Macro and close up solutions

dawson31 said:

how close you are for the bee shot?

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That would be 10cm from the front element and about 5cm from the end of the lens hood.

dawson31 said:

60mm or 90mm on an apsc better for subject like those above?

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The 90mm would be better for the bee shot, but the extra working distance would have given me trouble with the spider shot because I was laying on the ground looking up at the flower.

The main reason I got the 60mm instead of 90mm was because I use it for product photography, slide copying and portraits as well as bugs and 60mm is a more versatile focal length for me.

dawson31 said:

Hi Chris,

I don't have the 50mm1.8 but i do have the 35mm 1.8 can i still reverse it on my 55210? will it have the similar effect with 55210 with raynox 250?

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If it's the 35mm E mount lens you won't be able to use it because you can't open the aperture when it's reversed. Also the extra magnification with a reversed 35mm might be too much for a lot of shots.

Pixel Pooper said:

dawson31 said:

Hi Chris,

I don't have the 50mm1.8 but i do have the 35mm 1.8 can i still reverse it on my 55210? will it have the similar effect with 55210 with raynox 250?

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If it's the 35mm E mount lens you won't be able to use it because you can't open the aperture when it's reversed. Also the extra magnification with a reversed 35mm might be too much for a lot of shots.

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Okay got it. thanks.

what is your current flash setup? Twin or single?

Dawson

Oh I forgot that on page 1 of this thread I had taped an old manual lens to the front of my 55-210 and gotten about 7:1 (for some reason I had been thinking the lens was directly taped to the body)

I can't say if every combination would work but I did do it with the 55-210 + a manual 28-80

here is a guy who has attached a microscope lens to a 200mm prime lens and combines thousands of individual shots to get museum quality macros.

http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/insanely-detailed-macro-insect-portraits

I just bought the Neewer Pro 4 Way Macro Focusing Rail Slider for around $45. It's made of aluminum and plastic, and is pretty lightweight. So far, I haven't had a chance to use it due to incessant rains.

However, my first impression is that although a nifty tool for the price, quality is going to be a letdown. When I mount my Canon 70D on it with a small metal lens or a big plastic one, the longitudinal slider rack does not mesh with the pinion worm, as its base tends to lift a bit from the rear, making the screw slip. However, this can be remedied easily by supporting the camera / lens a little bit from below while turning the thumbscrew. The latitudinal slider does not have this problem in the portrait orientation, at least.

I am not sure if there will be some creeping of the slider when a heavy assembly is mounted on top, when pointing down. The lock screws are quite flimsy.

Anyway, for the money, I think I'm going to get good macro shots where I was struggling with movement of my arms earlier. I might also need to buy a tripod with an articulating centre column and legs that go flat, and probably a sturdy ball head as well. I spotted a used set somewhere for less than $200, but I don't know if it's still available... :-/

davelok said:

I just bought the Neewer Pro 4 Way Macro Focusing Rail Slider for around $45. It's made of aluminum and plastic, and is pretty lightweight. So far, I haven't had a chance to use it due to incessant rains.

However, my first impression is that although a nifty tool for the price, quality is going to be a letdown. When I mount my Canon 70D on it with a small metal lens or a big plastic one, the longitudinal slider rack does not mesh with the pinion worm, as its base tends to lift a bit from the rear, making the screw slip. However, this can be remedied easily by supporting the camera / lens a little bit from below while turning the thumbscrew. The latitudinal slider does not have this problem in the portrait orientation, at least.

I am not sure if there will be some creeping of the slider when a heavy assembly is mounted on top, when pointing down. The lock screws are quite flimsy.

Anyway, for the money, I think I'm going to get good macro shots where I was struggling with movement of my arms earlier. I might also need to buy a tripod with an articulating centre column and legs that go flat, and probably a sturdy ball head as well. I spotted a used set somewhere for less than $200, but I don't know if it's still available... :-/

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have you tried mounting the camera backwards to change the centre of gravity?

Great, That slider has been on my list of possible helpful gear - looking forward to more on that.

Vanguard makes a few tripods with the boom head


The other day I happened to be a Walmart and found a Sunpak DigiFlash 3000 for $13 so I decided that I could give it a try before investing in a better unit.

