Nikon D40 macro night shooting rig
Here's my D40 set up for night shooting using a small LED light to assist in focusing. Mounted on the camera is a 105mm f/2.5 AI-S lens fitted with a home-made adapter for reverse mounting certain enlarger lenses for high magnification shooting. Inside the red ring adapter is a 90mm Laminex enlarging lens, reverse mounted, with the aperture set wide open (f/4.5) to minimize vignetting. The 105mm lens is left set at infinity, the camera moved forward and backward to focus.
Below the lens is a cheap LED "ball cap" light used to illuminate the subject when shooting in total darkness. It's bright enough to light your way for walking. Its fold out support, minus a small strap, is held against the shade of the 105mm with a plastic / rubber kitchen jar lid remover. The shade and light rotates so the angle can be changed for working around foliage that might block light coming from a certain direction. The field width with the 90mm Laminex is 3/4", with a working distance of 2 3/8". Lighting is provided by the pop up flash shot through a diffuser made from a dish that comes in a frozen dinner.... left off for this photo. I use the camera's native 1/500 sec flash sync speed, but can shoot at much higher speeds if using an external flash... up to 1/4000 second.
IMG-1196H
Nikon D40 macro night shooting rig
Here's my D40 set up for night shooting using a small LED light to assist in focusing. Mounted on the camera is a 105mm f/2.5 AI-S lens fitted with a home-made adapter for reverse mounting certain enlarger lenses for high magnification shooting. Inside the red ring adapter is a 90mm Laminex enlarging lens, reverse mounted, with the aperture set wide open (f/4.5) to minimize vignetting. The 105mm lens is left set at infinity, the camera moved forward and backward to focus.
Below the lens is a cheap LED "ball cap" light used to illuminate the subject when shooting in total darkness. It's bright enough to light your way for walking. Its fold out support, minus a small strap, is held against the shade of the 105mm with a plastic / rubber kitchen jar lid remover. The shade and light rotates so the angle can be changed for working around foliage that might block light coming from a certain direction. The field width with the 90mm Laminex is 3/4", with a working distance of 2 3/8". Lighting is provided by the pop up flash shot through a diffuser made from a dish that comes in a frozen dinner.... left off for this photo. I use the camera's native 1/500 sec flash sync speed, but can shoot at much higher speeds if using an external flash... up to 1/4000 second.
IMG-1196H