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First impressions on Oly 30mm macro

Started Jun 4, 2017 | Photos thread
SteveY80 Senior Member • Posts: 2,087
Re: First impressions on Oly 30mm macro

I picked up a cheap 30mm too. It's a good and useful lens, although so far I'm finding it very challenging to use for macro. Obviously the working distance it tiny compared with using a close-up filter on a telephoto lens (my normal way of shooting macro on m4/3), and that often makes life difficult. It's definitely not a lens for shooting anything that's easily spooked.

Even if the subject isn't scared off there's the issue of lighting (including avoiding casting a shadow over it). I've played around with reflectors and a flash mounted on a tilting hotshoe adapter, but so far I haven't figured out any way of successfully lighting a macro subject when using this lens.

Even holding a diffused flash above the lens, subjects at around 1:1 magnification end up unevenly lit and largely backlit:

I'll keep on playing around with it. It's not something that'll replace my zoom+Raynox for shooting insects, but it'll definitely be a useful lens to keep in my kit.

 SteveY80's gear list:SteveY80's gear list
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