It is made for Canon and while I assumed it was manual it is actually TTL. On the a6000 TTL does not work but it does flash. So it behaves like a very basic manual flash where you have to set the exposure by trial and error.

It does not have a flash power adjustment.

It has a slave mode that can be triggered by another flash.

I was hoping it would work in this mode as additional lighting to the on camera flash but for some reason the photos taken with the Sunpak in slave mode are actually darker than the on camera flash alone -as if the camera is compensating for the extra light somehow even though it is in manual mode.


left: oddly dark image right: occasionally I will get the expected additional lighting

I guess in this case I got what I paid for.

The other thing I learned is that a big flash unit mounted on top of the a6000 or trying to use it off camera handheld is cumbersome. Which makes me think that a ring light may be better for macro.

--
-Chris

dawson31 said:

Okay got it. thanks.

what is your current flash setup? Twin or single?

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Single flash on a home made L bracket:

No, but thanks for the tip! I'll try it and post my experience.

csintexas said:

Great, That slider has been on my list of possible helpful gear - looking forward to more on that.

Vanguard makes a few tripods with the boom head

http://www.vanguardworld.us/photo_video_us/products/tripods.html

The other day I happened to be a Walmart and found a Sunpak DigiFlash 3000 for $13 so I decided that I could give it a try before investing in a better unit.

It is made for Canon and while I assumed it was manual it is actually TTL. On the a6000 TTL does not work but it does flash. So it behaves like a very basic manual flash where you have to set the exposure by trial and error.

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Great! The Sony compatible Neewer (Meike) 320 does not work with my Canon even in manual mode. I can only use it as a slave, which means I need an additional diffuser for the Canon's pop up flash. I got a hotshoe mountable diffuser only to find that I can't push it all the way into the socket, as it depresses a Canon-specific contact pin, which disables the on board flash! So I have to keep it only slightly inserted into the hot shoe.

Also that $4 diffuser actually doesn't do anything, so I am going to tape some tracing paper on it.

csintexas said:

It does not have a flash power adjustment.

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Even TTL for $13 is surprising.

csintexas said:

It has a slave mode that can be triggered by another flash.

I was hoping it would work in this mode as additional lighting to the on camera flash but for some reason the photos taken with the Sunpak in slave mode are actually darker than the on camera flash alone -as if the camera is compensating for the extra light somehow even though it is in manual mode.

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I think you have the wrong slave mode on, and the flash gets triggered when your camera does a preflash to set the exposure. You need to either select the correct mode of available, or disable preflashing.

csintexas said:

left: oddly dark image right: occasionally I will get the expected additional lighting

I guess in this case I got what I paid for.

The other thing I learned is that a big flash unit mounted on top of the a6000 or trying to use it off camera handheld is cumbersome. Which makes me think that a ring light may be better for macro.

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But then any decent set of ring lights would be expensive, and the cheaper ones tend to be just a waste of money. I think an external flash positioned where it would provide the best lighting, along with a good diffuser box, should work well.

csintexas said:

--
-Chris
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cspics/albums

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The preflash was off and i do not think that it is a timing issue because the on board flash should light the image the same each shot and the off camera Sunpak would just add additional lighting.

I do not see how I can get a darker image with the on board flash just because the Sunpak is firing

Something is causing the camera to automatically adjust the exposure, but you can see in the screen shot above that the ISO, SS and f/stop are all identical.

If the preflash is on, your Sunpack might fire simultaneously and make the light meter "think" that there is too much light, which would cause the camera to underpower the onboard flash while taking the actual shot.

Of course, if preflash is actually off, this would be weird. [Edit: this could also mean that the Sunpack is not syncing reliably]

Yeah I see that you are right, the a6000 is giving some signal to fire the sunpak early

and also sets the exposure compensation

but can not be turned off.

So I guess no way to use an uncompatable flash as a slave.

Still works as a basic manual flash on camera though.

csintexas said:

Oh yes, I guess I had just assumed you where interested in the wide angle aspect.

the vignetting does not occur at 18mm or greater so the Raynox would mostly work (the 16-50 does have an odd filter thread size so attaching it may be a little more dificult)

As far as tubes go the longer the focal length the longer the working distance. With one tube set (26mm) I can get almost 1:1 at about 2" distance and the furthest I could get is about 5" away and about 1:2 (and then you could use the tube pieces separately to get less mag. but greater working distance)


the wind is blowing a lot today which makes it hard to get good focus (one tube set)

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As much as I like the Sony 16-50 kit lens, it is not meant or designed for macro use. I've tried to use it myself for very close up pictures, but it simply is not the right tool for that purpose. It is a very nice lens and can take fantastic pictures (in the right conditions), but for macro shooting, use another lens, IMHO.

