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Hi <<First Name>>,
This is our periodic newsletter of news, tips, and advice about making images with incredible detail, all in focus, all the time.
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A brand new image this month, called "Entomology Conference". It was made by Gene for a webcast he made to support a couple of customers. I liked that it could be a conference of bugs or an image for a conference about bugs.
This is a 2.56 gigapixel image. 11 columns and 20 rows in the image on the web gallery Click on the link or the image and be sure to scroll and zoom!
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More Engineering Changes.
We are constantly improving our systems and software - I talked about some of that last month - and this month in the workshop we've been making changes to the control box. Lot's of improvements in the wiring - primarily to reduce tension on cables, and therefore breakages that can be frustrating!
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On the left, the cable bundle in its new form; on the right, fitted into the upgraded Control Box.
We also have new voltage regulators (the small items at the bottom of the right hand picture) that will be added to the Control Box and will provide more accurate and stable voltage for e.g. cameras and flash.
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Fame in Japan!
We were approached by AXIS, a Japanese design, gallery and magazine with their own multi-floor AXIS Gallery in downtown Tokyo. They produced a very nice article that was published in their October edition, in a section on future imaging systems.
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New in the Shop: How we Build the Systems.
At our HQ in Napa, we build the Magnify2 from scratch. Some parts are made by local vendors (cut by a water jet), and others we build in house. It all comes together to make the system you know and love. Many of the parts we make are produced on a CNC mill in the workshop here. When I got back from vacation I found this:
The original, small, mill can be seen in the exterior (top) picture; it's the small blue box on the left. Compare and contrast with our new machine! This one will work on pieces up to 5' by 4' which means that we'll make more of the parts in house. Including milling out the crates that will be used for shipping the Magnifies to their new homes.
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Templates are Hot!
We have a blog article on how to create and use templates to photograph many specimens in single run.
Check out the blog!
We are working with the California Academy of Sciences to develop improved methods for imaging a large number of specimens (they have about 1.5 million bugs, 15,000 of them are of extreme importance). We have a prototype imaging table that we will be using there. This is an early drawing (WARNING it may be different by the time it ships!).
The left image in the drawing is the scanning table, made from cast acrylic and this will be in a fixed position on the rig (not movable on bumpers as the current glass table is). This will enable us to have known positions that allow specimens to be placed in set positions with precision. The holes on the left and right of the imaging table - by the way, the table will be produced using our new mill - see the piece earlier in the newsletter - are for pins that will be used to locate a template (see the right hand illustration in the drawing) that holds the specimen holder precisely in a vertical or horizontal position.
If needed, a grid or diffuser can be placed above the imaging table and below the template holder. The diffuser will be most useful when the specimen is to be backlit with the (optional) backflash.
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Get Your Budget Hat on!
Next month we will announce our new support and maintenance options. It's not yet finalized, but we expect to have three 'tiers' with varying levels of service to meet your needs. Naomi has all the information, email her for details!
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Tip of the Month
Although your system comes configured with all applications needed for the capture and processing on a single machine, it makes sense in bigger installations to have, say, stacking running on one machine with stitching and filing on another. And for your stacking machine, processor power is the biggest influence on time taken to stack. For image processing, using (for example) Photoshop, processor and memory is critical - more is better.
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Our Social Media stuff.....
Please ask your colleagues and friends to follow us on the social media links below. We do have a steady stream of information that we publish there between newsletters, and it's a good way to follow our customers and partners too!
Click on any (or all!!!) of the buttons below to follow us on these sites.
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