I'm on a fixed income though and just have to make do with my kit lenses for now. But if you're going to make do, do it as good as you can, right.
I bought a macro reversing ring for about four bucks including shipping and everything. I love it. My camera (Nikon D3200) not only doesn't love it. It pretends it's not even there.
So I'm on full manual. Who here remembers "focusing" ? You know all those little dials and things all over your camera ? They really do stuff. Without going into a lot of the stuff and showing just how little I really know, I'll just say that I had to figure out a way to have some control over the aperture setting. Why, you ask.
There are a couple of reasons involving triangles and light and focus and what not but this first thing and maybe the most important is DOF. If the lens is wide open and your very close it's really hard to focus. Something like a coin isn't very deep and not so much of a problem. Something like a flower or even a bug though is going to give you fits.
So here are some samples and pictures of my DIY aperture control "ring" I built using a pipe cleaner. I've seen pictures of much worse ideas including tooth picks and even bubble gum. I may pick up a spare lens back cap for about two bucks and make something a little better but for now - I'm just thrilled with my new toy.
Takes out notepad and pen...
ReplyDeleteHow cool is that?!?! From where did you buy the reversing ring?
ReplyDeleteIs the pipe cleaner safe for the contacts? It won't damage them will it?
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't think so since it's on the lens and not the camera. But another way to go would be to use a rubber band. Maybe even a plastic or paper cup with the bottom cut out even ?
ReplyDeletejenny bartolo I found it on ebay, Just look for the same size adapter as you would a filter and of course the same camera lens mount.
ReplyDeleteYou life hacking level: expert! This is amazing! I wish I had looked for an alternative before I bought my macro/telephoto lens (not a quality macro lens, but gets the job done)
ReplyDeleteFor those on a limited budget, and everybody else, free tools are a boon but specifically for macro a lot of people don't realize that Hugin, (http://hugin.sourceforge.net/), panorama stitcher can also be used for focus stacking take a look at http://photoblog.edu-perez.com/2009/01/greater-depth-field-macro.html for a good write up.
ReplyDeleteThank you ted kelly for this nice write up, I forgot about the Nikon way of adjusting aperture, and now see how the pipe cleaner really comes in handy. Unfortunately Canon cameras have fully electronic aperture control (unless you have some real old lenses) and you have to make do with fully open aperture if you do reverse lensing.
ReplyDeleteSteve Barnes please post the link in a separate post to the Tutorial Section, so that it is easier to find in the future, it is good information that shouldn't get lost in the comment section of a another post.
ReplyDeleteAlso if you have first hand experience with focus stacking using hugin, a few words would be greatly appreciated!
Will do Christian Madsen
ReplyDeleteSteve Barnes great!
ReplyDeleteChristian Madsen hopefully tutorials was an appropriate category to post to, (I have to admit I feel a little like a fraud as so much of what I have picked up has been from groups such as this).
ReplyDeletepfft... it's a very worthwhile share Steve.
ReplyDeleteSteve Barnes Tutorials is a very appropriate place to share posts like this. Thanks a bunch for posting!
ReplyDeleteDon Spivey Here's what I was talking about.
ReplyDeleteted kelly So it allows you to reverse mount your lens?
ReplyDeleteIt does. You screw it on where your filter goes and voila'
ReplyDelete