By Rodney Brown

Talk about macrophotography. The German optics giant Carl Zeiss Group, through its electron and ion-beam microscope unit based in Peabody, is launching the world’s first nanoscale photography challenge, the Carl Zeiss Nano Image Contest.

While you won’t be able to whip out your Canon Rebel TSi digital SLR, if you happen to have a scanning electron microscope or an ion-beam model sitting around the house, you too can get a chance at winning a cinemizer PLUS 3D video viewer from Carl Zeiss.

Carl Zeiss landed in the Bay State in 2006, when it acquired Peabody-based ALIS Corp., a developer of scanning helium-ion microscopes and imaging systems using nanotechnology. That deal happened just 16 months after ALIS was founded with a first funding round of $8.75 million from Kodiak Venture Partners, Arch Venture Partners and Intel Capital.

The usual categories of Landscape, People and Funny Animals has been eschewed for such hot topics as SEM, TEM, CrossBeam (FIB-SEM) and Helium-Ion Microscopy. Any image taken within the past two years is eligible, it seems, and anyone can go on the site and vote for their favorites. To do so, or to enter, visit www.smt.zeiss.com/nanocontest.

To steal a great line overheard in the newsroom, just imagine trying to make the frames for the pictures.