More Olympus TG-6 Tomfoolery

Recently I wrote about using the in-camera focus stacking on the Olympus TG-6 for macro photography, today I thought I'd push it as hard as I can to test the limits of this camera. The first idea was to create multiple inage stacks (by pressing the shutter repeatedly) and then stack them all together using Helicon Focus. This was ... partly successful. My first test subject was ... a pencil. I made 9 image stacks then fed them into Helicon. 

The problem is that no matter how hard I tried I couldn't keep the camera from moving between stacks - any movement at all degrades the final Helicon stack. The best I managed was three aligned stacks (3x15=45 images), which is the pencil you see above. 

I then moved on to wildlife. With a small spider (Diplostyla concolor), about the same size as the pencil tip in the above image, I couldn't manage to get multiple stacks without camera movement - this was the best, a single set of 15 images. 

When I tried with the bug Drymus ryei, the same thing happened, but the result still wasn't bad. So it was time for the big head to head: Olympus TG-6 versus Sony a6500 with Sony 90mm macro lens - a camera with a 12MP sensor versus a setup with a 24MP sensor costing four times as much. 

Olympus TG-6

Sony a6500

And the result was ... well the Sony is better (duuh) (click on the photos for larger images), but the TG-6 gives it a run for its money, costs a fraction of the price and fits in a shirt pocket. Good job TG-6! 

I could of course carry on with this nonsense by putting the TG-6 on a tripod and using the Olympus OI.Share app to remote trigger the camera. But that, I'm sure you agree, would just be silly...

 

Parasitic Mites on Corixids

I ventured out recently, broke the centimetre-thick ice on a local pool and underneath, found abundant Corixids happily over wintering and unbothered by the cold. Among the species I found was this specimen of Callicorixa praeusta: 

You may notice the small red object protruding from the rear end. Looking closely, this was a mite attached to the bug rather than part of the Corixid: 

Phoretic (hitchhiker) mites are not uncommon on Arachnids but a little research told me that this was in fact the larva of a Hydrachna water mite.

These larvae are actually parasitic rather than phoretic, feeding on the haemolymph of the Corixid. There is some interesting information here: http://coo.fieldofscience.com/2014/12/hunter-balls-hydracha-water-mites.html  They are not as common on Corixids as on some other Arachnids and I have no idea how much harm they inflict on the host. 

Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,

And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.

Augustus De Morgan 

 

 

Olympus TG-6 Update

The Olympus TG-6 is my goto camera, the one I pick up first. I'm amazed how good this camera is for macro photography, and how such a powerful package can slip into a shirt pocket. (Having said which, an iPhone beats it for landscape and portraits). I've already made a few tweaks to improve the quality of images this camera delivers but today I made a few more.

Photography is all about the lighting, macro photography even more so. I've previously written about how important the Olympus Light Guide is for macro photography, and made one tweak to improve this further. This simple (and cheap) macro diffuser for Olympus TG cameras is useful in avoiding the burnt out highlights which result from having the light source so close to the image. This is a particular problem with shiny objects such as beetles and water drops. It's cheap and it works but it's a bit limited in how it can be applied, so today I made Mark II - a circle of packaging foam crudely taped to the front of the Olympus Light Guide! This further level of diffusion on top of the Light Guide is much more flexible in how it can be used, producing less harsh images with more detail. 

The other thing I have explored today is the in-camera focus bracketing versus in-camera stacking. The TG-6 focus stacking has been my goto macro setting for any subject that's not moving. In contrast, in-camera focus bracketing produces a series of images which can be assembled into an image using third party software (in my case, Helicon Focus).  Producing such an image sequence manually with a camera as small as the TG-6 is not practical. Focus bracketing still requires a static subject, but the advantage is that you can pick and choose which images are included in the stack, plus which software such as Helicon is more sophisticated and allows more adjustments then the built in program. Stacking the images manually is an extra step but assuming you can brace the camera to avoid movement during the capture (or use a tripod and a remote shutter release, which seems a bit crazy for a camera this small), the improvement in the result is usually worthwhile. Put the diffuser and focus bracketing together and the output is great for such a small pocket camera. 

(click for larger image) 

 

Entomology Journal - October 2024

A month of variable weather and troublesome Hymenoptera...

