Last minute macros (no judge comments please)

yak.h'cir

yak.h'cir

yak.h'cir

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Once again i've left it to the last minute to actually prepare a picture, I pretty settled on my choice for the competition entry but fancied posting the others because they took me ages to make!

Any opinions/comments much appreachiated :)
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Thank you all very much for the encouraging comments!

This is the setup I used to get the shots:-
img0782jy4.jpg


The flower shots were handheld but I had to use the tripod for the droplet/sugar pictures as i was having trouble positioning lights in order to get the coloured reflections.
 
It's the MP-E 65mm macro lens, no tubes as of yet although it'll be interesting to see what magnification I can get too with them!
 
:) Well you've got plenty of time to save up then! Also you might want to start the immigration process now, it takes blumin ages! Start now and you might just be Canadian in 18 years :D
 
:) Loads of questions!!!

Working distance very much depends on the magnification (with this lens) @ at 1:1 the distance is about 8", at 5:1 magnification it's about 1"!

Regards the extension tubes i'm not quite sure of the exact relation, i just know that with a full set of kenko extension tubes my canon 100mm f2.8 macro went from 1:1 magnification to 2:1 magnifaction.

If you're going for a basic macro lens (i.e. 1:1) I would say get something in the 100mm range. The extra working distance will come in very handy, and I would bet more of a benefit then the extra magnification you could get with the 50mm when using tubes (if this is even the case).

Ring and twin flash are both very good, advantage of the twin is that you can angle the bulbs independantly so that gives you more flexability. They also have a focusing light which can be activated on pressing the shutter which is a god send in macro. A cheaper option that does work very well is to use a normal flash gun mounted on a bracket so that its positioned near the front of the lens. You can get very good results with this kind of setup.

I paid $750 US for the lens & $630 US for the flash (so about 690 pounds in total).

Hope that was of some help to you! :)
 
:) I'll post some insect shots as soon as i find them! Going to the zoo at the weekend so hopefully they'll have some interesting subjects too!

messiah khan said:
How did you get 5:1 magnification? Im probably going to get the Kenko tubes, although then id loose autofocus with the AF-S lens, but at least i'll then have a 105mm AF lens for portrait type shots. Do you use AF with your setup, or do you rely on the macro focusing rail/MF? With the twin flash setup, can you adjust the powr of the each flash independantly? Ie have one as a key light, and one as a weaker fill light? Sorry for all these questions, but ymacro photography is certainly an area id like to get more into. :)
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I just twist the lens until it gets to the little bit of writing that says 5x :) The lens is a complete system, you don't need to use any special techniques/tubes to get to 5x. As far as I know canon is the only brand to make a 5:1 lens, but you can use a bellows system or reverse a lens (usually a 50mm (standard not macro) onto a normal 1:1 macro lens to give you very high magnifications so all is not lost if you're not with canon.

The MP-E 65 doesn't have any focusing system what so ever. You focus by moving the camera closer/further away. Which can be fun because at 5:1 magnification the focusing plane is absolutely tiny, which means you often have to focus stack a series of images in order to get the whole subject in focus.

With the flash you can change the ratio of power between the two, this goes for the ring flash too.
 
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