EDIT: The smallest thing I've photographed... (Video added Monday 7th)

Paul Iddon

Paul Iddon

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You'll hopefully forgive me the lack of detail in this - but it is as small as anything I have ever photographed I reckon...
Size is less than half the full stop on your keyboard!

Apparently...

This is Arachnida ( Acari - Mites ) - Oribatida - .. and at a glance, one of the -> Humerobatidae like Humerobates...

In English, it's a mite, and is very hard to see - they are a part of the soil diversity - Soil organisms are vitally important to sustaining life on land and are fascinating too!

fullviewcropped_1400-X3.jpg


Paul.
 
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Sky said:
Great shot Paul, I'm amazed you could get such a picture without a microscope. (y)

Maybe you could stoop a bit lower next time so we can see its face? :ROFLMAO:
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Not with my bloody knees!!! :ROFLMAO:
 
Amazing Paul (y)
 
More than a mite hard to photograph.
Great result TFS

I have photographed smaller objects, but only with the aid of a microscope and my results weren't nearly as good.
 
Petrochemist said:
More than a mite hard to photograph.
Great result TFS

I have photographed smaller objects, but only with the aid of a microscope and my results weren't nearly as good.
Click to expand...

The Venus 2:1 lens is really good - this is a massive crop of the bug and being very late at night it was pitch dark and the only light was from the modelling lights on the flashgun.

Paul.
 
GardenersHelper said:
Well done Paul, for (1) photographing it and, even more so perhaps (2) spotting it in the first place. Oh, and (3) which I'm always a bit astonished by, knowing what it is.

Body perhaps around 0.8mm diameter?
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Cheers Nick.

They can be anything from 0.2mm to 1.4mm but this one was maybe around your guess - it was certainly too small to measure if I had gone for my ruler..

To scientific to work out from the image - I think I was like as not at 2:1 but it cold have been less, so a mathematician may be able to work it out based on the (cropped 1.6x) sensor size and the space it takes up in the frame - but way to complicated for me to work it out!

Paul.
 
Paul Iddon said:
Cheers Nick.

They can be anything from 0.2mm to 1.4mm but this one was maybe around your guess - it was certainly too small to measure if I had gone for my ruler..

To scientific to work out from the image - I think I was like as not at 2:1 but it cold have been less, so a mathematician may be able to work it out based on the (cropped 1.6x) sensor size and the space it takes up in the frame - but way to complicated for me to work it out!

Paul.
Click to expand...

That's what I did.

Except I now realise I got it wrong. :D

On my screen the image was around 250mm wide and the round part of the subject was around 9mm wide. At 2:1 the scene width is 11.25mm. That would make the subject around 9 / 250 * 11.25mm in diameter, so around 0.4mm.

That is small!!! I'm even more impressed now.
 
GardenersHelper said:
That's what I did.

Except I now realise I got it wrong. :D

On my screen the image was around 250mm wide and the round part of the subject was around 9mm wide. At 2:1 the scene width is 11.25mm. That would make the subject around 9 / 250 * 11.25mm in diameter, so around 0.4mm.

That is small!!! I'm even more impressed now.
Click to expand...

Amazing;y well worked out. So yeah, 0.4 eh? Just shows what that LAOWA lens can manage.

Paul.
 
GardenersHelper said:
That's what I did.

Except I now realise I got it wrong. :D

On my screen the image was around 250mm wide and the round part of the subject was around 9mm wide. At 2:1 the scene width is 11.25mm. That would make the subject around 9 / 250 * 11.25mm in diameter, so around 0.4mm.

That is small!!! I'm even more impressed now.
Click to expand...
that ties in better with Paul's original estimate of size - the full stop on my keyboard is less than 1mm across, half that would be around 0.4mm :)
 
Petrochemist said:
that ties in better with Paul's original estimate of size - the full stop on my keyboard is less than 1mm across, half that would be around 0.4mm :)
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Yeah - my eyes had a hard time noticing it - as I say it was a tiny dark speck on dark surface. It was originally near an indentation in the plastic surface, but when I looked again it had clearly moved across which led me to look much closer, and the full stop came to mind...

Paul.
 
I found a few on the garden fence tonight - added pics and a short mobile phone video - these again are Arachnida ( Acari - Mites ) - Oribatida (about 3 or 4 more of them).






mite2full_4k_1400.jpgmite2crop_4k_1400.jpgmite1full_4k_1400.jpgmite1crop_4k_1400.jpg

Paul.
 
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GardenersHelper said:
That's really good to see the video and also the full frames as well as the crops. Very instructive.
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Thank you Nick :)

In the video I inadvertantly made an elongate springtail leap away (I'm sure it jumps, there were no squish marks on the ruler or the fence)...

Paul.
 
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Paul Iddon said:
I'm sure it jumps,
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Absolutely they (Most of) do and I always assumed that's how they got their name.

<Web bite for the science >
Most species have an abdominal, tail-like appendage known as a furcula. It is located on the fourth abdominal segment of collembolans and is folded beneath the body, held under tension by a small structure called the retinaculum (or tenaculum). When released, it snaps against the substrate, flinging the springtail into the air and allowing for rapid evasion and migration
 
alfbranch said:
Very well done Paul a tough subject you have plenty of them

Is this similar

by Alf Branch, on Flickr
Click to expand...


Looks like it - dumpy round body and shiny shell, with little legs (sounds like a lot of bugs, lol)... but I'd say they are the same critter...

Paul.
 
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