VC55 Terrestrial Heteroptera Recording and Checklist

After a great deal of work - mostly by my colleagues with a shamingly small contribution from me - we were finally able to publish the first two parts of our documentation of VC55 Bug Recording: 

LESOPS 63: VC55 Terrestrial Heteroptera VC55 Terrestrial Heteroptera Part 1: Recorders and Recording. Sue Timms, Kate Nightingale & Alan Cann. Leicestershire & Rutland Entomological Society Occasional Publications Series 63, October 2024. ISSN 095–1019. Available at: https://www.naturespot.org.uk/sites/default/files/2024-10/LESOPS63TerrestrialHeteroptera.pdf

LESOPS 64: VC55 Terrestrial Heteroptera Part 2: Provisional Checklist. Sue Timms, Kate Nightingale & Alan Cann. Leicestershire & Rutland Entomological Society Occasional Publications Series 64, October 2024. ISSN 095–1019 Available at: https://www.naturespot.org.uk/sites/default/files/2024-10/LESOPS64TerrestrialHeteropteraChecklist.pdf 

The plan is for more to follow in future, covering the other major groups. 

My Journal, October 2024

03.x.2024 

Worked on a range of Lygus specimens. I finally feel confident about these tricky bugs (as long as I can find a male!). 

04.x.2024

After the rain of the past week it was good to spend a day out at Melton Country Park. I was surprised to realise that I hadn't actually been there for nine years. I found a very good range of insects the highlights of which were Micronecta scholtzi, lots of Anthocoris limbatus and my favourite ladybird, Hippodamia variegata, the Adonis Ladybird.

05.x.2024

A friend dropped some specimens off for me to identify. The highlight was a male Anyphena numida. This is the first record of this spider for Leicestershire and Rutland. It was first identified in the UK in 2017 and is spreading rapidly from the southeast. 

10.x.2024

After much prevarication I finally cleaned the sensors on the microscope cameras. I don't like doing this because of the risk of damage but it seems to have worked well - far fewer annoying spots in the images now. 

11.x.2024

Quite a good frost, giving me hope for good autumn colour in the days to come took a trip to Cossington Meadows mostly targeting the pools with the dipnet. This produced some good records, including Corixia dentipes.

13.x.2024

Lots of fungi around but I'm very rusty on my ID skills. I'm aware that AI identification divides opinion, but it you think it's going to go away, you've lost the plot. The latest AI incarnation I've become aware of is the beta version of automated picture recognition on the Danish Fungal Atlas website. Seems pretty good to me, with the obvious limitations - https://ajcarthropoda.blogspot.com/2024/10/more-on-unstoppable-rise-of-ai.html

15.x.2024

Took a trip down to Blaby and Countesthorpe. Pond dipping produced a good range of species. 

17.x.2024

Enjoyed a very good LRES meeting at which Ray Morris discussed gall midges, even though galls and Diptera are not my area! Good to have face to face discussions. 

18.x.2024

After a misty start, took a trip to Shady Lane Arboretum on a sunny but windy afternoon before Storm Ashley hits over the weekend. 

21.x.2024

Visited a private estate at Osbaston to do some recording. In the walled garden we found the best growth of Mistletoe that I have ever seen on one of the old apple trees. Even better was the fact that it was only a few feet off the ground. Gently beating this produced a possible single specimen of Anthocoris visci, a Mistletoe-dependent species I have been looking for for two years. Unfortunately this turned out to be a female so we have been unable to confirm the species by dissection. However, a nearby Box hedge also produced Anthocoris butleri, also a good record.  Unfortunately I didn't spot a wasp nest I was standing next to (while trying not to fall in a stream) and managed to get stung on the hand by a wasp, but carried on recording after making a very swift exit, pursued by wasps. 

22.x.2024

Very pleased to have a flying visit from Jon Daws, dropping off some old record material. 

The hand which was stung by the wasp yesterday is now very swollen and painful making it difficult to do anything. I'm becoming increasingly annoyed that I didn't identify the wasp that stung me so that I could record it, and I regard an arm covered in very angry wasps as a rather poor excuse (even though running away as fast as possible was the smart thing to do under the circumstances). 

27.x.2024

Took Jon Daw's tuning fork (in D) to the Botanical Gardens to bother a few spiders in their webs. Moderately successful although there doesn't seem to be that much around at present. 

30.x.2024

A return visit to Osbaston to try to confirm the Anthocoris visci record from a week ago. Sadly we were unsuccessful. 

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