I think your pictures are more interesting. If you are going to do Macro... DO IT! The ones on CPF are clear but yours show "Life". A little better lighting and yours will lose the grain and be even more interesting. Nice! Thanks for sharing.
I simply cannot believe you with your “only available light so they’re grainy” stuff, oh please man you’re surrounded by lights!!! Fire one up and shoot away! lol Seriously, I use a Triple Nichia 219 on med mode to get my macro’s
If you don’t like the “hot spot” pull a reflector and use it as a mule,
The one or two experiments I've tried to supplant available light with a flashlight looked horrible. It seems the only pictures that turn out are when there is abundant, indirect light. That was available in the kitchen of our last house from around noon to 6pm or so. Good light never happens in this stupid house but the short wall on the side "yard" is perfect most of the time, except with the sun at high noon.
As this one was taken, low room light with a single Nichia 219 in a 2” keychain light running about 30 lumens. It’s also depicting a Nichia 219 in an OP reflector with Hi/Lo modes by VinhNguyen. I use a split 1 1/2” PVC pipe, drilled and tapped 1/4 x 20 to fit on a tripod. Mount that and use rubber bands to secure the light in the half-pipe so that I can direct the beam where I want it. Works beautifully. I now have a Triple Nichia 219 from EDC+ that is even better using the Med setting so that it can stay on for longer lengths of time without worry. Depending on how much depth-of-field I’m looking for, I might take 20 or more consecutive shots at 1:1 ratio .5mm apart.
This was taken with Canon’s 100mm Macro 2.8 L IS, 6 shots using a RRS macro rail to deepen the depth of field and stacked in CS5. Go ahead, left click on it then right click and select original in Flikr, see it at 100% from a 21MP full-frame sensor.
Just so you’ll know? The guys at Cree can probably learn a few things about their own product from PilotPTK. Look at his build thread on the bumper mount light bar he made for his own use, designed to the nth degree and so much better than store bought models they should hang their heads in shame.
Ok, so does an XML and a XML 2 look different? I think I have a new light thats XML2, but the included booklet lists it as an ’XM-L.” Since this one looks different (no lines in the emitter) I’m thinking it’s an xml2. Anyone have a nice picture of the 2 side by side?
It is not the clearest picture, but here is one I made a while ago for another thread (basically the XM-L has a green backing, the XM-L2 has a white backing: