Manual macro on the cheap.
Following on from Alex and his reversed 50mm and my experiment with direct reversed 28mm lens, I today had a go at using an enlarging lens. Strange you may think, but they are well corrected for close up work.
Sorry about the subject but most live bugs are now in hiding. Another very wet day.
Some stats.
55 Micro at 1:1 ..................... field of view 45mm
EL 50mm lens + 14mm ext field of view 50mm ( 1 extension tube )
EL 50mm lens + 41.5mm ext field of view 24mm ( 2 extension tubes )
EL 75mm lens + 41.5mm ext field of view 60mm ( 2 extension tubes ) With that result I did not even bother to try the 105mm.
Standard 50mm reversed field of view 27mm. Ok for occasional use as long as it is of the f2.8 variety. f1.2 / f1.4 do not perform well when used like this.
Although enlarging lenses do not have auto aperture, there is nowadays with the move to digital, the possibility of picking them up quite cheaply. The lens used here is currently listed in an MXV advert for £52 mint.
I used a rubber 'O' ring round the mounting thread to centralise it, and electrical tape to attach it to my lens reversing ring so nothing tricky. I should say that 50mm enlarging lenses have a Leica 39mm thread so a bit odd ball in that respect.
While magnification is not as great as using a reversed 28mm, less magnification = more DOF. A f2.8 enlarging lens with 2 tubes gives only a fractionally less bright viewfinder than the f2.8 macro lens but a big jump in magnification.
I have attatched a few images.
Image 1 is full frame with 41.5mm extension.
Image 2 is a crop from image 1.
Image 3 is full frame with closed up bellows attached + tubes giving an extension of 90mm and fov of 11mm.
Image 4 is camera with lens and 2 tubes to indicate the compactness. Lens + tubes are only a fraction longer than my 50mm lens.
Two flash guns on manual were used about 45 deg either side and about a foot away from the subject.
Don
|