Matthew Born wrote:
>OK, I'm hoping to kick off a little thread here. As I stare at 12 inches of
>snow, I'm pondering fun thoughts of spending money I don't have. I'm
>interested in some close up photography, a thing I've never done, and I'm
>looking for input on a couple of things. The bellows and focusing stage and
>all that is probably out, at least until I get hooked. So...the extension
>tubes...are the manual tubes really a pain?
>
Yes
> And how exactly does one stop
>down to focus? Do you use the depth of field button? Is there any reason to
>spend the extra dough on Olympus tubes vs. the Vivitar ones? I assume there
>isn't any difference in the quality, since there's no glass involved, but I
>do see that the Vivitar variety are different lengths. They sure are
>cheaper.
>
As Steve said, the Olys are better made, but I"ve been perfectly happy
with the Vivs. I have both, not only for the prefectly correct reasons
he gives, but for the much more varied combinations available that way.
>And then there's the issue of macro lenses.
>
Lots of good info/advice in the posts already made. Confusing too, with
so many options.
To my mind, there are 3 basic categories of macro work that I do.
1. Flat copy work, such as books, pictures, etc. Here you want edge to
edge sharpness and for straight lines to remain straight. I've done a
lot of this over the last few years. For this work, forget everything
but true macro lenses. I have used a couple of 50/3.5s and a Tamron
90/2.5 and can say unequivocally that they are both excellent. Speed
doesn't matter at all to me, as I use lights and a copy stand I made by
converting a cheap enlarger by removing the head and making an adapter.
Here you only use extension tubes.
2. 3D objects where focus is only possible at all in the central portion
and neither possible nor usually desirable at the edges and in the
corners. Here is where all the various other techniques mentioned in the
other posts come into play. However, the recommendations didn't make
another important distinction. It may not be important to the snowbound,
but will when he gets hooked on macro and ventures outside.
2a. Inanimate objects. Lenses like the 50/3.5 and 50/2 work great, as do
many of the reversed, doubled, etc.
2b. Outdoors and animate thingies. Here things change a lot. Short focal
length lenses have short distances from the front of the lens to the
subject at macro magnifications. The front of a 50/3.5 at 1:2 closeest
focus is about 4 inches from the subject. With a 25mm extension tube, it
gets worse. This makes capturing bugs, spiders and other animate
thingies more difficult. It makes the incidence of shadows on the
subject from camera/lens/ photographer annoyingly common. It also turns
out that it is hard to get physically that close to the subject in lots
of natural settings.
For these uses, I much prefer a longer focal length lens.
The Tamron 90/2.5 is an excellent lens that focuses from infinity to
1:2. When used with the matching 2x teleconverter, it becomes a 180/5
that focuses directly from infinity to 1:1. I don't think I would have
got the shot of this critter with a 50mm lens, and it would have been
hard with 90mm, even if I didn't scare the wasp, because of stuff in the
way underfoot <http://moosemystic.net/Gallery/Tam902.5/>.
The Zuiko 90/2 is a great lens, but doesn't go as close as I often want.
The Zuiko 2x teleconverter doesn't fit it, so one must use extension
tubes or a 3rd party converter.
The Kiron 105/2.8 is a wonderful true macro lens that focuses from
infinity to 1:1 directly. Vivitar, Tamron and ?? made/make 90/2.8 lenses
with the same focal range that I have not tried but others here say good
things about.
A Zuiko 50/1.4 or 1.8 with a Vivitar 2x MacroTeleconverter become
100/2.8/3.6 lenses that focus from infinity to 1:1. A great travel combo.
The Zuiko 135/4.5 is another excellent lens. With the 65-116 tube, it
focuses from infinity to almost 1:2. To get closer, you need the bellows.
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