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Inexpensive macro experiment

Started 5 months ago | Discussions thread
Joseph S Wisniewski Forum Pro • Posts: 35,461
Inexpensive, like 3 cents...
1

A2000 wrote:

I was curious to try macro photography, but without spending a great deal of money. I initially looked at used Kenko extension tubes, but was able to purchase a B+W 77mm NL-4 screw-on lens for my Nikon 17-55mm and 70-200mm f/2.8 from KEH for about $31 with shipping. There's considerable CA, and the lens definitely seems to like shorter focal lengths, but it was fun to try it out today.

And isn't having some fun the point of the whole thing?

I remember when I was a teen, I owned a FLSR so old it used the old M42 screw-mount lenses, instead of the fancy "bayonet" lenses Nikon and Pentax had switched to. I had a "good" 50mm (a Pentax 50mm f/1.4 "Super Takumar") and a cheap "no name" 135mm and 35mm "lens kit". My first macros were with a set of Hanimex extension tubes (I still have those old Hanimex tubes, and I still use them. They're indestructible, and the old M42 mount has experienced a resurgence in the macro world). I believe they cost $7 in 1978 money. But...

There's a technique called "coupling lenses" where you put a long lens on the camera, then attach a shorter lens "face to face" with the longer lens. This works like a fancy "infinity objective" microscope. The magnification is the ratio of the lenses, so I got 3.9x magnification from my paired lenses. If both lenses have the same size filter mount, you can couple them by...

Setting them both to infinity and then duct-taping them together. And thus, the 3 cent 4x macro (how much is a foot of duct-tape, in 1978 money?) was born.

  • Optical quality? Marginal.
  • Workability? Difficult without a focus rail and some sort of stand?
  • Fun? Oh, heck yeah.

People lose the idea that fun can be cheap, sometimes even free. (I do a lot of macro work with a Nikon PB-4 bellows (that I did have to pay for) and a 50mm EL-Nikkor enlarger lens that was on an enlarger that was sitting on the curb one day as I was driving home.

Free macro lenses? You don't have to twist my arm.

-- hide signature --

The term "mirrorless" is totally obsolete. It's time we call out EVIL for what it is. (Or, if you can't handle "Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens" then Frenchify it and call it "LIVE" for "Lens Interchangeable, Viewfinder Electronic" or "Viseur électronique").
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Stanley Joseph Wisniewski 1932-2019.
Dad, so much of you is in me.
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Christine Fleischer 1947-2014.
My soulmate. There are no other words.
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Rahon Klavanian 1912-2008.
Armenian genocide survivor, amazing cook, scrabble master, and loving grandmother. You will be missed.
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Ciao! Joseph
www.swissarmyfork.com

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