Today's 'one of those days' - marking the passage of time - in this case, with a zero - so thought I'd celebrate with a recent pic (yesterday) taken during a 'kitchen sink' photo shoot
Actually a 'draining board' one - camera + flash rig etc on top of a video case, being slid over said surface to where I'd located a bit of banana skin in a poly tray.
(Running battles with swmbo over how long such scenarios are allowed to exist...)
20D + mpe65 + 550ex
1/250 , f11
Single frame, uncropped
hfov 6 > 6.5mm
iso 100
pp
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Ken, Doug and Rik – Thx all for the comments on the pic – much appreciated – I’ll show them to the missus when she starts complaining about my tardiness with respect to removing organic waste from the kitchen
Ken -as regards buying an mpe65, I’m sure you’re familiar with the specs – and the issues associated with its use, but here’s a few (more) comments based on my fairly limited experience of using one (bought Nov 07)
Lighting: If you use a single flash rig (like me) then you’ll need a flash bracket that can cope with the considerable extension of the lens – 98mm closed, 228mm @ 5x …and still (firmly) place / hold the flash where you want it.
Depending on conditions and mag used, I quickly found some sort of focussing light to be highly desirable – whilst such are generally an integral part of dedicated macro lights (eg 14ex / 24ex ) you won’t have them with a std. flash + bracket rig – and therefore something (else) to consider
(I made an LED based one - located in the groove* around end of lens barrel - within a week of getting the lens because of this ‘issue’ – mainly because I was using the lens indoors in dingy artificial light and dark corners. *Both Canon macro lights use this feature – but it’s available for other equipment if using a std flash + bracket)
Tripod ring: I’m not keen on the ring that Canon supplies with the lens. Being used to the one that came with my old 200mm FD macro lens, the mpe one is definitely a retrograde step imo.
Doesn’t allow full 360 deg rotation
Lens centreline to ‘foot’ base dimension greater than ideal (esp for ‘stalking’ type work)
Have to remove lens from camera body to remove / put on tripod ring.
Can only be used ‘one way round’ ... ie locking knob @ SW position.
If, for non tripod work – ie resting the camera + lens on the same surface as critter – it’s possible to rotate the tripod ring 90 deg cw (viewed from cam rear) to lower the whole rig … but it’s then impossible to rotate camera ccw between landscape / portrait as the locking knob fouls the camera. (Can rotate camera cw, but then the ‘bulky bit’ of the camera is placed underneath, raising the height even more)
Having the camera higher than necessary (if using ring in intended position) has implications re angles obtainable … and ‘getting down to eye level’ with critters.
In these days of trying to minimise dust in sensor compartments – having to remove the lens to take the ring off is less than ideal – shall we say (also more fiddly than nec because of design … so takes longer)
I’m contemplating making a ring system that’ll cope with the 3 macro lenses I use – and satisfy the above issues – but in the meantime I use a home-made landscape / portrait ‘flipper’system, which although not ideal, places the lens centreline lower than using the tripod ring.
To buy or not?
Whether it’s worth buying (‘cos it’s not cheap) – only you can judge – but it certainly bridges part of the range between std 1:1 macro lenses and the gear that our stacking colleagues use to such good effect in static setups – and thus lets the user get much closer in uncontrolled / non-studio situations in a fairly convenient way - my main regret is that I didn’t get it earlier J
Doug – there’s no way I could h.hold this thing in without any additional support – I use whatever means are ‘at hand’, convenient and do the job – and / or engineer scenarios (as here) that make things a bit easier. (I still have no control over what’s going to land (or take off) and where – but tempting ‘em is ‘fair game’ in my book)
I’ve ensured that the under surface of the rig I use is as flat as poss with no protrusions which lets me rest the rig on a flat surface and slide it around as necessary – in this case, the draining board surface.
Rik – thx again for your comments.
Luck re the pose …or at least getting a shot that was in focus for this position (it moved immediately after, so only the one frame…)
I’ve been trying to ‘open up’ and take multiple shots to stack in pshop …but often start off with one stopped down (I know I shouldn’t … but still ‘hope for a good’un’) and then mess around.
