Macros

I had a friend tell me that I can reverse my 50mm prime lens for macro usage. While searching the web for an adapter that allows this, I found this post by David Chin on stacking lenses for macro use. He didn't use any special adapters, he just held his 50mm (in reverse) up against another lens. So I thought I'd give it a try.

I used my Nikkor 55-200mm zoom, attached to my camera body, with the 50mm reversed and hand held on top of it. I also used an off camera flash to get enough light to permit me to use a fairly short exposure time.

Here's a picture of a Panamanian coin, poorly focused.

To get a sense of scale, the eagle's wingspan is 14mm. I had the zoom set to 66mm here.

This is a moon snail shell. With the zoom at 66mm again.

The hole in the centre of the shell is about 0.5mm wide.

And here's part of a fax I received. The zoom is set at 200mm.

The 'e' is about 1.5mm wide.

Except for the fax, I cropped a bit out of each of these photos. As David Chin's article noted, vignetting is a problem. I noticed this especially with the shorter focal lengths. It wasn't so bad at 200mm. I used f/16 for the coin and shell, and f/25 for the text, in order to maximize depth of field. Unfortunately I can't control the aperture on the 50mm lens. It's set at f/1.8 and is stopped down by the camera right before the shutter opens.

50mm Prime

The 50mm f/1.8 lens I ordered on ebay is in. It's an older one (from the 80's), and although it has a bit of dust, I'm really happy with how it works. It's heavy (made entirely of metal), and the focus and aperature rings turn nicely.

I was in Seattle doing some sailing for the weekend. Here are a few pictures I took with the lens. Not much to say about them. Didn't really make many adjustments. Judging the exposure (given that my camera body has no clue what aperature the lens is set to) isn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I usually get it on the second or third guess. Focusing in some circumstances can be tricky, but this is something I imagine will come with practice.

Here's a picture of a lamp shade, one of the first pictures I took with my new lens.



And here's a picture of my mom having a snack on deck between races.



More to come.