Hi Don,

I think I'm now sorted. Having played around with my lenses and in particular an old 50mm Takumar lens from my Spotmatic days, I've decided that the most appropriate combination will be my current 200mm lens with the 50mm reversed. I already have a 49/58 coupling ring (male-male) which goes on the 50mm lens and all I now need is step-down rings from 72mm to 58mm which I have just ordered from http://www.vintagecameras.co.uk/stepping.htm. It needed two rings to do the job. I will report back when I have some results.

Next problem is to sort out the lighting - there's already tons of help here on that.

Dave

Dave,

50mm Takumar left wide open should be fine reversed on the 200mm. I hope you have fun when the step down ring arrives. :)

I had a Spotmatic in the old days, so instant recognition of the 50mm. ;)

Don

The rings arrived this morning and here is my first attempt.

I found that using my 150mm macro (Sigma) with the Takumar 50mm reversed the easier to start with as the magnification is slightly less.(3x)

The first is with the 150mm alone on closest setting (1:1) and the next as above. Both are full frame (just reduced in size).

It is very difficult with such a small depth of field. I attempted the centre of a daisy but dof was a serious problem.

Dave

Welcome to the club Dave.

Once you have had a play you just become a bit more sensitive to what will, and what won't, work at these magnifications due to lack of dof. But the upside is you have a whole new world of bug life now available to you. :)

Don

I've been reading this thread with interest.
Wife Jacky (wisher on here) and I have been out in the garden taking advantage of the good weather....I'm sure they'll be one or two posted up here soon
I not so long ago dug out some old cheap 4 element teleconvertors, took the glass out of them and have used these as extension tubes.
As I have loads of kit from the now defunct Contax system, we've got a Contax lens to Canon adapter so Jacky can use some of the lenses. she's mainly been using an old Yashica 50mm on a reversal ring (which I have to admit is tricky), whilst I've been experiementing with 180mm,135mm,90mm tamron lenses and the 50mm f1.4 pictured here attatched to those two modified teleconvertors. (on my usual RTS +W6 drive combination)
Incidentally, the added Ali' tripod mount bracket was dug out from a box of bits a while back...I'd made it back in school metalwork lessons when everyone else was making candle stick holders and ashtrays! (the teacher was well impressed....but didn't realise I was doing it to get out of welding... which I always hated! LOL):D

I haven't done much macro for years, other than a couple I posted a while back here. It's an interesting side of photography I think we could both be geting use to....it's just the dreaded DOF we all need tho!

Point is...if anyone wants to get into macro on the cheap, there's LOADS of Contax mount stuff going for pennies on the secondhand market (everyone looks to be getting rid)...some of the lenses are top class, and there's plenty of mount adapters about too:)

Results of my first trial using Combine ZM. As this is a free program it is fitting to post results in Macro On The Cheap.
Link http://www.hadleyweb.pwp.blueyonder..../combinez5.htm

Refer to Leifs thread on Helicon Focus as that is a similar program.

The subject is a fridge magnet 4 inches long at around 30 degrees to the camera. Lens aperture of f4 and 4 frames taken at various points of focus. A bit of a hard test as due to the angle, the total dof required is 2 1/2 inches.

The most obvious thing when trial focussing was the effect of magnification change. I have overlaid frame 4 on frame 1 and the difference is very obvious. Frame I focus point is on the eye, and frame 4 on the tail. A composte of those two frames is attatched to give an idea of the dof at f4.

How do I think it did ? Very well. I should have taken a further frame as it is a bit soft behind the side fin. One area on the top fin does not contain the detail in frame 4 and appears smudged, but otherwise I am impressed. Due to the magnification effect of focussing I think it would be hard/impossible to combine these manually in Photoshop. Nothing fancy done in the program just a staight stack of the four images.

Lens was 55 micro so nothing fancy in terms of a focussing rail.

All images are full frame.

Don

That's fantastic Don. I can see that with a macro lens it will work by focussing with the lens ring, however with the super macro stuff I see that I do need some type of focussing rail. Any ideas on how that can be done on the cheap? I don't happen to have a milling machine at hand.

One thought I did have was to use a device we had at school where I taught called a lab-jack (or scissor-jack) to move the subject rather than the camera. They however cost in the region of £70-£80 and can support 20kg which is rather more than a macro specimen is likely to be. A miniature version is all that would be needed but nothing seems available. Any ideas?

Dave

One focus rail option is the Manfrotto 454 'Micro Positioning Plate' here: http://www.warehouseexpress.com/?/bi...rotto.html#acc Scroll down to the section marked 'Camera Brackets, Mounts, etc.'

Dave,

Adeys suggestion is probably the best. Link to the Manfrotto page for details http://www.manfrotto.com/Jahia/site/...id=107&idx=116 . It takes a moment to load.

Alternative without micro positioning is 357 UNIVERSAL SLIDING PLATE link http://www.manfrotto.com/Jahia/site/...id=107&idx=115

The 357 is cheaper but not as effective as the 454 particularly at these magnifications.

I have had a play with reversing a 50mm on a 200mm and tripod mounted I set focus on the lens to roughly mid point. Slid my camera on 357 plate to reasonable focus then used the lens focussing ring to achieve fine focus.

Field of view of this combo in the viewfinder is 5 1/2mm on the horizontal so some serious magnification.

Don

Brilliant Don, I have downloaded the program to have a go it looks like it works well. I have got the 58-58mm adapter ring now so will have to have a go at getting some close-up. I might have to buy another Canon 50mm lens so I can reverse onto that, it will be much easier to find focus than the reversed lens on the 75-300.