How to photograph a nib?

[Saurabh D]

I'm learning nib grinding and I'd like to be able to take pictures of the tip to compare and analyze what I've done. The zoom on my mobile phone does nothing. What should I use to photograph my nibs? Thanks a lot.

[Karmachanic]

To start. Find a camera app for you phone that has a macro setting. For example; iPhone  - Camera+ 2

Next. Buy a macro lens for your phone.

Lastly.  Buy a conventional camera with a macro lens.

[Saurabh D]

8 minutes ago, Karmachanic said:

To start. Find a camera app for you phone that has a macro setting. For example; iPhone  - Camera+ 2

Next. Buy a macro lens for your phone.

Lastly.  Buy a conventional camera with a macro lens.

Thanks a lot. I shall try the app and the phone macro lens.

Can't invest in a camera right now.

[joss]

An alternative is to buy a USB mini-microscope. The best ones are not really cheap but even the cheap ones might be sufficient for your purpose. The microscope is connected to a pc or laptop and you can produce a full screen and blown up image of your nib. Also, the microscope can be mounted as a stand alone item, allowing you to continuously check the progression of your grinding work.

[Saurabh D]

21 minutes ago, joss said:

An alternative is to buy a USB mini-microscope. The best ones are not really cheap but even the cheap ones might be sufficient for your purpose. The microscope is connected to a pc or laptop and you can produce a full screen and blown up image of your nib. Also, the microscope can be mounted as a stand alone item, allowing you to continuously check the progression of your grinding work.

Beautiful idea. I shall find one. Thanks a lot.

 

[joss]

3 minutes ago, Saurabh D said:

Beautiful idea. I shall find one. Thanks a lot.

 

 

as a side note: I think that the very cheapest ones should be avoided so best is to first check the various user reviews that you can find for instance on different Amazon websites (and subsequently buy from a trusted seller).

[Ron Z]

I would recommend something better than a phone camera, but neither do you need a DSLR.  I have a (now older) Canon Digital ELPH - an SD-1200 IS.  I chose it after going into Staples and testing the macro mode on every camera on display by focusing on a nib.  It works very well, and all of my pen, and pen related pictures are taken with it.  Just go testing cameras and their macro-mode before buying. 

 

[kulnet]

I just use my iphone camera with a loupe over the camera lens and that seems to do a good enough job.

[sansenri]

When taking photographs of very small objects a macro lens would obviously be ideal.

Nevertheless, if you are attempting to take macros with cheaper gear, such as a phone with a lens attached, the two things you need to additionally control are lighting and how the object is held.

The more lighting you have the more your gear will be able to make an accurate photo. With a camera, even in program mode, you will get more depth of field, so sharper focus throughout the image,  as the lens will need to be less open. A less open lens needs more light or more exposure time to take a correct photo, more exposure will cause blurring due to movement. That is why you need to hold your subject still, and your camera possibly too.

In the end it would really be good to have a tripod, a static holder of some kind to hold the pen, a light tent, and artificial lighting... But you can sort of achieve similar results if you set up the photo in a well lit place (next to a window) use white reflectors around the object (a white piece of cardboard will do just fine), block the pen so that it will not move, and use something to support your camera or phone as you take the photo (a pile of books?)
 

This was taken with a loupe in front of my phone, hand held (so there's still space for improvement, could be sharper)

[sansenri]

PS phone zooms are not the answer, what they do is degrade image quality so you get a larger image but the finer details are lost, which is not what you want when checking the tip of your nib. Use the phone without any zoom at all, but put a strong lens in front of its lens, a loupe is ideal.

[es9]

 

 

 

6 hours ago, joss said:

An alternative is to buy a USB mini-microscope. 

 

Interesting.  How well do these work in practice?  I've been using an old stereo microscope for a while which is amazing.  But it takes up a lot of desk/bench space.  

 

 

5 hours ago, Ron Z said:

I would recommend something better than a phone camera, but neither do you need a DSLR.  I have a (now older) Canon Digital ELPH - an SD-1200 IS.  I chose it after going into Staples and testing the macro mode on every camera on display by focusing on a nib.  It works very well, and all of my pen, and pen related pictures are taken with it.  Just go testing cameras and their macro-mode before buying. 

 

 

That is a *beautiful* nib.  I've read somewhere about the frosted/two-tone nibs, but I don't think I've seen such a clear picture.  Does the shape of the breather hole/longish tines make it at all flexible (even though it's a 9556)?

[EdgarK]

Quote

Does the shape of the breather hole/longish tines make it at all flexible (even though it's a 9556)?

I don't know this nib, but the breather holes don't affect the flexibility I think. I don't think they are at all holes to "breath" - it is more that they wanted to prevent the nib to crack at the end of the slit in the earlier days when nibs were flexible.

 

This is an example for a two-tone nib close-up:

 

 

But the thing is: I cannot really recommend smartphones or similar for that work. If you want get really close close-ups, you get a problem: Light. Due to low depth of field you will need to close the aperture, otherwise you will get this:

 

 

Some people would probably say this is a good picture, but it is clearly not a good picture, because the edges of the nib are unsharp for no reason (in macro photography you want to show all the details, not blur them). This is way better:

 

 

And even better is this background tone, I think:

 

 

To achieve this, you need a stand, close the aperture and increase the exposure time. Both is no problem. Even on smartphones you can do that all using Apps which can control the camera, but since the sensor is so small (such small sensors are still a problem today) I highly doubt if you can get really good results if you want a usable depth of field. From that what I saw, still the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max is not good when it comes to low light, which - as far as I know - simply has to do with the small sensors in smartphones. Smartphones make great photos, as long you don't need a (native) good looking bokeh and don't have to handle low light situations.

 

But you definitely do not need expensive equipment. To get the photos I made, you only need an older DSLR Nikon such as the D3300 and a Micro-Nikkor. You can see here what I exactly used for the photos. I think the price, about $400-500 (camera + lens, both used), will be only a bit more than a two or three year old iPhone - and it probably will last way longer.

 

(Still a Mikro-Nikkor lens, but to film I used a Lumix G7 which I bought used for about $280)