Almost half a year since I've upgraded my setup, slowly getting the hang of it

[macrophoto_markus]

About half a year ago I decided I finally needed to upgrade my gear to have enough magnification for the tiny arthropods here in Germany. I upgraded from the Olympus 60mm with a Raynox 250, MSN 202, and Extension tubes to the OM System 90mm, the MC20 teleconverter and the NiSi 49mm close-up lens.

The new setup goes up to 6x magnification with a reasonably long working distance, I am not entirely sure how long the working distance is, but it seems much better than the 60mm with the MSN 202 at 2.6x, while also having a significantly better image quality, at least up to 4x, at 6x it really needs a lot of post processing, but from my experience the quality is still better than cropping from 4x. Working distance at 4x is REALLY long.

What I've learned so far: beanbags are your best friends, especially at higher magnifications, f8 is fine up to 3x, at 4x f11 to f13 work great, and at 6x f13 or f14 are your best bet. Getting enough light at higher magnifications is also problematic, up to 3x 10 fps works well with a good flash, at 4x usually 5 fps depending on the scene, and at 6x 2 fps seem to be necessary to get enough light, even with a strong flash.

For anything up to 3x (bare lens + NiSi) f5 wide open is no issue at all, as I mostly shoot at f8 anyway, but f3.5 at max magnification would have been great for using teleconverters, but it is what it is. The only other thing that bothers me quite a lot about this setup is the resolution limitation of OM System/Olympus bodies, 25 or 30mp would be really nice, especially for larger subjects, but the magnification possible with this setup alongisde it's ease of use keeps me in this ecosystem.

Here are a bunch of photos from the last few weeks, of course all are my own work and I own all the rights to my photos.

If there are any other setups that get a similar magnification with better image quality let me know, the only alternative I can think of is the 40mp fuji with the laowa 5x, which gets to 7.5x in ff terms, but without focus bracketing, while this goes to 12x with focus bracketing, but with lower quality at lower magnifications.


Cucumber spider at 6x magnification, the field of view here is roughly 1.9mm, I guess for 12x ff equivalent magnification out in the field the quality is still fine, but there isn't much to compare it to, at least it works and gets results.


Square-spot rustic caterpillar at 2x magnification with the bare lens


Trochosa spec. wolf spider at 3x magnification, 90mm + NiSi 49mm


Common quaker moth, I don't have much experience at lower magnifications with this setup, due to the winter, but looks fine.


Philodromus fuscomarginatus at 4x, lens + teleconverter, slightly cropped, exported at 2048p.

So far I am quite happy with the results that are possible with this setup, especially since I started working on improving my post processing skills. I'd love a higher megapixel body for shooting butterflies and other larger critters, I really hope the next flagship OM System camera has a higher resolution sensor, I can't really think of any other downside to this setup other than resolution, cropping-ability is just so important with these tiny animals.

 

[grsnovi]

Nice work Markus!

What body are you using?

- Gary

 

[macrophoto_markus]

Nice work Markus!

What body are you using?

- Gary

Thanks Gary! I still use the EM1 III, I didn't really see the benefit of upgrading to the OM1 for macro, so I opted for the 90mm instead.

 

[jim mij]

very nice pics, glad your liking your new toy

I really like the caterpillar (nice angle and detail) and the wolf spider pics

--
Jim

 

[macrophoto_markus]

very nice pics, glad your liking your new toy

I really like the caterpillar (nice angle and detail) and the wolf spider pics

Thanks, I almost didn't take photos of the caterpillar since it wasn't a spider, but I'm really glad I got some, a really cute looking lad.

 

[macrouser]

I am impressed with the ability to see texture on the skin of the spiders. It looks like finger prints.

The wolf spider has ' I am comming to get you ' eyes.

It is hard to emegine how much more detail can be obtained in photos.

I would love to upgrade to the Sony 7RIV for the resolution and the view finder. The view finder has much better resolution than my 7RIII.

 

[DrHook59]

Like the Philodromus image best of all, I think. Unusual angle which means you don't see all the eyes, and this in turn makes for a different image, very nice!

 

[macrophoto_markus]

A few more from the last couple of days.


Nice little prey scene


I also met a few ground beetles, C. problematicus, quite large and beautiful colors. Quite nice to photograph something large for a change, much much easier than the extreme magnification photos.


A hungry one as well


Very small Thomisid, and while fairly common, rarely observed, Tmarus piger, shot at 4x with the MC20 and cropped quite a bit

 

[Marceppy]

Whatever you are doing, it's producing some really nice and clear images. Nice work!

 

[macrophoto_markus]

Whatever you are doing, it's producing some really nice and clear images. Nice work!

Thank you! I am still trying to improve each time I go outside, has been quite the learning process since I started with the GX80 and the 12-32mm a couple years ago, it's a wonder I even kept going given how the pictures looked like back then haha

 

[jim mij]

Very nice, I really like the 2 spider one. Beetles are very tricky too with their reflective shiny backs, a nice set

--
Jim

 

[RiccoNicco]

Awesome photos. I especially liked the ground beetles. I was wondering why your least magnified image (moth) seemed to me to be the least detailed when viewed in the gallery? I would have thought the opposite.

 

[macrophoto_markus]

Very nice, I really like the 2 spider one. Beetles are very tricky too with their reflective shiny backs, a nice set

 

[macrophoto_markus]

Awesome photos. I especially liked the ground beetles. I was wondering why your least magnified image (moth) seemed to me to be the least detailed when viewed in the gallery? I would have thought the opposite.

