I once made a macro-lens [1] for a DSLR camera to serve as a microscope. You can do this by mounting a zoom lens the wrong way on the camera. It's a very fun project.

Anyway, a surprising thing I learned, is the very slow movement of things that appear stationary. For instance, we would set the subject on top of a book and some papers to get it to the right height. We used a long exposure time (maybe one minute?) to get enough light. And during that time, the book and paper would decompress and rise enough to blur the image completely. The solution was just to wait five minutes for things to settle.

[1] "macro", because it magnifies the subject as compared to the camera's sensor.