Looking at some incredible macro images on Flickr fired me up to have a go at tabletop macro at magnifications far greater than 1:1. Not sure how I would get on, so the budget was set at ?10 and make use of whatever I had around. Starter was the base and that is from my old Phillips PCS2000 enlarger. I made a spacer and bolt to attach the macro slide. For the subject table I was looking for movement in 3 orientations, so used the compound table from my bench drill. To save the compound table scratching the enlarger base it is mounted on 4 rubber feet I bought in Maplins. Bolted to that is a vertical rising table to sit the subject on. This is the focus stage from my enlarger topped of with a bit of aluminium held in place by electrical tape. The flexible flash bracket is a gooseneck microphone stand also from Maplins. As bought this was not stiff enough to support the flashgun so I inserted 5 lengths of fencing wire to stiffen it up. This is topped off with a ball head taken from an old Jessops mini tabletop tripod. In addition to all that I had to do a mod to my 1980's Panagor Auto bellows. In its native form this is not stiff enough to resist vibrations at high magnifications. So the front standard was drilled and tapped and the bellows attatched to a length of aluminium. The rear standard has the main fixing point and a groove was cut in the ally base to allow the front standard a degree of front rear movement before it is locked down. This is visible in view2. In the setup shown the extension is 230mm. This is made up by the bellows, and Nikon PK12, 13 and PN11 extension tubes. A teleconverter can be added to the camera for even greater magnification, and that was the setup I used to take the 'Ballpen Tip' in my photostream.

Mt Shuksan and Artist Point from Tabletop Mountain on October 13, 2010.