I was curious (from reading in other forums) if it would be
possible to reverse mount a lens for Macro on this camera. I hear
reports of customer doing this with other cameras and getting
amazing results, far better than I've seen with Macro lenses.
Any one try this, or know of a setup that would work???
Hi Josh,
Yes, you can definitely reverse a lens on your F717. Try a search
in this forum for "reversed lens". One of the forum participants is
R2D2, and he uses reversed lenses on his F717. He takes a lot of
insect and spider macros.
The magnification will be approximately the ratio of the focal
length of the camera's lens to the focal length of the reversed
lens. Therefore, with maximum zoom of 190mm lens on the F717, if
you used a commonly available 50mm reversed lens, you would get a
magnification 3.8. This will fill the frame with a fairly small
insect, and is probably the practical limit of magnification for
normal use.
Any brand of lens will work. Fast lenses are best for stacking (to
reduce vignetting), and they should be used at full open aperture.
Some lenses don't stack well, so try a lens before you buy it to
make sure it works.
With high magnifications, hand holding gets nearly impossible, and
a macro focus rail becomes really handy. It can be difficult to
find the subject in the view finder when the magnification is
large. I highly recommend an extra-sturdy tripod, a wired remote,
and a macro focus rail for high magnifications.
I have a Nikon 50mm f/1.4 lens and a Schneider 105mm f/2.8 Xenotar
lens that I use reversed. Both have some vignetting when used alone
on my F828. Fortunately, you can stack them with diopters, and I
also own both a Canon 250D and a 500D. All vignetting disappears
when I use either diopter with the 105mm lens or both diopters with
the 50mm lens. Stacking a lens on a diopter increases the
magnification slightly.
Enlarging lenses work well for reversing, and a popular choice is a
Schneider 135mm f/4.5 Componon enlarging lens. This lens is no
longer made, but used ones are often available. Schneider also made
a 135mm f/4.5 Componar design, but the Componon is a higher quality
lens. This is fast for an enlarging lens, and enlarging lenses are
optimized for the magnifications used in macro work. My Schneider
105mm f/2.8 lens is a large format lens. Enlarging lenses and large
format lenses do not have focus mechanisms, so you get a little
more working distance...a slight edge. I bought my Schneider lens
on eBay, and I bought my Nikon lens at a local camera store.
I probably use the 105mm lens or the diopter lenses the most. As
you know, depth-of-field is reduced with higher magnifications, so
I tend to limit the magnification for subjects that aren't very
flat. Also, the subject size often dictates the choice of
magnification.
I hope this helps.
Lynn
-- its use in this context is really a bit like saying "I had to buy a new volt for my car" when what you actually meant was "battery".