First shots with new macro lens (56K warning)

Lord Vetinari

Just had a brainstorm, morgaged the house and bought an MPE-65.
These are my first attempts with this lens using my standard macro rig- F11, 1/200th Ettl flash ISO200. Shots are uncropped apart from a very minor crop on the focus stacked fly (to remove stacking error).
Seems to work









focus stacked from 2 pics.

DoctorIt

that is the one specific lens in the Canon lineup that I lust for, and miss in the land of Nikkor. great stuff!

My only question though, for bug work, I know the MP lens has tiny working distance, ~1", (obviously, its basically a microscope objective): how did you get so close to a fly!?!

USAIR

Good deal I always wanted to see someone around here get one.
Can't wait to see how it does for you
Maybe a review later

They look good to me

Fred

Awais Yaqub

Beautiful congrats on new lens

Lord Vetinari

DoctorIt wrote:

that is the one specific lens in the Canon lineup that I lust for, and miss in the land of Nikkor. great stuff!

My only question though, for bug work, I know the MP lens has tiny working distance, ~1", (obviously, its basically a microscope objective): how did you get so close to a fly!?!

Does seem to be rather a nice lens and obviously very sharp.
The focus distances are:
1:1 4", 2:1 2.5", 3:1 2", 4:1 1.7", 5:1 1.6".
The fly was shot somewhere between 2:1 and 3:1 I think. I just moved in very slowly on it keeping out of the sunlight - think it took 3 goes before it sat there without flying off.
Brian V.

Lord Vetinari

USAIR wrote:

Good deal I always wanted to see someone around here get one.
Can't wait to see how it does for you
Maybe a review later

They look good to me

Fred

Thanks Fred- very pleased with first go at it especially as I'm not using macro flashes. Will do a writeup when I've have a bit more experience with it.
Brian V.

Lord Vetinari

Awais Yaqub wrote:

Beautiful congrats on new lens

Thanks Awais- the world suddenly just got a lot bigger
Brian V.

tmlphoto

Great detail on these Brian. I have also been contemplating getting that lens. I'm glad to see that it seems to work well with your usual flash setup. Keep them coming.

Lord Vetinari

tmlphoto wrote:

Great detail on these Brian. I have also been contemplating getting that lens. I'm glad to see that it seems to work well with your usual flash setup. Keep them coming.

Thanks Thomas
Think all my playing with extension tubes and closeup lenses is paying dividends- didn't seem to be as hard to use as I thought
Brian V.

MelP

These are wonderful!!!
I'm gonna have to pick up a good macro lens one day. So many possibilities out there with it.

Thanks for sharing,
Mel

Lord Vetinari

MelP wrote:

These are wonderful!!!
I'm gonna have to pick up a good macro lens one day. So many possibilities out there with it.

Thanks for sharing,
Mel

Thanks Mel

I wouldn't pick this one for first tries- a nice one around 100mm would be best.
Brian V.

Skippy

Woooooooooow !

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Just had a brainstorm, morgaged the house and bought an MPE-65.
These are my first attempts with this lens using my standard macro rig- F11, 1/200th Ettl flash ISO200. Shots are uncropped apart from a very minor crop on the focus stacked fly (to remove stacking error).
Seems to work
focus stacked from 2 pics.

Ohhhhhhhh boy oh boy oh boy.......... you just produce the best ever fly shots don't you :jawdrop golly you can clearly see the make up of the compound eyes in those shots ....... way to go Brian
Skippy (Australia)

donek

These are awesome. I just ordered a macro lense (new Nikkor 105mm with VR) because I've enjoyed your shots so much. Until it comes in, my sales guy lent me a 60mm macro. I've really enjoyed playing with it and have used your f11 1/200 with great success. My question is with regard to stacked focus. Is there a tutorial on this somewhere? Here are a couple shots I got the day after I got the lense with your settings.




With all the fun I'm having with this lense, I'm left wondering if I'm making the right purchase. Do you think I've ordered the wrong lense? The 105 will let me take the shot from a greater distance, but will I be as happy with it's performance? I've also ordered a set of extension tubes in hopes of gaining magnification. Am I barking up the wrong tree? Any advice would be appreciated.

raian

WOW! This certainly opens up my eyes. Amazing shots. And now I'm feeling kinda creeped out, thank you very much :

Lord Vetinari

MelP wrote:

These are wonderful!!!
I'm gonna have to pick up a good macro lens one day. So many possibilities out there with it.

