Spotted Cucumber Beetle

craig_d

I found this on the outside of my house yesterday. There are a couple more shots of the same critter in the gallery (here). It was extremely cooperative; it was just crawling slowly along, mostly toward me, and didn't mind being photographed at all.

The technique I've developed for hand-held shots of anything this small is to set the lens on manual focus at the minimum distance possible and then focus by moving the camera, or by focusing a little ahead of the beetle and waiting for him to crawl into focus. This seems to produce more in-focus shots than using AF due to the incredibly shallow DOF of macro shots and the difficulty of holding perfectly still long enough to lock focus and take the shot. The slowness of my Tokina macro's AF may have something to do with this, though. I'd love to try the new Canon IS macro.

C&C welcome.



Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Tokina AT-X M100 AF PRO D 100mm f/2.8 macro lens
Canon MR-14EX Macro Ring Lite
1/100 sec. at f/11, ISO 100

DeeCajun

I love this one! Great contrast and subject..

paddler4

That's the focusing method that Brian V. has often described, and I now do it much of the time as well. I have the 100mm IS, but I do this anyway. The issue is not just the speed of the lens. It is also having to place an autofocus point precisely where you want it, which I find hard with some shots.

craig_d wrote:

I found this on the outside of my house yesterday. There are a couple more shots of the same critter in the gallery (here). It was extremely cooperative; it was just crawling slowly along, mostly toward me, and didn't mind being photographed at all.

The technique I've developed for hand-held shots of anything this small is to set the lens on manual focus at the minimum distance possible and then focus by moving the camera, or by focusing a little ahead of the beetle and waiting for him to crawl into focus. This seems to produce more in-focus shots than using AF due to the incredibly shallow DOF of macro shots and the difficulty of holding perfectly still long enough to lock focus and take the shot. The slowness of my Tokina macro's AF may have something to do with this, though. I'd love to try the new Canon IS macro.

C&C welcome.



Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Tokina AT-X M100 AF PRO D 100mm f/2.8 macro lens
Canon MR-14EX Macro Ring Lite
1/100 sec. at f/11, ISO 100

Lord Vetinari

Lovely capture !
Brian V.

craig_d

Thanks for the comments!

However, this sort of shot really fuels my desire for an MP-E 65... this image is actually a fairly tight crop. Even a 1:1 macro lens can't really get close to something this small. I suppose extension tubes would help, but probably not enough.

GOLDENORFE

good shot, like it
extension tubes on your 100mm would make a big difference
should get x2 magnification on crop sensor, so a little cropping would not be a problem with your full frame sensor.

most macro shooters always manual focus
phil