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Close up pics, One more try!!

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I agree with the softness. How could I do better in this regard? I wish, I had the Nikon 105mm Macro.
Thanks for your comment.
 
This lens is on my camera almost @ all times. Especially since it fits easily in to the Nikon CF d700 Camera case. I bought it iused on eBay a while ago, sofar has been a very reliable lens.
SiPat said:
monzavifar said:
I agree with the softness. How could I do better in this regard? I wish, I had the Nikon 105mm Macro.
Thanks for your comment.
Click to expand...
I found a brand new old stock of this same lens, and it's absolutely brilliant. Have you tried it at f8 - f11? And maybe a test to see if it needs AF fine tuning? Mine works well straight out the box.

Read Thom: http://www.bythom.com/2485lens.htm

Read Rockwell: http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/2485afs.htm
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monzavifar said:
I agree with the softness. How could I do better in this regard? I wish, I had the Nikon 105mm Macro.
Thanks for your comment.
Click to expand...
I think you may be having problems nailing the focus point. On the first shot, the petal behind the butterfly is sharper than the butterfly. You don't get much depth of field at this distance with f/4.5. It is very easy to move the camera closer or farther away the few mm you have for DOF. You might try using Continuous focus, but I'm not sure it is fast enough to keep up.

If you want an inexpensive macro lens that is dead sharp, and are willing to put up with some inconvenience, get a used (not available new) EL-Nikkor 105mm f/5.6N, or 135mm f/5.6A, and a set of extension tubes or bellows. With extension tubes you pick which rings to use and that will determine your focus distance. So, you would have to move the camera to get focus. You can shoot it at f/5.6 as this is still very sharp.

This 105mm looks like it will go very cheap. I paid $140 for one in excellent condition, and I'd guess this one will go for under $100. The seller hasn't marked it with an "N" (which indicates the latest multi-coating), but the glint in the image makes me think it is.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190526794509&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_470wt_97

You can get the older black & chrome EL Nikkors for less, but they don't have multi-coatings.
--
Robin Casady
http://www.robincasady.com/Photo/index.html
 
monzavifar said:
Here are a few shots that I took with the Nikkor 24-85mm f.3.5-4.5G. The pics are cropped.
Any comment appreciated.



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monzavifar said:
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The DOF was too shallow, only at focus point was sharp, the rest were soft.

Try f8, f11, f16, and f22 on a static object and compare the sharpness of the whole object.

Use Flash and manual exposure. Because of the large magnification, macro is very very sensitive to camera shake, even if you think the speed is high it is not sufficient. For info the speed of a Flash is 1/10,000

(sometimes it is very difficult to auto metering with flash at a very short distance, so do it manually)
 
I liked them a lot! The compositions and combinations of color on many of them are gorgeous. Sharpness is an issue, but there are ways to fix that. Good job. Makes me envious.
--
Ken Jones
 
Thank you all for the comments.

On many of them I tried the contin. focus option, since the butterflies were constantly moving. The Depth of filed and using higher f-stops are certainly good ideas. As you may all know, shooting insects requires fast handling and action, since they don’t keep still. Using a flash & manual setting, Hmmm, I might try it nest time. I did nat want the real colors to be affected by the flashlight though!

I have a whole set of close up filters, that I use on my standard Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 but getting so close to an insect such as a butterfly could be a challenge. I was just surprised to get such results from a rather standard zoom lens, especially the bouquet turned out nice on some of those shots.
Thanks again for the encouraging words.
M.
 
What a waste.... you were able to shot these beautiful pictures , great colors great butterflies, but IQ is so lousy, that I would delete all of them.

That's why people use macro lenses!

You can buy MF macro lenses for dirt cheap, their IQ is miles ahead of what your lens shows here.

Sorry for my hasrh words, but your excellent skills deserve much better IQ!!!
--
regards
JoeM
 
I apreciate your comments but I do not consider a Nikkor or Sogma macro lens that cost @ least $1000 dirt cheap!! Unless you know a few that are 1/3 of this price and so the same job in terms of Image Quality (IQ).
mycom said:
What a waste.... you were able to shot these beautiful pictures , great colors great butterflies, but IQ is so lousy, that I would delete all of them.

That's why people use macro lenses!

You can buy MF macro lenses for dirt cheap, their IQ is miles ahead of what your lens shows here.

Sorry for my hasrh words, but your excellent skills deserve much better IQ!!!
--
regards
JoeM
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gonzalu said:
this with my Nikon extension tubes? I have all three mechanical beasts of old Nikon :-)
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The EL Nikkor 105mm and 135mm both use M39 threads. You can find adaptors on ebay that go from M39 to the Nikon bayonet mount. I bought one from rocksphoto in China. It took about six days to arrive. He doesn't seem to have one listed currently for US$, but does have one for GB£. If you go with another seller, check their feedback before ordering.

