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My first outing with 80mm macro (in fact, my first ever Fuji outing!)

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charley5

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Hey All:

As a macro shooter, I cultivated a garden filled with pollinating flowers in my backyard for the purpose of shooting bees and wasps. This is my first garden. I wanted to create a botanical garden experience in the back of my house to avoid the commute to the actual botanical gardens. I used to be a Sigma (foveon) camera user and i sold all my Sigma equipment for a Fuji X-T2. Here are the results of my very first outing. The bigger insects (bees and wasps) have not yet made a strong showing. The scene is mainly dominated by hover flies, etc.

I am still working on my manual focus. I usually go about as close as the lens will allow. I shot these raw but I think I will shoot fine jpegs from now on. Comments appreciated.

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Great! Now break out the flash. :) Great macro lens.
 
Welcome to the world of the Fuji 80mm. Just an amazing piece of glass for both Macro and other uses.
 
Some technically good images. I think the first and second would have worked better (most plant pictures do actually) shot in portrait orientation.

I find the Fuji EX-X20 flash works well for plant close-ups, provided the lens hood isn't on. The controls on it make balancing daylight easier, it has enough power to use small apertures and is close to the lens axis. Add some A4 white card as a reflector.



Epipactis sancta, one of about 300 plants in the entire world. The flowers are about 1cm across.

Epipactis sancta, one of about 300 plants in the entire world. The flowers are about 1cm across.

I use back button focus with a small focus area set.

--
Andrew Skinner
 
Lovely shots Charley

To get even closer you could get the Fuji mcex extender

Has anyone tried this with the 80mm macro

I use it with the 18 55 and quiet impressed

I may post some shots later when I'm at the

PC. I also use it for some Product shots

Have a nice day with ur lens
 
Extension tubes do work with the 80mm, but as the focal lengths get longer extension tubes have proportionally less effect the extra extension being a lesser proportion of the focal length.
 
charley5 said:
Hey All:

As a macro shooter, I cultivated a garden filled with pollinating flowers in my backyard for the purpose of shooting bees and wasps. This is my first garden. I wanted to create a botanical garden experience in the back of my house to avoid the commute to the actual botanical gardens. I used to be a Sigma (foveon) camera user and i sold all my Sigma equipment for a Fuji X-T2. Here are the results of my very first outing. The bigger insects (bees and wasps) have not yet made a strong showing. The scene is mainly dominated by hover flies, etc.

I am still working on my manual focus. I usually go about as close as the lens will allow. I shot these raw but I think I will shoot fine jpegs from now on. Comments appreciated.

d337f0f5daa2469f9fd1510f5c7cd3eb.jpg

1d4ab07ee77748d0beed3296bd4f677e.jpg

c8af66a0bd164bc4a3438304382eb8cf.jpg

ab960c2dd744467592420df0f1daf308.jpg

16f9ba78c2bd4bf28ca1ef48dbd34dc8.jpg

a5c0bb291e184ecea7d434acdf962ba1.jpg
Click to expand...
Nice shots! You definitely got the lighting right :)

However if I am to give a bit of constructive criticism then I'd say maybe don't always put the subject in the center of the frame and that there's some motion blur in the shots and personally I would never shoot at F16. The lowest I go is basically F13.

Anyway, congratulations on getting the 80mm! It's an absolutely amazing lens! Probably the best macro lens ever made. It's definitely the best lens I've ever owned. It's extremely sharp, but it's actually not so much the sharpness I love the most, but rather the incredibly high contrast and beautiful bokeh it produces :)
 
Thanks sinbad. Yes, very sharp. I just have to work on the focusing!
 
Thanks Steve. Actually, they were taken with a flash. Are the images too dark or in shadow?
 
Thanks David. I am looking forward to explore the lens more fully!
 
That's a great tip about the flash. I used the small flash that came with the camera, the EX-F8. I will check it out. I usually use portrait orientation, but for some reason wasn't happy with the aesthetics when I rotated those pictures around.

a_c_skinner said:
Some technically good images. I think the first and second would have worked better (most plant pictures do actually) shot in portrait orientation.

I find the Fuji EX-X20 flash works well for plant close-ups, provided the lens hood isn't on. The controls on it make balancing daylight easier, it has enough power to use small apertures and is close to the lens axis. Add some A4 white card as a reflector.

Epipactis sancta, one of about 300 plants in the entire world. The flowers are about 1cm across.

Epipactis sancta, one of about 300 plants in the entire world. The flowers are about 1cm across.

I use back button focus with a small focus area set.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the tip, Tom. I am not sure I want to get closer. The depth of field is already quite shallow.

tom1234567 said:
Lovely shots Charley

To get even closer you could get the Fuji mcex extender

Has anyone tried this with the 80mm macro

I use it with the 18 55 and quiet impressed

I may post some shots later when I'm at the

PC. I also use it for some Product shots

Have a nice day with ur lens
Click to expand...
 
Jay, thank you for the constructive criticism!! That's how I learn. Ok. I think f13 is good advice. Although the depth of field gets slightly shallower, the shorter exposure lengths may help with the motion blur. I am not sure where I see motion blur (the eyes of the insects are generally quite sharp), but I shall take your word for it. Thank you!

-Charles
 
AC, the recycle time for the EF-X20 seems to be rather slow, which for the macros I take (mostly bees flitting quickly around) is a killer.

-Charles
 
I was wondering why my images were slightly soft for such a supposedly sharp lens, and I realized that there is a significant amount of diffraction going on at f16. I think I will shoot at about f11-f13 from now on.

The focus-by-wire manual focusing system in Fuji X lenses is also tricky. Fortunately, I decide on the maximum focus distance beforehand, then displace the camera back and forth to focus. I find this helps especially when the subject won't stop moving!

-Charles
 
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Yes, it is a bit slow but a nice size and controllable. It teaches you to take one image that is right rather than lots to get lucky!

--
Andrew Skinner
 
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Diffraction isn't important, it is worried about by people who know a lot about gear and optics but are less practical photographers. It doesn't get beyond needing a bit of sharpening in processing. This is at f16:



Yellow Star of Bethlehem

Yellow Star of Bethlehem



--
Andrew Skinner
 
Nice start! I also use the 1.4x TC on mine.



with 1.4x TC

with 1.4x TC



With 1.4x TC Some artifacts during stacking but I still like it.

With 1.4x TC Some artifacts during stacking but I still like it.



Without TC

Without TC



Focus stack...no TC

Focus stack...no TC
 
Great shots! How do you get such a great depth of field on yours, particularly since you are using under f10? Is it the 1.4X that helps? Do you manual focus or use AF?

Thanks,

-Charles
 
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