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Incredible video of neuron connection wins Nikon Small World in Motion 2023

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Nikon Instruments Inc. has just announced the much-anticipated winners of its 13th annual Nikon Small World in Motion video competition. If you’ve ever thought visual art and cutting-edge science can’t be combined, this contest will convince you otherwise.

This year’s first-place prize went into the hands of Dr. Alexandre Dumoulin. His pioneering 48-hour time-lapse video shows the development of neurons within a chicken’s central nervous system. Not only is it hypnotizing to watch, but it’s also scientifically groundbreaking!

Take a microscopic journey into the colorful wings of Madagascan moth

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Butterflies and moths are gorgeous enough in real-life size… And their beautiful wings get even prettier and more colorful under a microscope. This is where Montréal-based microbiologist Chloé Savard, aka Tardibabe, placed a gorgeous Madagascan sunset moth. With the help of her microscope and iPhone, she took a mesmerizing video showing the delicate beauty and iridescence of the insect’s fabulous wings.

This magical microscopic video shows the bustling life of puddles

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The joy of microscopic photography and video is that it lets you discover an entirely new world in something seemingly mundane and ordinary. Scientist James Weiss found beauty and life in something most of us will avoid – puddles. In his video, he shows you just how much life there is in just a single drop of rainwater found in the street.

The world’s smallest silicon LED could turn your phone into a high-power microscope

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Researchers at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) have developed a new silicon Light Emitting Diode (LED) and holographic microscope which between them could help turn your smartphone into a powerful, high-resolution microscope. Together they are both the world’s smallest LED and the world’s smallest holographic microscope.

This LED, they say, is comparable in output to much larger silicone LEDs. But, by “much larger”, we’re not talking huge. Remember, this is the world’s smallest silicon LED and it’s very small indeed. Smaller than the wavelength of light itself.

Watch colorful C vitamin crystals form under a microscope

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Other than boosting our immune system, vitamin C can also be rather useful in photography. Yup, you read that right. Those of you who develop film know that it can be done with vitamin C. And those who are more into digital photography can make use of this vitamin too.

Jens of Another Perspective decided to play with it for artistic purposes and show you how beautiful it looks as it forms under a microscope. Using his digital camera, polarized light, and a bit of C vitamin powder, he created a bunch of mesmerizing photos and video clips he shares with you in this video.

How to build long-working-distance macro lens rigs with your DSLR or mirrorless camera

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Long Distance Working Objectives (LDW) are specially designed lenses intended to provide high-resolution imaging and a greater working distance when compared to conventional lenses.

The benefit to using these in a macro or micro range is that the configuration provides more room to illuminate the subject and also to image at a more convenient distance for focus stacking techniques.

Nikon Small World winners show the giant beauty of the microscopic world

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Nikon has announced the winners of its annual Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition. For almost five decades, Nikon has shared the best microscopic images from this contest, and just as always – they are absolutely marvelous.

This year’s first-place prize was awarded to Grigorii Timin for his remarkable image of an embryonic hand of a Madagascar giant day gecko. But Nikon also recognizes the best 20 images from the contest, so let’s take a look and enjoy them together.

Shooting macro with a $20 microscope lens and a DIY 3D printed adapter

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Shooting macro is one of the most interesting photography topics one can attempt. Aside from seeing a whole new tiny perspective on the world, there are so many different ways you can do it. You can buy an actual macro lens, or you can use a regular lens with extension tubes or reversing rings. You can even mount two lenses back to back. Or, you can do what Micael Widell did and use a 3D printed adapter with a microscope objective.

The adapter comes courtesy of macro photographer and 3D printing enthusiast Nicholas Sherlock, who has posted the file to Thingiverse. The adapter is available in full-frame and APS-C versions for Nikon, Canon, Sony and even M42 (which can be adapted to pretty much everything). And the microscope lens used is a cheap 4x achromatic objective for just $19.99. We’ve actually featured it here on DIYP before.

This 3D printed adapter for microscope objectives produces amazing macro shots for less than $25

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Macro is one of those subjects that kind of has two extremes. Either you can go way over the top expensive, with decent macro lenses starting at quite a few hundred dollars or you can go super cheap, utilising tools such as extension tubes with your “normal” lenses. But there is a third alternative, a mix of inexpensive and DIY. And this project from Nick Sherlock takes that DIY route to a low budget extreme with some pretty amazing results.

He designed an adapter for Sony E and Canon EF mount cameras that can be easily 3D printed and allows him to connect an inexpensive $23 4x microscope objective and essentially use it as a macro photography setup. And while it’s no Laowa probe lens, the objective being so small also means you can poke it through things to get much closer to your subject without too much interference.

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