Possibly the smallest bug I have ever got on camera...

Paul Iddon

This is one of the cut flowers that the Mrs has in the living room, and I was going to just do a photo of the texture of the petals or something - I hadn't really decided, so I just cut off one of the flower heads and propped it up in the kitchen and fired off a couple.

It was only then I noticed a small pale blob on the surface of one of the petals on the screen as I was checking the shot. Curiosity aroused, I zoomed in a saw it was a mite of some sort.

So that meant I had to go get the extension tubes out (oh for an MPE-65) and got as close and as large as I could.

This is not a crop - it's as is, and the yellow-green flower middle (seen bottom left is no more than the size of a 5p coin) so that will indicate how small this mite is. No idea what type of course, there are probably thousands of different ones.

Exif:

Camera Maker: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS 550D
Lens: 105mm
Image Date: 2012-01-01 22:54:30 +0000
Focal Length: 105mm
Aperture: f/8.0
Exposure Time: 0.017 s (1/60)
ISO equiv: 100
Exposure Bias: none
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: aperture priority (semi-auto)
White Balance: Auto
Flash Fired: Yes (Auto, return light detected)
Orientation: Normal
Color Space: sRGB
GPS Coordinate: undefined, undefined
Photographer: Paul Iddon
Copyright: www.pauliddon.co.uk







Paul.

Butterfly2011

What brand of extention tubes do you use? I have been looking around, but not sure what would be best? I heard Kinko sp? i s a good brand.

Paul Iddon

Butterfly2011 wrote: »

What brand of extention tubes do you use? I have been looking around, but not sure what would be best? I heard Kinko sp? i s a good brand.

Mine are from the camera retailer Jessops, in the UK.

Kenko branded ones will do you fine if you can find them.


Paul.

Overfocused

As small as the pic is, it looks like a spider mite to me





A 3-5x magnification will get you some decent details of them, though.

I find the Raynox diopter assembly to be MUCH better than tubes. Your camera stays connected to the lens, you only gain 1 inch of length, and you can take it off and put it on in less than 1 second. IQ isn't degraded one bit even after pixel peeping. There is one version for 1.6x cameras and one for 35mm cameras, and coupled with a 1x macro lens you get either 2.5x or 3.5x magnification (not sure which)

http://raynox.co.jp/english/dcr/dcr250/indexdcr250eg.htm

Lord Vetinari

well spotted Paul - guess it is a mite
Brian v.