Gigantic, patient dragonfly

mmroden

Hi All,

This dragonfly just sat there for some 30 minutes, as if daring me to take as many shots as I could.

These were taken with the nikon 60mm macro; Apparently, I'd need extension tubes to get closer than 1:1, right?

DonRicklin

Not seeing it!

Don

mmroden

howzabout now?

DonRicklin

mmroden wrote:

howzabout now?

He's lovely to look at. A Big one, for sure!thumb

Don

Ekaj

Nice shots. I wasn't at all pleased with my 60mm when I tried some extension tubes. I bought the kenko brand. I had to get much closer to the subject to get anything in focus. I would seriously suggest trying them out before you buy them if you use macro for anything the can move.

Lord Vetinari

Nice series -
Yes you would need something like extension tubes to get to higher magnifications. As commented above they do move the focus point closer to the lens but have the advantage of no effect on image quality. You could use a 1,$x or 2X TC and this will give you mre magnification (1.4:1 or 2;1),will reduce the image qualitybut maintains the same ninmum focus distance.

Brian V.

Skippy

mmroden wrote:

Hi All,

This dragonfly just sat there for some 30 minutes, as if daring me to take as many shots as I could.

These were taken with the nikon 60mm macro; Apparently, I'd need extension tubes to get closer than 1:1, right?

Great colours on face and body, it's even got a lovely blue band right across the front.

Ext. tubes are really worth the money mmroden.
Nice work ... Skippy
.

mmroden

OK, so I should get extension tubes, but they don't work so well on the 60 mm, I'm hearing.

Is there a good FAQ somewhere I can find on this subject? Because I'd like to try some of the really close up stuff I'm seeing here-- will they require something like the 105 mm macro, or even longer? What if I got the 135mm f/2, which is not a macro lens, and put extension tubes on it? I'd like this second scenario, because I'd want to use the lens for other things, and that lens is supposed to be delicious like a Channukah ham (and I just had a Kosher fail), but only if it'd get to be close enough with the extension tubes.

I went to Bel Air camera in Westwood (LA), and asked about the tubes, and the sales people all wanted to know why I wanted 1960s tech to take photos. So they're no help...

Skippy

mmroden wrote:

OK, so I should get extension tubes, but they don't work so well on the 60 mm, I'm hearing.

Is there a good FAQ somewhere I can find on this subject? Because I'd like to try some of the really close up stuff I'm seeing here-- will they require something like the 105 mm macro, or even longer? What if I got the 135mm f/2, which is not a macro lens, and put extension tubes on it? I'd like this second scenario, because I'd want to use the lens for other things, and that lens is supposed to be delicious like a Channukah ham (and I just had a Kosher fail), but only if it'd get to be close enough with the extension tubes.

I went to Bel Air camera in Westwood (LA), and asked about the tubes, and the sales people all wanted to know why I wanted 1960s tech to take photos. So they're no help...

You can turn almost any lens into a Macro using Extension Tubes,
so if your leaning more towards a longer lens like the 135mm you can use them on that, that is the beauty of those Tubes. ... Skippy
.

Cato

Wow, lovely image... sharp, great color!

Lord Vetinari

Extension tubes will work very well with most lenses from about 30mm focal length and up.
For a non macro lens with extenson tubes the magnification is given by the formula
magnification = length of ext tubes (mm)/focal length of lens (mm).
So for a 50mm lens with a set of extension tubes totalling 68mm the max magnification = 68/50 = 1.36:1

Brian V.

GOLDENORFE

good shots, nice colours on this one
phil
http://www.flickr.com/photos/goldenorfe/