--
Life is short, make the best of it while you can!
http://grob.smugmug.com/

If it has two slave modes, the second one would be for precisely this situation - ignoring the preflash and syncing with the second one. I don't know how far $13 goes, though.

No it does not have two slave modes, I suppose if I wanted to I could get a couple of a shoe adapters and a sync chord and it would function as a wired off camera flash.

I guess I need to play with it a bit more to see how well it functions on camera. With a better diffuser it may be all I really need.

not sure if it's known to all??

I'm always skeptical in getting a manual macro lens not because of the losing the autofocus but more of losing the auto aperture control for metering the subject at f8-f11.

Today I tried installing my flashlight Hvl-20s and use my manual wide angle lens . It's able to light up my live view and I can't do manual focus with peaking clearly without adjusting to wider aperture.

does it mean I can consider a manual macro Len? Since when shooting macro I will always fire my flash..

Dawson

dawson31 said:

not sure if it's known to all??

I'm always skeptical in getting a manual macro lens not because of the losing the autofocus but more of losing the auto aperture control for metering the subject at f8-f13*.

Today I tried installing my flashlight Hvl-20s and use my manual wide angle lens . It's able to light up my live view and I can* do manual focus with peaking clearly without adjusting to wider aperture.

does it mean I can consider a manual macro Len? Since when shooting macro I will always fire my flash..

Dawson

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Sry for the typo errors.

dawson31 said:

not sure if it's known to all??

I'm always skeptical in getting a manual macro lens not because of the losing the autofocus but more of losing the auto aperture control for metering the subject at f8-f11.

Today I tried installing my flashlight Hvl-20s and use my manual wide angle lens . It's able to light up my live view and I can't do manual focus with peaking clearly without adjusting to wider aperture.

does it mean I can consider a manual macro Len? Since when shooting macro I will always fire my flash..

Dawson

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On the a6000 you can turn off live view display to focus when the aperture is closed and it also has an exposure guide or a histogram display to manually set exposure.

(do not know about your camera)

I suppose if there is no way to focus with the aperture closed when using off camera flashes you will have problems with any lens. For the a6000 a manual lens does not work substantially different (other than you have to turn the aperture ring)

I would have thought that your Sony flash would give you a correct exposure on screen with any lens.

csintexas said:

dawson31 said:

not sure if it's known to all??

I'm always skeptical in getting a manual macro lens not because of the losing the autofocus but more of losing the auto aperture control for metering the subject at f8-f11.

Today I tried installing my flashlight Hvl-20s and use my manual wide angle lens . It's able to light up my live view and I can't do manual focus with peaking clearly without adjusting to wider aperture.

does it mean I can consider a manual macro Len? Since when shooting macro I will always fire my flash..

Dawson

Click to expand...

On the a6000 you can turn off live view display to focus when the aperture is closed and it also has an exposure guide or a histogram display to manually set exposure.

(do not know about your camera)

I suppose if there is no way to focus with the aperture closed when using off camera flashes you will have problems with any lens. For the a6000 a manual lens does not work substantially different (other than you have to turn the aperture ring)

I would have thought that your Sony flash would give you a correct exposure on screen with any lens.

--
-Chris
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cspics/albums

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I'm using nex-5r with this hvl-20s flash.





With the flash light flip up (enabled), I am still able to see my subject clearly n do my MF with peaking when using a manual macro len with aperture closed (~f11-f13) . Without the flash my liveview is showing darkness at the same aperture.

with this I can consider getting a purely manual lens.

I have a flashlight installed on my len as focusing light to aid in night macro.

Now im considering getting a viltrox jy610ii (small flash which is sufficient enough for my macro.. And use my hvl-20s to wirelessly trigger it ?

Only problem is is still the 1/160 flash sync speed. Not able to help me freeze the image also manual lens don't have OSS. Furthermore I ain't using tripod when shooting.

Dawson