Saturday macro experiments

Hello all, I was tinkering earlier on waiting for the rugby to come on and I found a threaded ring in the cupboard which gave me the idea of trying out some macro pictures by reversing one lens on the end of another. These are my results:

First a couple of roses:







and a small spider that was nice enough to not move around too much!




Grateful for any C&C, but especially (having had a bit of a play) any tips from people that have used this set-up themselves. This was my first go and I was using the FA 50mm f1.4 lens reversed onto the DA18-55mm kit lens for the first two (roses) and then replaced the 18-55 with the DA 50-200mm for the spider (which appears to have some fluff on it's face). Grateful to know if there are any lenses particularly good for this set-up. I already twigged that a tripod is essential, depth of focus is very shallow, manual focus seems to be the order of the day,and a flash helps...

Regards

Mat W

Flash is vital. Your last picture is close and sharp, but needs a lot more DoF.

G

Love the first one the second one is a bit less because of the shadow and the light, the first one is almost abstract and you miss that in your second one.

The spider needs a bit more dof, maybe if you weren't that close it might have been better?

Thanks folks - I think I shall try some more and see if I can get that greater DOF. If I play with flash positioning and maybe a couple of lamps I might improve things (if I can find another co-operative spider )

Regards

Mat

For the spider I had the 50-200mm lens at f32, and the 50mm lens reversed on the front wide open (f1.4). I used the onboard flash and also a remote flashgun alongside that...

Mat

I've never reversed one lens onto another.

I wonder whether having both on f8 would have given more DoF.

G

I'll try it out and see what the result is. I can't think of much else I can easily change to get a much bigger depth of focus...

Thanks

Mat

Very nice shots.

Thanks snappychappy

I have been experimenting with reversing and use a pentax A 100mm 2,8 witha 50mm 1.7 reversed on it, with a ring flash attached. If you stop down the reversed lens you will get severe vignetting and it darkens the viewfinder significantly,

I use this combo with both lenses wide open f22 on the 100mm and f1.7 on the 50mm and DOF is extremely thin, the flash output is set to 1/16.

I have ordered a 49mm to 58mm macro coupler and plan on using my Voigtlander 125mm 2.5 with the 50mm 1.7 and see how I get on with that combo.

Matt, Forget the tripod if you are chasing bugs, it just too cumbersome and time consuming setting it up.

Both lenses wide open (hand Held)
[IMG]http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x261/ClarkyinAus/00K73153.jpg[/IMG]

reversed 50mm stopped down 2 stops
[IMG]http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x261/ClarkyinAus/00K73147.jpg[/IMG]

BTW I like the roses Matt

Anyone know what this weird looking flower is called :
Taken with the same combo as above. Flower is only 10mm in size
[IMG]http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x261/ClarkyinAus/Orangeflower.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x261/ClarkyinAus/Orangeflower2.jpg[/IMG]

Thanks Clarky. Those flowers (I have no idea what they are) are amazing - they look as if they have faces! the spiders are great too. I know what you mean about the tripod. I think I'll have to practice having an extra steady hand as I was finding that the slightest movements were obliterating the image as the DOF was so thin. If the spider in my living room hadn't been so dozy I would never have managed to get it... I like the idea of a 100mm prime lens as well as the non-reversed lens, as I was a bit concerned that I had a reasonable amount of mass at the end of my 50-200mm zoom. Ring flash too... I can feel a trip to ebay/srs coming on Maybe I'll have to ask Santa...

Regards

Mat