Laowa 60mm macro + extension tubes or Laowa 25mm ??

John K wrote:

gardenersassistant wrote:

John K wrote:

Gabre_macro3d wrote:

Thank you very much, I have been making the same question in facebook groups and you gave me the best answer. Your right I´m going to try less magnification to get experience and experiment with different flash setups. You told that larger distance focus is better for take pictures of bugs. Should I get Laowa 100 mm instead of 60 mm?? It´s more expensive but has larger focus distance and I could use to take amateur portraits,

Best regards

Nick (Gardenersassistant) gave you the best advice. Mu only .02 is to choose the working distance based on the light source if shooting macro in the field. Long focal length lenses (150mm and higher) for natural light to give you more room to work, and less likely to cast a shadow over the subject. Short focal length lenses, in the 60mm range, are better for a flash since you need to get the light source close for better light quality (softer shadows) and to keep the duration of the flash as short as possible (easier to freeze motion).

It doesn't matter for the OP as he has already chosen his focal length, so this comment is for others who may be considering what focal length to use. If the flash is mounted on the front of the lens then for a given magnification the distance between the flash and the subject will increase as the focal length increases. However, there are alternative means of mounting flashes which let the flash heads get as close as you want to the subject, independent of focal length. Examples include bendy arms, some flash bracket arrangements and hand-held flash as used by the reviewer in the video.

...and in just about every case the flash is closer to the subject than the lens, so the long working distance of a long focal length macro lens is negated. So if you have to get the light close to the subject then why not get the lens close too?...

In my setups the areas of the light-emitting surfaces that are closest to the subject are around the same distance from the subject as the lens (independent of magnification).* So I don't get the light especially close to the subject.

As practical examples, at 8X the lens and the area of the light emitting surface which is closest to the subject are both at around 72mm from the subject. At 5X they are around 85mm from the subject. This compares for example with around 40mm for the lens with the MPE-65 at 5X and possibly less than that for the light emitting surfaces of the flashes if the flashes are mounted on the front of the lens filter thread.

* It is arguably more complicated than that given the construction of the lens, which moves back and forth within a fixed outer barrel. (It never protrudes beyond the end of the outer barrel.)  So strictly speaking at lower magnifications the lens is further away from the subject than the light emitting flash surfaces, which is I think the situation you are describing. However, I think we are thinking here of how close the various parts of the rig are to the subject in terms of being liable to frighten it off, and in that sense the outer lens barrel is the element that counts for my current setup, and that is at all magnifications the same distance from the subject as the area of the light emitting surface which is closest to the subject.