I had the pleasure this summer to spend many days in the field photographing fungi and insects with an interesting lens called a borescope. Both rigid and flexible borescopes are made by the Gradient Lens Corporation and Storz, with the rigid scopes having much higher resolving power. Borescopes are usually used to view inside enclosed spaces such as rifle barrels, engine cylinders, and hollow walls. We purchased a borescope though with the intention of taking unique, bugs eye views of fungi for the Cornell Mushroom Blog. The borescope I used has a 90 degree field of view and is a bit like having a fisheye lens on the end of a stick. Below is a gallery of images made this summer and a description of the camera set up.
 

Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa
 
 
 
 
Malacosoma disstria
Xylaria polymorpha
Crucibulum laeve
Hypocrea gelatinosa
 
Borescope Camera Setup

After much trial and error, this is the camera setup that proved to work excellently with the borescope. The digital camera and TTL flash were mounted on a flash bracket with a flexible arm for positioning the flash. A 60mm Micro-Nikkor lens was connected to the borescope with an adapter provided by the Gradient Lens Corp.

The auto-focus function of the camera did not work properly with the borescope so the lens was set to manual focus and infinity. Focusing was accomplished by rotating the focusing ring on the borescope itself. The aperture of the lens was set to wide open (f/2.8). Most of the images above were taken with camera set to ISO 400 and a shutter speed of 1/20th second. The flash provided the main illumination on the subject and the long shutter speed filled in the background of the deep forest.
 

"Miniature Landscapes" Exhibit at Mann Library, Cornell University

Jan.21 - Feb. 27, 2008
 
 
For more information on this exhibit, check out this article in the Cornell Chronicle Online.