Thank you, it's probably a combination of things. Most of the photos are exported at 90% (2048p at the long side) for social media and I didn't do that with the first 4 images, and out of these shots only the caterpillar portrait (and the moth) was shot with the bare lens, teleconverters and close-up lenses, while being better than cropping, still lose you some sharpness, especially if you use both at the same time. The other thing is usually the portraits need a bit of a tighter crop, as filling the frame with the face is sometimes not totally possible, mostly because their face wouldn't fit properly at higher magnifications. I think one of the biggest reasons is (kind of) just illusion, the moth has the most "texture" if that makes sense, lots of little scales which might give the illusion of detail. Funnily enough when I zoom in on my moth/butterfly images I am always a bit sad about the lack of detail in the scales, mostly because of the lack of megapixels not due to softness of the lens, there isn't that much more detail you can get out of a smooth ground beetles face with zooming in unless it was a much higher megapixel file, since the fine details are just that much smaller relatively.

On the other hand it might just be that I made some mistakes with sharpening/denoising and lost some detail along the way, shooting at higher magnifications is also quite a bit more difficult to get right, so might also just be a lack of experience.


A very tight crop on the first ground beetle for reference, I think there are still lots of details left even at this kind of crop, little scratches on the mandibles and such. Currently testing a few different sharpening/denoise techniques so it might be a tad bit softer than it should be.

 

[Paul5566]

Great shots. Great detail. Well done.

 

[A74Me]

your images look fantastic, the only way to shoot with more resolution is FF (a7iv) and microscope objectives, but then its a whole different setup.

this is a heavy crop from the a7iv not more magnifacation.

 

[macrophoto_markus]

your images look fantastic, the only way to shoot with more resolution is FF (a7iv) and microscope objectives, but then its a whole different setup.

this is a heavy crop from the a7iv not more magnifacation.

Thanks! How well does it work in the field/on wild animals? How's the working distance like? I might try something similar as a second setup or an alternative if OM System continues with 20mp bodies, I am also kinda curious how the Laowa 5x lens performs on the A7R5, but I don't have that kind of money right now.

 

[A74Me]

your images look fantastic, the only way to shoot with more resolution is FF (a7iv) and microscope objectives, but then its a whole different setup.

this is a heavy crop from the a7iv not more magnifacation.

Thanks! How well does it work in the field/on wild animals? How's the working distance like? I might try something similar as a second setup or an alternative if OM System continues with 20mp bodies, I am also kinda curious how the Laowa 5x lens performs on the A7R5, but I don't have that kind of money right now.

its imposable to shoot the images im shooting in the field. i capture them, shoot and realease them. i shoot dancers in my studio and i do the same with my bugs but in a micro studio. the a7r5 is not going ot give you more resolution at 10x as difraction sets in. you need 5um pixel size.

 

[macrophoto_markus]

your images look fantastic, the only way to shoot with more resolution is FF (a7iv) and microscope objectives, but then its a whole different setup.

this is a heavy crop from the a7iv not more magnifacation.

Thanks! How well does it work in the field/on wild animals? How's the working distance like? I might try something similar as a second setup or an alternative if OM System continues with 20mp bodies, I am also kinda curious how the Laowa 5x lens performs on the A7R5, but I don't have that kind of money right now.

its imposable to shoot the images im shooting in the field. i capture them, shoot and realease them. i shoot dancers in my studio and i do the same with my bugs but in a micro studio. the a7r5 is not going ot give you more resolution at 10x as difraction sets in. you need 5um pixel size.

Ah that's too bad, the vast majority of my photos are done outdoors, I've done some indoor photos for a publication but otherwise that wouldn't work as a lot of the animals I shoot are in nature conservation areas or protected by law (not the spiders unfortunately, I guess no one cares about the rare species either). I know someone that stacks handheld with the Laowa 5x both on MFT and APSC and his results are fantastic, probably my best bet for more detail then.

 

[A74Me]

your images look fantastic, the only way to shoot with more resolution is FF (a7iv) and microscope objectives, but then its a whole different setup.

this is a heavy crop from the a7iv not more magnifacation.

Thanks! How well does it work in the field/on wild animals? How's the working distance like? I might try something similar as a second setup or an alternative if OM System continues with 20mp bodies, I am also kinda curious how the Laowa 5x lens performs on the A7R5, but I don't have that kind of money right now.

its imposable to shoot the images im shooting in the field. i capture them, shoot and realease them. i shoot dancers in my studio and i do the same with my bugs but in a micro studio. the a7r5 is not going ot give you more resolution at 10x as difraction sets in. you need 5um pixel size.

Ah that's too bad, the vast majority of my photos are done outdoors, I've done some indoor photos for a publication but otherwise that wouldn't work as a lot of the animals I shoot are in nature conservation areas or protected by law (not the spiders unfortunately, I guess no one cares about the rare species either). I know someone that stacks handheld with the Laowa 5x both on MFT and APSC and his results are fantastic, probably my best bet for more detail then.

apsc 24 meg will give you cleaner images over m43 stacking in zerene as stacking programs stack noise, so the cleaner the image the better the results i have found. but the work your doing is very good, it just depends how far you want to go with your images. i like all the crazy angles and perspectives that i can shoot with my setup,

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