Macro togs in here!

[James J]

I was wondering who else likes to dabble in macro photography and to share tips and reviews of gear to try and help people approaching this area. I view macro shots and general close ups as probably my favourite style and type of photography and I intend on taking this further if the funds allow in the next year or so!

I have the following gear:

Canon 5D mk ii camera with a Sigma 150mm F2.8 EX DG APO macro lens (true macro 1:1)

I use a manfrotto tripod with a ball head but don't (yet) own a sliding macro head for it, which is on the hit list! I also own a cheap £30 macro flash (ring LED) which I bought from ebay, made by yongnuo, to fill the gap until I can afford to buy the canon one to give me ettl and ultimately more control.

Any owners of the Sigma 180mm or 105mm lenses? Same with the Canon 100mm or specialised MP-E lenses? I'd love the later but I still need to improve my technique before I even consider buying one as mastery of depth of field is required before buying one as its reportedly one of the hardest lenses to get a nice result from due to the 5x magnification past 1:1!

Few sample images from me to kick the thread off!


Fender Bokeh by jjohnson2012, on Flickr


Feed Me! by jjohnson2012, on Flickr


Macro structures by jjohnson2012, on Flickr

 

[James J]

Those kenko extension tubes are a really good idea and bargain basement prices. The canon equivalent ones are very expensive. Can you still autofocus via the tubes or are you having to use manual focus? Seems that anything past 1:1 is usually a manual focus job otherwise you need the patience of a saint.

 

[James J]

You can still auto focus with the Kenko tubes, but as you say, once you start stacking them it's a manual focus job regardless.

Out of all the money I've spent on camera gear, the Kenko tubes are have definitely been the best fun per £. I'd recommend them to just about anybody.

I think I'll pick some up and see what they do with my 150mm Sigma macro lens. I'll let you guys know either way

 

[James J]

Really like the 3rd and last photo vertigo. I was planning on getting the 100L until I noticed a bargain on the MM for the sigma 150 I have instead. So far I haven't needed the image stabilisation either which is a bonus! If I went down the nikon route instead of canon I'd have probably bought the 200mm macro lens which is just over £1000 :O

 

[James J]

focusing goes totally out the window because it basically makes no difference to the outcome, your focusing range goes from infinity without extension tubes to a few mm with them - so the method of focusing is moving the camera backward and forward in tiny tiny increments. The auto tubes are still very useful over the manual ones though because you can set the aperture... I also have a reversing ring but only ever used it once... too much effort.

Fits in perfectly with what I already do then as I usually move after gaining focus anyway to ensure its exactly where I want it. Definitely gonna look into these extension tubes and see what I can do with them.

Ideally I'd love the MP-E 65 F2.8 and the canon macro flash but they cost a fortune (sadly) and I'd probably end up eating the lens out of anger or something after spending days getting **** shots due to poor technique

 

[James J]

I assume the Kenko tubes would work well with the 85mm 1.8? Would love to try a bit of macro, but have no intention of buying a specialist lens when tubes could make a current one work.

Yep they'll work absolutely fine. They'll reduce the minimum focus distance of your current lens so you can get closer to the subject, increasing the magnification via that.