zincgt wrote:
Bee on flower hand held, . . . lens of 18-55mm at the time.
Your image is a close-up photo, not a macro-photograph. Your bee occupies about 5% of entire field of view. That is approximately 1:10 magnification (1/10 life-size). Typical for a kit lens, but not even close to resolution of a purpose-designed macro lens, which will easily capture 1:1 (life-size).
This image below was captured with a Nikkor 105D macro lens at 1:1, cropped to 2:1 (2x life-size).
Honeybee on Yankee Point ceanothus bloom, 2:1 magnification (2x life-size)
gnd
Loc: DownUnder
Hi Cotondog,
Nice to hear you are happy with your Canon 100mm macro. Do you find it very heavy and do you have to use a tripod with it?
Do you get really sharp images? If you need to use a tripod I guess a Tamron 90mm would need one too. I'm having difficulty choosing between the two - would prefer the shorter Canon 60mm if I could get the same quality images or close to them!
I usually get very close to my macro subjects. I don't think a 60mm gives a 1:1 magnification though.... Thanks :)
Yes, and yes! I have the Canon 100mm f/2.8, and it's not terribly heavy, but you should definitely use a tripod anytime you are taking macro shots. Usually, d-o-f is so small that any camera shake will mean that the photo is unuseable. Use manual focus so that you make sure that the eyes (if an insect) or the part of the flower you want as the focal point is spot on. Use live view if your camera permits. If you don't have a tripod or cannot use it because maybe the angle is difficult, then I would put the camera on manual and "rock" very gently back and forth until I can see the bit I want is in focus. It's not as good a method, but the next best thing to using a tripod. Hope this helps....
That's a great bee shot Douglass! Nice and sharp with good DOF. :thumbup:
Here is and un-cropped photo I took earlier today of Mr. Lincoln's face on a penny... Not sure what the reproduction ratio is, maybe Douglass, aka Nikonian72 would like to take a guess at it. Anyway this I did with the bellows on my D300. Which by the way it not a good camera for using on bellows because it has no mirror lockup. So there is some vibration in the picture that makes it less than sharp. But if you want to take pictures of really small things bellows are fun. However it can't be hand held or used on anything that moves, oh and you have no depth of field at all... but other than that it's great. :lol:
I took a picture of my D300 and the bellows if there are some out there that don't know what they look like. The old cable relese is to stop down the lens. I used one of my old Nikon 50mm f2 lenses mounted backwards for this shot at f8 for one second. Interesting huh.
My F3 worked much better on the bellows. :wink:
One cent macro
My D300 on the bellows
NikonJohn wrote:
I took a picture of my D300 and the bellows if there are some out there that don't know what they look like. The old cable release is to stop down the lens. I used one of my old Nikon 50mm f2 lenses mounted backwards for this shot at f8 for one second.
Please post this photo, along with a little descriptive text, to the
Macro Equipment Set-Ups thread, at:
http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-32754-1.html
gnd
Loc: DownUnder
Thanks for that helpful advice Photosarah. I've got some great close-up shots with my hand held Canon G12 so I'll find it limiting having to use a tripod all the time....Sort of takes away the freedom to be spontaneous. I guess the trade-off is the higher quality. Enjoy the Olympics over there :)
gnd
Loc: DownUnder
Hi Jecanes, could you please tell me where you got your reversing ring from? Also, how happy are you with the resulting images?
I'm very interested as I'd like to try the same with my canon 50mm, f1.4.
Thanks!
Nikon 40mm macro under $300
Nikon BR-2A
reverse lens & ring
If you don't mind a DIY version, I took the body cap, cut out the center, took a step up ring 52-58. some black electrical tape and a 50mm pancake lens, works great.
woodsliv wrote:
I took the body cap, cut out the center, took a step up ring 52-58. some black electrical tape and a 50mm pancake lens, works great.
It is critical to keep lens absolutely tangent to sensor. I question the repeatable accuracy of using electrical tape to attach a plastic body cap to a step-up ring, holding a heavy DSLR lens.
That said, I have reverse-mounted two CCTV lenses directly to plastic body caps. Here is the sequence I used, and example photos captured:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikonian72/sets/72157623809060439
Reverse-mounted CCTV lenses
Bret
Loc: Dayton Ohio
For that kind of money you mite want to look into a used 60mm from B&H. I got one last year for about 350 bucks...turns out to be my favorite lens.
FilmFanatic wrote:
KEh.com has Tamron 90mm Macro lenses, which are wickedly awesome from what I hear, for less than $300
I second the Tamron lens. I have it and really like it. At $300.00 that's a pretty good price.
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