Reverse Mounting my Lens?

[mshockley]

Hello all,
I'm just in from my local camera store doing a little research....and of course a little buying while I was there! I cannot ever get out of that place without dropping some dough!

Anyway, I went in wanting to price a Macro lens, and ask about reverse mounting, or extension tubes and bellows, etc.
I have some close-up filters that are decent enough and give some okay results, but I just kind of have a problem slapping cheap glass on my "expensive for me" 85mm Prime.

After some extensive surfing about last night on the subject of "macro on the cheap" I thought maybe I would buy a reverse mount and give that a try.

Here's my biggest thing---I have read on many different websites and random blogs, tutorials, etc, that I could set my desired aperature, turn the camera off and then remove the lens and flip it around and the aperature would be set. I also read how you can set the aperature, hold down the Depth of Field preview button while removing the lens to achieve the same result.

But the guy at the camera store was pretty much laughing at me! Said no way, it won't work. He is suggesting I buy an older lens that has the aperature ring on the lens itself to try this idea.
So, have any of you any experience with reverse mounting, tubes, bellows, etc. and if so, how do you set an aperature? The stuff I've seen witht the lens wide open just doesn't look too good, and it sounds like it's a nightmare to achieve focus this way.

I don't know, any input would be great----even if you just want to say "buy a Macro Lens and get on with it"

[tomservo51]

buy a Macro Lens and get on with it

[mshockley]

lol...okay tomservo I asked for that!

I can say this much, after my post, I went out to my truck to retrieve my camera bag, and yes in fact you can set the aperature on the lens, hold down the depth of preview button and remove the lens, and it does stay set!

Damn guys at that camera store are always trying to make me feel like a dumb blonde---and they do most days. I go in there like today with a legitimate question and he just acted like I was a complete fool. I'm going back in there to tell him about himself.

[inkista]

Any of the poor man's macro methods make focusing a strictly by-distance-to-subject affair.

Personally, I've never reverse-mounted a lens, but I have reverse-mounted one onto another lens that was on the camera. Think of it as a using a higher-quality macro filter on the front.

But I think that probably the best poor man's method is extension tubes. Particularly ones with electronic contacts, so you still have autofocus and aperture control. Stacking the different tubes in different combinations gives you different magnification 'steps', so you have a wee bit more flexibility than simple reverse-mounting. And you can always use the tubes for additional magnification even after you get a macro lens.

But yeah. Just get the macro. It'll make life sooo much eaiser.

[ArmySoldier777]

Originally Posted by inkista

But yeah. Just get the macro. It'll make life sooo much eaiser.

I dropped $60 on a set of extension tubes that allow auto focusing and all that, and I honestly wish I'd just put that towards a decent macro lens. They can be a pain to use, you have a very small working distance. That satisfied my macro curiosity for awhile, but I wish I'd gotten the real thing lol

[loons49]

Personally, I would neither remove or attach a lens with the camera power on. There is an admonition against this in the users manual of every DSLR I have owned and I would not want to find out that they are right. Given that reverse mounting and e-tubes both result in extremely short working distances and DOF which makes a tripod with focussing rails a necessity. My personal favorite macro lens is the Nikon 105mm which gives me a good working distance for my butterfly and flower shots. If you are into really tiny things then e-tubes with a good prime (not a zoom) will give good results as long as you attend to the other issues noted above. To get around the extreme DOF you can utilize focus stacking software which will let you combine multiple shots at different focus points. ..... Experiment a lot and have fun!!

[metallion58]

Maybe you can try something like this?



I have an old 50mm prime that doesn't fit anything. I may give it a try.

[LMAshton]

I've done the reverse lens thing with an older lens. No way am I going to remove my current lens with the power on, and since there's no aperture ring, it won't work.

But with the older lens - from a fully manual camera I got in 1990 and still have kicking around - it worked great. A bit awkward getting the focus to work well, but it works. Not perfectly, not without work, but it works.

I'm also saving up for a macro lens.

[Biomech]

Wow, reverse mounted lenses - you learn something new everyday! So I'm guessing it's like a lens mount with a filter thread on the other side? Surely that's not ideal, I've always considered the "connection end" of the lens to be much more fragile than the glass end

[Chip]

I have a reversing ring and older Nikon lenses with aperture rings. I can set/play with the aperture without taking the lens off the camera. This combo works reasonably well, when there is a good bit of light.

Is it tough to focus with a reversing ring? Yes. (lots of moving back and forth with your body as opposed to moving the focus ring on the lens)

Is if frustrating as hell at times? Yes.

Is it satisfying when you get the shot you were trying for? Absolutely.