Illustrated Macro Saga -- Reversing ring version

[ELAY]

For my first foray into macro photography, I went as cheap as I could with my D40 -- a reversing ring ($10 with shipping from eBay), that would permit me to mount my 50mm in reverse on the front of my zooms. Bascially it is a ring threaded on both sides -- you screw it into the filter mount on the front of both lenses. First time I tried this I forgot to manually open the aperture on the 50, so I basically had a pinhole camera...I had this tiny circle about 100 pixels across in the middle of 3000x2008 frame.

I remembered to open up the aperture on the 50 today, and went out to the garden to experiment. First I tried reverse mounting to my 55-200mm zoom. I can tell you, i have never worked harder to get a shot. If depth of field was 1 mm I would be surprised -- it felt kind of like walking around with a microscope trying to get things in focus. The slightest breath of wind, or the most minute adjustment of the camera made caused the equivalent of a massive earthquake in my field of view. Anyway, with my tripod, a lot of patience, and many, many discarded jpegs, I got a few interesting shots of the purple coneflowers.

With this setup you basically have one very small spot where the lens is in focus; the zoom doesn't really change magnification perceptibly, but interestingly enough it does sort of act as a focus ring. Here's a shot with the 55-200:



The 17-55mm gave me a bit more shooting distance from the subject, and a bit more depth of field -- but the vignetting was much worse. Here's a similar shot from the 17-55 for comparison:



Here are a couple more from the session -- there's another that I fussed over a bit posted in Critique.





The moral of the story? Fun, with some groovy results, but you get what you pay for. The reversing ring gives me some macro capability, with heavy vignetting, but almost no flexibility. I can either shoot 1.5 cm (1/2 inch) from the subject with the 55-200, or about 5-6 cm away with the 17-55, but that's it. Guess I'm saving up for a macro lens.

Cheers,

EL

[taykuyphotoart]

I agree with your own criticisms, mostly. Don't be so harsh, those are some nice photographs!

[ELAY]

Thanks for the encouraging words.

Don't get me wrong, i am actually happy with the results (apart from the vignetting) -- getting that tight to the subject let me focus on the patterns and textures in the flower, and the photos have a (to me anyway) nice abstract flavour.

Mostly I felt constrained by the set up -- I would have liked to have the option to pull back a bit more, and to get a bit more depth of field.

Cheers,

EL

[wulf]

Macro photography, by its nature, gives very constrained depth of field, especially if you are also needing a wide aperture to let light in. A dedicated lens will probably give you more control but probably not that much more, certainly if you are aiming for extreme close-up shots.

Wulf

[ELAY]

It was interesting to actually shoot under those conditions; gives me lots of respect for others who do.

I do recognize that if I am trying to get very tight i will operate under those constraints; the main thing I would like is the ability to shoot close-in throughout a reasonable range. As I said, with the ring set up, my choices are to take the thing off and shoot from 2 feet away with my lenses, or to strap the thing on and enter the world of 1:1 -- especially with the 55-200.

Cheers,

EL

[wulf]

With results like the ones above, I think I would be content to just live with it for a bit!

Wulf

[ELAY]

Given the prices I am seeing for macro lenses, I think I am going to have to live with it, content or not!

Thanks for the kind words.

EL

[luis.faustino@gmail.com]

Hi, you could try and use this (available as well on Nikon mount):
http://www.enjoyyourcamera.com/Canon...-58mm::36.html

Read more here (you must be registered to read I think):
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/...d.php?t=239915

Bye

[ELAY]

Thanks for the links -- interesting discussion of direct reverse mount vs. stacking.

Looks like the direct reverse mount gets rid of the vignetting maybe. Also some helpful discussion in the forum threads of the settings to use to limit vignetting on the stacked lens setup.

Cheers,

EL

[clockdoc]

Hi EL,
I can't recall where I came across this tutorial on reverseing your lens but I think it was in one of the DPS forums. http://stephenelliot.com/2007/05/15/...aphy-tutorial/

Another interesting site is on Webshots. If this link is too long or doesn't work, just do a search using the phrase 'perfect focus'. The author of the album used a camera that brackets focus. He then uses software to assemble a shot in 'perfect focus.'
http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/...ions/FullAlbum

The author's 'handle' on Webshots is jjdiniz.

I think you did remarkable well with your first test of reversing your lens. From what I ave read the wide angle may work best.