At 22:11 02.10.02, derek fong wrote:
I read (and tried) a tip in a National Geographic article about turning a
50mm lens into a macro lens. You have to unmount it from the camera,
focus it to infinity, then hold the lens reversed in front of the open
body and move yourself to focus on your subject. Not the most elegant
solution but it's cool to know that it works. =)
If you haven't already seen how a normal lens is constructed visit the eSIF
and look at the 50/1.8 in particular. Normal lenses are basically
symmetrical lenses, with small corrections made to make them perform best
at infinity (or at least focused at something very far away). So what
happens if you reverse a symmetrical lens? Nothing, except you've lost the
convenience of automatic iris operation, and introduced a small extension,
similar to an extension ring. Not worth the troubble, IMO use an extension
tube instead.
You would however expect to see an increase in performance by reversing the
50/1.8 at magnifications much larger than 1:1, but then we're no longer
talking cheap and simple setups, because it will inevitably involve rather
long bellows extension, *very* sturdy tripod and/or dedicated lighting
equipment.
The only semi-useful thing a reversing ring can do is to reverse wide angle
lenses. You'll easily get high magnification with only the short extension
provided by the ring itself, but you'll soon find that working distance at
high magnifications is very short, and you'll still be left with the desire
for "sturdy tripod and/or dedicated lighting equipment".
My advice and conclusion: Buy one or more extension tubes, drop the
reversing ring.
Regards,
Thomas Bryhn
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