lenses in which the diameter of all the elements is increased.

For this reason, it became necessary to design macro lenses.

Macro lenses have the aberrations corrected for short object distances, but because they are one to three stops slower than the fast normal-type lenses, they also produce satisfactory images when focused on large object distances.

Macro lenses are very expensive, in this blog we are going to use an approach to macro photography with other types of alternative lenses.

Normal-type view camera lenses like the ones used in the previous blog, Raspberry Pi HQ View Camera - From the roof to the moon, can be used at moderately short object distances before objectionable degradation of the image occurs.

In the past other types of lenses have been used on view cameras for close-up photography of small objects: process lenses, enlarger lenses and magnifying lenses like focussing magnifiers.

• Process lenses were used in process cameras in the field of photomechanical reproduction.
• Enlarger lenses were used for making prints. Because aberrations in enlarging lenses are minimized for relatively short object distances, a good enlarger lens can be used on a view camera as a high-quality close-up or macro lens.
• Magnifying lenses used for fine-focussing the image on the ground glass before exposing the film.

Schneider Kreuznach Componon-S 4,0/80 mm and Schneider Kreuznach Lupe 8x

Schneider Kreuznach Componon-S 4,0/80 mm

We will use a high quality Schneider Kreuznach Componon-S 4,0/80 mm. The Schneider 80mm Componon-S is one of the top professional enlarging lenses. It is a 6-element, 4-group lens that is corrected for flat field, high contrast transfer, and excellent definition over the whole field.

The 80mm lens provides coverage up to a 6 x 6 cm format negative.The high performance of the Componon-S is maintained even at high magnifications. This Componon-S lens has a M39 rear mount thread, and is fitted in to a barrel with a lighted click stop aperture scale. With this system the iris can be opened after stopping down to the desired aperture for final cropping adjustment or fine focusing. A lever then returns the iris to the previously selected working aperture shown on the luminous scale.

For macro photography, the enlarger lenses are mounted in reverse. An enlarger lens is specifically designed to project light through a flat negative onto a sheet of printing paper.

So if used in reverse, the enlarger lens is perfectly designed to project an image onto a flat digital sensor. We have tested it in both ways and for 80mm and the size of the small sensor of the Raspberry Pi HQ Camera there is hardly any difference to put the lens in reverse or not.

All the photos below are taken with the lens mounted in the normal position, without inversion. This has made it easier for me to focus with maximum aperture and to be able to close a couple of f-stops in the final shot.

Azure Sphere Starter Kit close-ups

We tested the lens in normal position without reverse mounting.

We started by taking a series of close-up photos of an Azure Sphere Starter KitAzure Sphere Starter Kit board

We get a little closer.

and closer

and much closer

and we're already starting to have trouble keeping focus

Raspberry Pi 4B close-ups

Some more photos of the Raspberry Pi 4B boardRaspberry Pi 4B board

Camera Remote Control Software

All photos taken with the Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera and the Raspberry Pi Model B have been taken using version 6.6.15 of RPi-Cam-Web-Interface.

RPi-Cam-Web-Interface is a web based interface for controlling the Raspberry Pi Camera. It can be used for a wide variety of applications including surveillance, dvr recording and time lapse photography. It is highly configurable and can be extended with the use of macro scripts. It can be opened on any browser (smartphones included)

https://elinux.org/RPi-Cam-Web-Interface

https://github.com/silvanmelchior/RPi_Cam_Web_Interface

Conclusions

We have been able to verify the use of the Raspberry Pi HQ Camera module for both telephotography and macro photography with lenses that were not designed for this camera with very satisfactory results for personal use.

The Raspberry Pi HQ Camera module is a very versatile module. Although it is not enough for professional photography, it gives very good results for web illustration.

References

• View Camera Technique by Leslie Stroebel, Routledge; 7th edition (March 31 1999)
• The Camera by Ansel Adams, New York Graphic Society, 1982
• Life Library of Photography: The Camera, Photography as a Tool, Special Problems, Photographing Nature, Frontiers of Photography.