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=m570&_nkw=M39+Nikon+adapter
--
Robin Casady
http://www.robincasady.com/Photo/index.html
 
mycom said:
What a waste.... you were able to shot these beautiful pictures , great colors great butterflies, but IQ is so lousy, that I would delete all of them.

That's why people use macro lenses!

You can buy MF macro lenses for dirt cheap, their IQ is miles ahead of what your lens shows here.

Sorry for my hasrh words, but your excellent skills deserve much better IQ!!!
--
regards
JoeM
Click to expand...
Great encouragement from someone who came:

84th in People selling things/food along the roadside
( http://www.dpreview.com/challenges/Challenge.aspx?ID=2492 )

65th in Airports
( http://www.dpreview.com/challenges/Challenge.aspx?ID=2425 )

137th in Empty beach...
( http://www.dpreview.com/challenges/Challenge.aspx?ID=2516 )

The original poster already acknowledged the fact that the images are a bit soft: “I agree with the softness. How could I do better in this regard? I wish, I had the Nikon 105mm Macro.”
 
Robin Casady said:
The EL Nikkor 105mm and 135mm both use M39 threads. You can find adaptors on ebay that go from M39 to the Nikon bayonet mount. I bought one from rocksphoto in China. It took about six days to arrive. He doesn't seem to have one listed currently for US$, but does have one for GB£. If you go with another seller, check their feedback before ordering.
Click to expand...
I have two adapters for M42 thread, one with a lens to help with focus at infinity: is that an issue with the M39 adapters? I have two lenses that I want to try out.
 
I'd like to start by saying your pictures of very good compositionally. Picture 3 and many others that have red and oranage in them have blown red channel. Look at your red histogram and I'm sure you will find it "pegged" This gives these image a blocky congested effect of flower pettles and butterfly wings that dominate with red/orage and some yellows.
--
Ken Eis
http://keneis.zenfolio.com
 
SiPat said:
Robin Casady said:
The EL Nikkor 105mm and 135mm both use M39 threads. You can find adaptors on ebay that go from M39 to the Nikon bayonet mount. I bought one from rocksphoto in China. It took about six days to arrive. He doesn't seem to have one listed currently for US$, but does have one for GB£. If you go with another seller, check their feedback before ordering.
Click to expand...
I have two adapters for M42 thread, one with a lens to help with focus at infinity: is that an issue with the M39 adapters? I have two lenses that I want to try out.
Click to expand...
With an EL Nikkor 105mm or 135mm you need a bellows to focus to infinity. The M39 to Nikon adaptor lets you attach the lens to a Nikon compatible bellows.

If you just want to do macro, and don't have bellows, you can use extension tubes. Then move the camera to the focus point. This would be a reasonable technique for hand-held shots.

If you have an old 4x5 camera, you can mount the EL Nikkor on a lens board, and buy of make an adaptor for your Nikon DSLR. If the 4x5 has a rear shift you can use it to make multiple shots that would be stitched together. If it doesn't have a rear shift, a commercial adaptor from Photodiox will allow shifting the DSLR.

Here is a shot of a setup I use for macro with EL Nikkor lenses, a Horseman 4x5, and a D700. The top photo shows it with a 4x5 reflex viewer. That comes off and is replaced by an adaptor for the D700.



Below is an adaptor for the D700 made from a lens board, a black plastic plumbing adaptor, and a reversing ring for a Nikon (F bayonet on one side, filter threads on the other).



I glued an old filter ring on the inside so I can put a clear (multi-coated) filter on it to keep dust out of the D700. An ND or Polarizing filter could also be used here.



--
Robin Casady
http://www.robincasady.com/Photo/index.html
 
You got some serious butterflies in your area. These images are incredible!

--
Greg Gebhardt in
Jacksonville, Florida
 
Beautiful pics, you are certainly going to get a lot of use from a macrolens.

Whether you want to use flash/noflash, tripod/notripod or AF/MF is a matter of preference, over which the religious macro-shooters will fight endlessly.

But a macrolens is the right way to go, and you can get far with a Tamron SP90 or Tokina 100mm. They are very cheap compared to the Sigma 150 or Nikon 105VR.

For ID of the butterflies the flash-approach is obvously the best, but for pretty portraits you might not want the black background that flash inevitably will give you.

After some time you will become better at composing (as far as I can judge you are really good at this already), choosing the right background which has a nice colour compared to the subject. The really good macrophotographers know how to handle the thin DOF, and gets the most use out of the focal plane, for example by placing it along the wings of the butterflies.

Actually a butterfly can be covered by the DOF of f/8 if it is properly placed, and don't worry about the antennas, since that would not even enter focus with f/32.
 
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