Thanks for sharing,
Mel

Thanks Mel,
Well worth the money getting a good macro lens- all the ones around 100mm by major manufacturers have excellent optics.
Brian V.

Lord Vetinari

Skippy wrote:

Ohhhhhhhh boy oh boy oh boy.......... you just produce the best ever fly shots don't you :jawdrop golly you can clearly see the make up of the compound eyes in those shots ....... way to go Brian
Skippy (Australia)

Thanks skippy - only got the lens yesterday so still getting used to it but it does seem to be sharp
Brian V.

Lord Vetinari

donek wrote:

These are awesome. I just ordered a macro lense (new Nikkor 105mm with VR) because I've enjoyed your shots so much. Until it comes in, my sales guy lent me a 60mm macro. I've really enjoyed playing with it and have used your f11 1/200 with great success. My question is with regard to stacked focus. Is there a tutorial on this somewhere? Here are a couple shots I got the day after I got the lense with your settings.




With all the fun I'm having with this lense, I'm left wondering if I'm making the right purchase. Do you think I've ordered the wrong lense? The 105 will let me take the shot from a greater distance, but will I be as happy with it's performance? I've also ordered a set of extension tubes in hopes of gaining magnification. Am I barking up the wrong tree? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks
I did a focus stacking tutorial here
http://www.flickr.com/groups/macroviewers/discuss/163367/

As for the lens, think you've made a good choice (and it's got image stabilisation). I'd always recommend a macro lens around 100mm for new macroholics. I suspect that optically it will be the same as the 60mm but just gives you that extra working distance. With a full set of tubes the lens should go up to about 2:1.
Brian V

Lord Vetinari

raian wrote:

WOW! This certainly opens up my eyes. Amazing shots. And now I'm feeling kinda creeped out, thank you very much :

Hope you've recovered
Brian v.

Pezpix

Great and inspired work again Lord V! You're work has been THE inspiration for many of us and I thank you for helping us!

By the way, I picked up said 65 MP-E a few months ago and really havent had the chance to play with it as much as I would have liked. However, I do have to say, with the experience I do have with the MP-E, its all about finding a good tripod and trackhead, good lighting and alot of patience with the MP-E from what I've played with it so far.
The sweet spot for me starts at around f7 and closing down that apeture really makes for some super sharp work. The only problem I have is tweaking that blasted twin-lite macro flash with moving subjects and the MP-E since it does require a bit of skill. But, then again, seeing the world at 5x factor is worth it isnt it?

Zoom Raider

Is this a Brown Recluse or a Wolf Spider? They both look similar. I can't always tell them apart. My oldest brother lost a leg`cos of a Brown Recluse. And an insurance man who was visiting one of our neighbors was hobbling on a cane`cos one bit him, too.

Lord Vetinari

Pezpix wrote:

Great and inspired work again Lord V! You're work has been THE inspiration for many of us and I thank you for helping us!

By the way, I picked up said 65 MP-E a few months ago and really havent had the chance to play with it as much as I would have liked. However, I do have to say, with the experience I do have with the MP-E, its all about finding a good tripod and trackhead, good lighting and alot of patience with the MP-E from what I've played with it so far.
The sweet spot for me starts at around f7 and closing down that apeture really makes for some super sharp work. The only problem I have is tweaking that blasted twin-lite macro flash with moving subjects and the MP-E since it does require a bit of skill. But, then again, seeing the world at 5x factor is worth it isnt it?

Thanks Pezpix,
I don't use a tripod just my trusty bean-pole mind you I haven't taken any pics at 5X using that yet. I was lucky with the lighting- my flash rig I used with my old macro seems to work pretty well.
So far I've only shot at F11 which seems to be my standard at the moment.
Brian V.

Lord Vetinari

Zoom Raider wrote:

Is this a Brown Recluse or a Wolf Spider? They both look similar. I can't always tell them apart. My oldest brother lost a leg`cos of a Brown Recluse. And an insurance man who was visiting one of our neighbors was hobbling on a cane`cos one bit him, too.

Think it must be a hibernating wolf spider (it was fairly big) we don't get Brown Recluses over here AFAIK
Brian V.

System

re the flies and the spider-

ugh!!!-

and that's a compliment-

very neat photos-

george

Lord Vetinari

gefillmore wrote:

re the flies and the spider-

ugh!!!-

and that's a compliment-

very neat photos-

george

Thanks George,
When you start taking pics of bugs you start to like and respect them
Brian V.

Thusie

Wow, unbelievably awesome!