lens reversal rings

GeX · 24 Jun 2007 at 00:54

okie, so i'm eagerly awaiting the delivery of my d50 and have been looking at what else i can buy and have spotted lens reversal rings for taking macro shots. obivously not as good as a proper macro lens, but are they worth bothering with just to have a play around with? ive not had a dslr camera before so this is all new to me.

King4aDay · 24 Jun 2007 at 01:57

Yeah you can have some fun with them... takes a lot of practice and patience though. I'm sure someone will have some better examples, but the following were taken with the reversed Nikon 18-55 kit lens. They are of the centre of a tiny violet - the shots show about 4mm on the long side to give you an idea of scale.

GeX · 24 Jun 2007 at 11:26

okie. thanks - i'll get one of them ordered. just didnt wanna be spending money on stuff that is considered junk. they're nice shots

wez130 · 24 Jun 2007 at 15:18

i use the lens reversing ring on my canon, not as versatile as a proper macro lens but still great fun none the less, oh and you can get much more than 1:1 depending on lens. The wider your lens, the greater magnification you can achieve, i find my sweet spot is at 35mm on my 35-80mm lens, but DOF is still a killer. Does your D50 have a DOF preview button? You will need this tbh as you need to set your F stop to ~ F/11 ish then press and hold your DOF preview button so the lens opens it's 'iris', then at the same time remove the lens, this keeps the lens at F/11 instead of going wide open again, and buys you a bit of DOF.

Anyway, a couple of examples....

GeX · 25 Jun 2007 at 01:03

i dont think the d50 has a dof preview button, if i'd bought a d70.. lol.

i will still have a good play about, might just take a bit longer without dof preview. cheers for the tips

GeX · 28 Jun 2007 at 23:46

what about extension tubes instead. the idea of turning the lens round still looks wrong to me.

is it six and two threes?

Messiah Khan · 29 Jun 2007 at 08:51

GeX said:
what about extension tubes instead. the idea of turning the lens round still looks wrong to me.

is it six and two threes?

Extension tubes will get you less magnification that a reversed lens.

wez130 · 29 Jun 2007 at 12:12

reversed lens gives me greater than 1:1, don't know exact amount but it's defo more than 1:1, though at a great cost of less than 1mm DOF

aztechnology · 29 Jun 2007 at 13:46

I was about to say that you won't be able to adjust the aperture of the front lens on a Canon EF lens, but have now spotted that you are awaiting Nikon kit so I'll stay quiet.

AdWright · 29 Jun 2007 at 15:37

aztechnology said:
I was about to say that you won't be able to adjust the aperture of the front lens on a Canon EF lens, but have now spotted that you are awaiting Nikon kit so I'll stay quiet.

You can using the trick wez described above

GeX · 29 Jun 2007 at 17:19

i don't have a dof preview button, but could i not just set the cam to aperture priority mode, set it to the size i want and then remove the lens?

aztechnology · 29 Jun 2007 at 18:11

AdWright said:
You can using the trick wez described above

So i can

aztechnology · 29 Jun 2007 at 18:14

GeX said:
i don't have a dof preview button, but could i not just set the cam to aperture priority mode, set it to the size i want and then remove the lens?

Doubt it. It yours is a modern camera then the Aperture will close down just before the shutter is fired, you might be able to do it if you set to manual, desired aperture, long shutter speed, fire shutter, then remove lens mid shot. Scary though, I'm a bit scared about lenses with the DoF preview held in - seems to me a bit like swithing a microprocessor off when still powered up.

King4aDay · 29 Jun 2007 at 20:29

The shots I posted above were taken with a D50 and kit lens. The kit lens has a little lever that controls the aperture, which is exposed when reverse-mounted.

The technique takes some practice, but basically involves holding the lever wide open to let maximum light in so you can see enough to focus, then letting the lever close enough that you get a useable D0F for the shot you want, and then taking the photo.