Is anyone else on this forum using a fixed lens camera,lens adapter and a reversed lens or diopters for close up work?
dick
YOUR EQUIPMENT SET UP
Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau
Definitely!
YOu can of course get very close with many a "compact" these days. as in the spec sheet for a Canon I read recently
"Minimum focus distance : Zero"!
Possibly the best way to find what interests you would be to search on a particular camera make/model.
Try a search on "Raynox" which is a brand of good strong dioptres.
YOu can of course get very close with many a "compact" these days. as in the spec sheet for a Canon I read recently
"Minimum focus distance : Zero"!
Possibly the best way to find what interests you would be to search on a particular camera make/model.
Try a search on "Raynox" which is a brand of good strong dioptres.
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rjlittlefield
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I don't normally use this setup, but perhaps it will illustrate some of what you're wondering about.
Here's an overview.
Raynox 250 in front of a Canon A710 IS, using a rather informal "lens adapter". I'm just finger-holding the Raynox against the front of the camera lens. It happens that the ring diameters are close enough to keep it pretty close to centered.
Manual focus, flash illumination, diffused through a Kleenex that keeps the subject from seeing the flash directly.
Here's the full frame result: subject field 22 mm wide. Note that this is almost exactly the same "magnification" than you'd get with a 1:1 macro lens on a typical DSLR. I put "magnification" in quotes to indicate that it's not really magnification we're talking about here. Magnification is a red herring that gets way too much attention. What's really important is field width at the subject: 22 mm here using the A710 at 6X zoom, versus 22.3 mm with my Canon T1i at 1:1.
Here is an actual-pixels crop from the above image. No sharpening or other adjustments on either picture.
And here's a little detail of the illumination: using a clear plastic box to keep the diffuser safely away from the subject.
One thing to notice: the shallow DOF. There's no cure for that. It just comes with the territory at small subject sizes. This particular image was shot with the camera stopped down as far as it will go, at which the point the image is already softening from diffraction. The only way to get more DOF is through focus stacking. There are a couple of tutorials that introduce that, linked HERE. The first one, Getting Started With Focus Stacking, uses this very same camera without the close-up lens, just with its natural close focusing.
Does this help?
--Rik
Here's an overview.
Raynox 250 in front of a Canon A710 IS, using a rather informal "lens adapter". I'm just finger-holding the Raynox against the front of the camera lens. It happens that the ring diameters are close enough to keep it pretty close to centered.
Manual focus, flash illumination, diffused through a Kleenex that keeps the subject from seeing the flash directly.
Here's the full frame result: subject field 22 mm wide. Note that this is almost exactly the same "magnification" than you'd get with a 1:1 macro lens on a typical DSLR. I put "magnification" in quotes to indicate that it's not really magnification we're talking about here. Magnification is a red herring that gets way too much attention. What's really important is field width at the subject: 22 mm here using the A710 at 6X zoom, versus 22.3 mm with my Canon T1i at 1:1.
Here is an actual-pixels crop from the above image. No sharpening or other adjustments on either picture.
And here's a little detail of the illumination: using a clear plastic box to keep the diffuser safely away from the subject.
One thing to notice: the shallow DOF. There's no cure for that. It just comes with the territory at small subject sizes. This particular image was shot with the camera stopped down as far as it will go, at which the point the image is already softening from diffraction. The only way to get more DOF is through focus stacking. There are a couple of tutorials that introduce that, linked HERE. The first one, Getting Started With Focus Stacking, uses this very same camera without the close-up lens, just with its natural close focusing.
Does this help?
--Rik