In-camera focus bracketing: usable past 1x magnification?

16GreenBeans wrote:

As focus bracketing manually using a rail seems rather time consuming, I was wondering, would using an in-camera method of automatic bracketing be precise enough at such a high level of magnification? Say the kind found in newer fujifilm and olympus mirrorless bodies?

My thinking is that powerful focus stacking software like helicon or zerene, or even a focus stacking feature in a photo editing program like affinity photo, would be able to compensate for any major issues with sharpness and accuracy. For those with experience, does this hold true?

In camera focus bracketing in my experience really isn't less sharp or accurate compared to doing it with an automated macro rail - I'm doing both with different cameras and purposes.

On stacking rails the whole setup - camera, lens, extensions etc. - has to be moved, so you have to be very careful to let everything settle down to avoid unsharpness caused by residual vibrations/movements. Automated rails allow you to dial in appropriate waiting times for this.

Compared to that in camera focus bracketing only needs to move the focus elements of one lens, and if you use an internally focusing lens seen from the outside nothing seems to move at all. Of course something moves - the internal lens elements do -, but since there is much less mass to move this causes less vibrations/movements and allows for very fast picture taking. It also allows for very simply setups, BTW - you don't have all the cables hanging around typical of an automated rail, and you don't have to worry for a moving rail or a extending front element to touch anything on their stacking journey ruining the shot.

The problem of course is the lenses. With stacking rails you can use and try anything that comes your way, with focus bracketing you're limited to the lenses that support it. To go past 1:1 you have to use extension tubes (those with contacts allowing AF to work) and/or teleconverters (also able to transmit those signals) and/or close-up lenses. The technique OneOfOne25/Ethan (as already referenced by the others who answered in this thread) has developed allows for magnifications up to 9x by a combination of those things with excellent results using Olympus cameras. I recently adopted this technique and have gotten very good results up to 7x myself. See my recent threads in this forum for some examples, if you like, e.g. https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4636642 or https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4636307.

I'd recommend to start with a bare 1:1 macro lens for getting experience with focus bracketing - 1:1 is nothing to scoff at especially at smaller sensor sizes like APS-C or m43, and it's absolutely doable hand held - see e.g. here https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4635340.

For the next step I'd add extension tubes first because they are really cheap, some close-up lenses later - the Raynox 150 and 250 ones are really affordable and offer very good quality. With a combination of both and some extension tubes I managed to get excellent sharpness up to 3:1 - see here: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4634760

Also, this might be a stupid question, but has anyone had experience reverse mounting an enlarging lens onto the olympus 60mm macro? I found a good deal on a Schnieder componon 28mm f4 and am wondering if it possible to mount it while using the 60mm lens normally, as this would allow me to use the in-camera bracketing and stacking features.

That should be possible, but in my experience enlarging lenses give best results used on their own in combination with a bellows or extension tubes. You can try reverse mounting them on a macro lens, but asides from possible sharpness issues you may or may not encounter, on the 60mm you would "only" get an magnification of approx. 2:1, something a smaller and cheaper Raynox 250 in combination with the same lens would also reach.

Phil