The Macropod is a $20,000+ Rig That Makes Macro Photography Stupidly Easy to Do
Macro photography is a wonderful tool for scientists and researchers, but the complex nature of capturing detailed, focus-stacked macro images of everything from insects to the human tongue puts the tool out of reach of many.
The Macropod photographic system solves this by making the entire process both portable and automatic, and producing some of the sharpest, most striking macro photographs we’ve ever seen.
Their own description lists the Macropod as a system that, “combines high-resolution digital cameras, powerful optics, industry leading precision hardware and novel software packages [to] provide our customers with images that are significant in research, digitization and education.”
Put in layman’s terms, the Macropod is a professional-grade, automatic, focus-stacking Macro photography system for scientists and researchers. No longer do they have to rely on the extremely limited depth of field of a regular dissecting microscope, they can capture incredibly detailed pictures both in the lab AND in the field.
The Macropod system includes: A Canon EOS 6D, a Macro Photo MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x Manual Focus Lens for EOS, a Canon 24-105mm f/4.0L IS USM AF Lens, a Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM Lens, a Canon MT-24EX Macro Twin Lite Flash, a Stackshot and Controller, Macropod Hardware, a Zerene Stacker Software License and an Eastern Mountain Sports Boda 40L Backpack with custom foam interior to pack everything up in:
Put all that high-end gear together into the fully-assembled system, and you get photos like these from the Macroscopic Solutions Flickr stream:
The one piece of info you won’t find on the company’s website is price. If you want a quote from Macroscopic Solutions, you’ll need to email or call them directly.
To find out more about the system or check out more photographs taken using the Macropod, head over to the Macroscopic Solutions website by clicking here.
Update: According to this Guardian article mentioned by one of our astute commenters, the Macropod retails for $21,000. The company launched a Kickstarter in January to try and get that price down under $10,000, but the campaign ultimately failed to reach its goal.
Image credits: Photographs by Saftner, Daniel M., Smith, Mark R., Evans, Annette E. and Bellaire, Joseph H. (2013). Image Database: Macroscopic Solutions, LLC
