Photographing right inside a fruit fly

[Bradscopegems]

I have joined this forum to discover whether photographers in general are interested in a new type of lens which I and my colleague Professor Gail McConnell of the University of Strathclyde (Scotland) have developed. This gives you the kind of detail you associate with a microscope but with the large field (6mm diameter) of a macro lens. Gail has placed on Twitter a movie showing focussing all the way through a fruit fly, showing exquisite detail, including the parts of individual cells. Just search under 'Gail McConnell', 'Twitter' and 'Seeing inside Drosophila' to view it. At the moment this is just a research project and the so-called Mesolens is not available commercially, indeed it is costly and difficult to make and so large that it cannot simply be fitted on to a camera. However, if people really want this new capability it might be possible to get the price of manufacture down.

 

[weepete]

Wow! that's some achievement, and some very cool images.

I don't know how applicable it would be to most photographers though, unless the specialised in biomedical imagery. My understanding is that most commercial photograhers make their money from portraits or workshops and while this is increadibly cool and probably has medical/reaserch industrial potential (in the same way that MRI or medical 3d imagery has) I don't see it having mass application.

or in other words very few people actually put their hand in their pockets to buy this kind of imagery to hang on their living room wall.

My congratulations go to you and your collegues though for an awesome development and pushing on science that bit further!

 

[Overread]

Very very neat indeed, though you might want to throw a mention of this over on www.photomacrography.net :: Index they really love their macro and stuff like this is likely to get a lot of attention. Plus if there is a market that site would be just the place to have people who would be the market.
Careful with self promotion and do consider sending a private message to staff, content like this can walk that hazy line between advertising and information provision.

High magnification macro is a niche in itself, heck from the big names only Canon makes 5:1 macro lens; Nikon used to have a 2:1 or 3:1 (I forget which) but don't make it any more; whilst Rokinon (sp) do make a few high magnification lenses, but (like all their lenses) it lacks AF motors and other features, so its very bare bones.

A lower price will increase your potential market, whilst a higher price locks you out. I'd wager research institutes might well have more direct interest in such a lens; especially if it offers features that other methods can't achieve or does so better/faster/cheaper. The other aspect is marketing; marketing is cost and I've noticed a lot of higher end niche/research gear is well advertised within its niche market, but rarely is it advertised to the casual market. It's simply a case of prioritising marketing investment and focusing on the more likely market than the less likely.

A lot depends on price, complexity and even ease of use. MPE 65mm macro is already a very hard lens to use for most; meanwhlie this gear being large and likely expensive will likely limit its market potential further