Olympus OMD cameras - example shots and kit suggestions?

Have questions about the equipment used for macro- or micro- photography? Post those questions in this forum.

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Pitufo
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Olympus OMD cameras - example shots and kit suggestions?

Post by Pitufo »

I am considering an Olympus OMD E-M1 or E-M5 (mkII or III) as a field rig for shooting myxomycetes (which are around 1-2mm in height usually) using the focus bracketing function.

Could any of you Olympus owners show me what it is possible to achieve with this system? I was considering the 60mm Olympus macro lens - possibly with some way of increasing magnification further (Raynox?). Photographs of myxomycetes would be ideal if possible, but any subject around 1-2 mm would be much appreciated.

I have seem some promo/test shots on various sites but they tend to be of larger subjects. I have seen this thread which shows good results with flowers around 5mm and even smaller with extention tubes http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... hlight=omd

I see that chuong nguyen says
I just want to share that the Olympus 40-150 2.8 could be used as tube lens with inf corrected lens/objective for stacking. The image was taken with Olym Zoom at 150 FL + Nik CFI 4X .13 NA, 500stack.
Lou Jost also mentions using a 75mm as a tube lens with a Mitty 10x.

I wonder whether it is feasable to use a microscope objective in the field. Does anyone have any experience? I have plenty of Nikon objectives available.

My current desktop set up is an MP-E 65, so that is what I am hoping to get near to in terms of quality. I realise this is a high bar to set.

All help appreciated :) As are any other lens suggestions - Sigma 150 FX macro was mentioned in another thread? Or even other cameras?

jojm
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Post by jojm »

My operating mode is described here in French.
http://www.lenaturaliste.net/forum/view ... 86#p102451
I will add some info here in English asap.

Pitufo
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Post by Pitufo »

Thank you very much Jojm. Your results with Torbernite and Agardite are very good and around the field size I am looking for.

Kind regards,

John

jojm
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Post by jojm »

Hi John,
Assuming that your subject will occupy 60% of the height of your pictures, the HOV you need will be between 2 mm to 4 mm.
So FOV between 2,7 mm to 5,3 mm for a 4/3 sensor.
With the Olympus ZUIKO 40-150 f 2.8 + Teleconverter MC 14 (x1.4) the following graphic will give you some figures.
Image
Enlarger lenses 28 mm and 50mm mounted reversed could do the job with perhaps a little gap between 3.5 mm and 4.00 mm.

Pitufo
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Post by Pitufo »

Thank you very much jojm, very helpful.

Do you think it is feasable to use a 4x or 10x Nikon objective mounted on a telephoto in the field i.e. outside in nature?

Do you think natural daylight would provide enough illumination? I suspect probably not.

Thanks,

John

ChrisR
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Post by ChrisR »

You'll be at whatever Effective aperture your setup gives you, likely to be eff/20 or so.
Lets call that f/16 and use the Sunny 16 rule, you'll have whatever shutter speed you set your ISO to, in the brightest conditions. Several stops less when it's "nicely overcast". So, OK on a tripod?
Chris R

jojm
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Post by jojm »

I'm going to make a test next Sunday if the weather is warm enough ;-)
Not sure that I will found myxomycetes but I will shoot other subject in the range 1-2mm.

Pitufo
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Post by Pitufo »

Thanks Chris and jojm, much appreciated.

jojm
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Post by jojm »

Today, we had a wonderful blue sky with a pleasant temperature, here in the West of France, a perfect day to try my focus bracketing system outside!
I only tried with the Nikon X4 as it was so difficult to find the subject and to catch the good frame that I think it was useless to test with the x10!
The subject are dew drops on mosses at the top of one meter concrete wall.
Direct sun light with a styrofoam diffuser 20 cm away from the subject.
ISO 100, 0.8 s at f/4.
From sensor to subject:
Olympus OM-D Em5 MkII, M-Zuiko Teleconverter x1.4 MC14, M-Zuiko 40-150mm f/2.8, Adapters, diaphragm, Nikon Plan CFI 4x/0.10 WD 30mm.
Focus bracketing step: 8
98 frames compose the stack, first one taken at 15:13:02 and last one at 15:14:31, so 1,5 minute to shoot all the stack.
The field of view of the large image is 5.1 mm across.
Image
The field of view of the actual pixels crop is 1,1 mm across.
Image

Compare to my studio job, the quality is not at the same level but I'm' confident that it could be higher a lot be with more practice.

Pitufo
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Post by Pitufo »

Thanks jojm, that's very kind of you.

The image is very good for a field shot. One and a half minutes is impressive for a 98 frame stack! I think it would take me around 30 mins to produce a similar image at home on my focused-by-hand microscope base.

The colours are very vibrant - was the saturation increased after stacking?

jojm
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Post by jojm »

Pitufo wrote:Thanks jojm, that's very kind of you.
You're welcome!
Pitufo wrote: The colours are very vibrant - was the saturation increased after stacking?
No, only exposure and levels were adjusted.
Here is one of the original jpeg frame of the stack like it came directly from the camera (only resized for the needs of the forum).

Image

Pitufo
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Post by Pitufo »

Thanks jojm.

I wonder if anyone knows if any other Olympus 150mm lenses are suitable for this job?

The M-Zuiko 40-150mm f/2.8 you are using looks very good but it is quite expensive, even second hand.

There appear to be other 150mm lenses available at much lower prices but I'm not sure if they would work correctly as I'm not familiar with the Olympus system.

ChrisR
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Post by ChrisR »

There are some 150mm enlarger & process lenses people have used - an apo Ronar, and a Gerogon. There's the Sigma 150mm macro of course.
Olympus used to make a 75-150 for the OM series.
Chris R

dolmadis
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Post by dolmadis »

There is another Olympus M. 40-150mm F4.0-5.6 R Zoom Lens - very much cheaper but that might underlay the other choice at Pro and f2.8.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Olympus-40-150 ... b_title_ce

Has anyone tried this instead of the f2.8 for focus bracketing with an objective?

BR

John

zzffnn
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Post by zzffnn »

Don't forget that if you want the automatic focus bracketing feature of Olympus m4/3, you have to use native auto m4/3 lenses (even 4/3 lenses won't work that way).

From the following list, you want to pick an affordable lens that has most special (such as ED or aspheric) elements:
http://www.four-thirds.org/en/microft/telephoto.html

Or simply research on each specific lens and look at photos taken (or experience) with them.......
Selling my Canon FD 200mm F/2.8 lens

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