new, here and to macro

nurgletsnurglets Registered Users Posts: 3 Beginner grinner
edited February 11, 2009 in Holy Macro
So searching around for relevent info and stuff i've stumbled across this forum, and surprised i hadnt a long time ago really. I love a bit of shameless self promotion (not that i'm getting paid for anything) and thought i'd sign up and share (read: show off) what i'd come up with and what i'd managed to do so far. anyway...

years ago i dismantled an old lens for my praktica slr and played with the internal optics and found a few things out, and recently one of my kit lenses focusing motor died so i decided to give it another go.

The basic premise is to use one of the elements as a filter on front of another lens, this enables you to get super close-up shots of small subjects, i think i worked out the macro ratio of 1.7:1.

with the only thing you need being a faulty lens, you may end up having to pay nothing if you already have one or just spending a few quid (last one i saw was £4) on ebay.

I'd write out the full "how-to" here but i've already done a guide on instructables.com, so here's the link:
http://www.instructables.com/id/The_MacroGyver_or_home_brew_macro_filter/

which is also in my sig.

i've slightly changed my own setup since posting it so the element is now held by an old filter ring so its as easy as screwing and unscrewing to use it. Here's a couple of examples of what i've managed so far, and any questions or comments are welcome!

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Comments

  • Lord VetinariLord Vetinari Registered Users Posts: 15,901 Major grins
    edited February 9, 2009
    Welcome to the forum :)
    Good use of an old lens piece - did much the same with the front element from an old Tamron 28-135 zoom zens- the front element worked out to be + 20 dioptre
    Brian V.
  • nurgletsnurglets Registered Users Posts: 3 Beginner grinner
    edited February 9, 2009
    i'm quite happy with the results, but a minor thing on a few of the images are where the highlights kind of halo, or bloom(?) i've read somewhere that this can be an effect of using such a small aperture, i'm using f32 just so i can get away with less stacks, but if it means a better quality end result then i might try larger apertures with more stack images.

    3254356332_89603d3cb6.jpg?v=0
  • Lord VetinariLord Vetinari Registered Users Posts: 15,901 Major grins
    edited February 9, 2009
    nurglets wrote:
    i'm quite happy with the results, but a minor thing on a few of the images are where the highlights kind of halo, or bloom(?) i've read somewhere that this can be an effect of using such a small aperture, i'm using f32 just so i can get away with less stacks, but if it means a better quality end result then i might try larger apertures with more stack images.

    Well suspect you need better diffusion on the flash and you will get a lot sharper shots shooting around F11 at 1:1 - try the same subject and comapere two shot stacks (obviously you will need more slices at F11)
    Brian V.
  • GOLDENORFEGOLDENORFE Super Moderators Posts: 4,747 moderator
    edited February 11, 2009
    welcome to the forum,
    your last shot of catterpiller is very nice , alot better lighting than the others.

    phil
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/goldenorfe/
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