Lighting – a single 550ex with a bit of Dacron sailcloth material (approx A4 size) ‘origami-ed’ (and taped) over the end to form a simple ‘tent’ … seems to give reasonable results and less prone to damage (thorns / damp) than kitchen towel etc. (have also used tyvek) …and being ‘soft’, allows for distortion in confined spaces.
pp
Ken -as regards buying an mpe65, I’m sure you’re familiar with the specs – and the issues associated with its use, but here’s a few (more) comments based on my fairly limited experience of using one (bought Nov 07)
Lighting: If you use a single flash rig (like me) then you’ll need a flash bracket that can cope with the considerable extension of the lens – 98mm closed, 228mm @ 5x …and still (firmly) place / hold the flash where you want it.
Depending on conditions and mag used, I quickly found some sort of focussing light to be highly desirable – whilst such are generally an integral part of dedicated macro lights (eg 14ex / 24ex ) you won’t have them with a std. flash + bracket rig – and therefore something (else) to consider
(I made an LED based one - located in the groove* around end of lens barrel - within a week of getting the lens because of this ‘issue’ – mainly because I was using the lens indoors in dingy artificial light and dark corners. *Both Canon macro lights use this feature – but it’s available for other equipment if using a std flash + bracket)
Tripod ring: I’m not keen on the ring that Canon supplies with the lens. Being used to the one that came with my old 200mm FD macro lens, the mpe one is definitely a retrograde step imo.
Doesn’t allow full 360 deg rotation
Lens centreline to ‘foot’ base dimension greater than ideal (esp for ‘stalking’ type work)
Have to remove lens from camera body to remove / put on tripod ring.
Can only be used ‘one way round’ ... ie locking knob @ SW position.
If, for non tripod work – ie resting the camera + lens on the same surface as critter – it’s possible to rotate the tripod ring 90 deg cw (viewed from cam rear) to lower the whole rig … but it’s then impossible to rotate camera ccw between landscape / portrait as the locking knob fouls the camera. (Can rotate camera cw, but then the ‘bulky bit’ of the camera is placed underneath, raising the height even more)
Having the camera higher than necessary (if using ring in intended position) has implications re angles obtainable … and ‘getting down to eye level’ with critters.
In these days of trying to minimise dust in sensor compartments – having to remove the lens to take the ring off is less than ideal – shall we say (also more fiddly than nec because of design … so takes longer)
I’m contemplating making a ring system that’ll cope with the 3 macro lenses I use – and satisfy the above issues – but in the meantime I use a home-made landscape / portrait ‘flipper’system, which although not ideal, places the lens centreline lower than using the tripod ring.
To buy or not?
Whether it’s worth buying (‘cos it’s not cheap) – only you can judge – but it certainly bridges part of the range between std 1:1 macro lenses and the gear that our stacking colleagues use to such good effect in static setups – and thus lets the user get much closer in uncontrolled / non-studio situations in a fairly convenient way - my main regret is that I didn’t get it earlier J
Doug – there’s no way I could h.hold this thing in without any additional support – I use whatever means are ‘at hand’, convenient and do the job – and / or engineer scenarios (as here) that make things a bit easier. (I still have no control over what’s going to land (or take off) and where – but tempting ‘em is ‘fair game’ in my book)
I’ve ensured that the under surface of the rig I use is as flat as poss with no protrusions which lets me rest the rig on a flat surface and slide it around as necessary – in this case, the draining board surface.
Rik – thx again for your comments.
Luck re the pose …or at least getting a shot that was in focus for this position (it moved immediately after, so only the one frame…)
I’ve been trying to ‘open up’ and take multiple shots to stack in pshop …but often start off with one stopped down (I know I shouldn’t … but still ‘hope for a good’un’) and then mess around.
Lighting – a single 550ex with a bit of Dacron sailcloth material (approx A4 size) ‘origami-ed’ (and taped) over the end to form a simple ‘tent’ … seems to give reasonable results and less prone to damage (thorns / damp) than kitchen towel etc. (have also used tyvek) …and being ‘soft’, allows for distortion in confined spaces.
pp
Boxes, bottlebottoms, bits, bobs.