Extreme Macro Question

NeVeR

I really want to take some shots but cant afford the LENS

What i do have is the Sigma 70-300 Macro and an extension tube would that work out do ya think ?.. I cant test it at the moment as my Camera is in my G/Fs house... But just wondering what ya'll thought ?


Cheers

oshead

The biggest problem with taking "Extreme macro", I presume you mean 1:1 lifesize and smaller, is light. There simply isn't enough light most of the time. You generally need to set aperture to anywhere between f11 to f22. So high ISO and slow shutter speeds are the order of the day. This leads to bad quality images. While I can't comment on the setup you have with your choice of lense and extension tube simply because I have never used that combination. Suffice to say, if you want to do high quality macro work, having a dedicated macro prime lense and a ringlight or twinlight flash, in my experience are essential parts of the kit. That's it in a nutshell.

If you can't afford a new prime lense then i'd concentrate on getting some type of flash.

David OS

sasar

I tried this once with my 50mm 1.8 lens and cheap ebay macro tubes.
Here is the result:


Lens was only around 5cm away from the candle wick, I was afraid it might get damaged by the heat.

Problem with this cheap tubes is that you cannot change aperture the normal way, but I'm sure you know that.

ThOnda

Cheap gear from HK or USofA will do the trick, if you just want to play with it. The disadvantage is that you have no control of aperture, unless you mount lenses from some proper camera, like Pentax that has aperture ring on the lense.

Sample of one cheap accessory...

NeVeR

That looks great.. What kind of candle wick is that ?... I was wondering what the pic was till i read your post.

sasar wrote: »

I tried this once with my 50mm 1.8 lens and cheap ebay macro tubes.
Here is the result:


Lens was only around 5cm away from the candle wick, I was afraid it might get damaged by the heat.

Problem with this cheap tubes is that you cannot change aperture the normal way, but I'm sure you know that.

Sleepy

How do you control aperature with the cheap tubes? Set it via the camera prior to attaching the tubes between the camera and lens?

.Longshanks.

Sleepy wrote: »

How do you control aperature with the cheap tubes? Set it via the camera prior to attaching the tubes between the camera and lens?

On my canon i set the aperture, press and hold down the DOF preview button with the correct lens attached. While still holding down the DOF button remove the lens, add the extension tube and then but the lens back on. Only then release the DOF preview button

Simples

Nforce

Here's a shot of the "bulb" of a plasma ball....shot it with a Nikon 50mm f1.8 using cheap tubes....

charybdis

Longshanks100 wrote: »

On my canon i set the aperture, press and hold down the DOF preview button with the correct lens attached. While still holding down the DOF button remove the lens, add the extension tube and then but the lens back on. Only then release the DOF preview button

Simples

There's no need to keep holding the depth-of-field preview button once the lens's electrical contacts are disconnected from the camera body. The camera body doesn't magically communicate with the lens when they are detatched.

PCPhoto

NeVeR wrote: »

I really want to take some shots but cant afford the LENS

What i do have is the Sigma 70-300 Macro and an extension tube would that work out do ya think ?.. I cant test it at the moment as my Camera is in my G/Fs house... But just wondering what ya'll thought ?


Cheers

what kind of camera do you have ? (I can read Sigma lens...but no mention of camera make) ..... if you are using Canon I may be able to help.

I have an extreme macro lens (MP-E65) and also 2x normal macro lenses (50mm macro 1:1) and a ringlight flash....can give it to you for a day or two sometime.

NeVeR

it's a canon D400 (I'm just a learner ) I've the standard lens that came with the camera.. also some ext tubes from ebay and the sigma lens.... Also the Casio ex-f1-- But thats just for slow motion work