Canon 50mm f/1.8 MK1 - MACRO????

sirsloop

50mm 1.8 MK1 cult member here....

take the lens off and reverse it on the body. The nifty 50 actually makes one hell of a macro lens!! At f/1.8 there's no problem seeing your subject in the viewfinder

A quarter fills the entire frame!! This was handheld in poor light. Notice the edges are real real soft... lets stop it down!!!

f/1.8

full...f/1.8
http://www.jdhaesloop.com/IMG_2746.JPG

You can set the camera to manual, adjust the aperture, hold the aperture preview button, then remove the lens while the button is pressed to keep the aperture closed after the lens is taken off.

f/4 ... better

full...f/4
http://www.jdhaesloop.com/IMG_2769.JPG

Check out the IQ on f/11... handheld 1/80th no flash!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


full...f/11
http://www.jdhaesloop.com/IMG_2772.JPG

f/18 iso 800 for the heck of it...- what time is it???

full...f/18
http://www.jdhaesloop.com/IMG_2781.JPG

without a ring light, external flash+offshoe, or some better constant lighting then an IKEA expresso mini desk light.. f/18 was a bit noisey (See below). A tripod would work well too... but I think this clearly shows the reverse lens capabilities of the nifty fifty. The 35mm F/2 should have even more zoom, and will get tested later this week when I have a chance. I have heard of people hack apart extra body caps and gluing a filter ring on backwards so you can screw the lens on the body. I have a hoya 1b skylight filter on the thing now, and the damn thing fits snug into the little body mount like its supposed to be there!! Pretty sweet actually.
100% crop




the same results can be had with the $80 elcheao cheapest of the cheapest canon lenses! 80 BUCKS!!! Who needs a $900 65mm lens anyways? :clap

Lord Vetinari

Excellent shots- Love the DIY approach to macro
Not certain but you may have problems with a 35mm reversed lens with the focus point being too close to the lens.
Brian V.

sirsloop

Brian,

I have used my 17-85mm IS lens for reverse shots before at 17mm... focus is paper thin... well maybe even less than paper. I managed to capture about 1/4 if a mosquito eye in focus! HAH!

Skippy

sirsloop wrote:

50mm 1.8 MK1 cult member here....

take the lens off and reverse it on the body. The nifty 50 actually makes one hell of a macro lens!! At f/1.8 there's no problem seeing your subject in the viewfinder
A quarter fills the entire frame!! This was handheld in poor light. Notice the edges are real real soft... lets stop it down!!!
f/1.8
full...f/1.8
http://www.jdhaesloop.com/IMG_2746.JPG
You can set the camera to manual, adjust the aperture, hold the aperture preview button, then remove the lens while the button is pressed to keep the aperture closed after the lens is taken off.
f/4 ... better
full...f/4
http://www.jdhaesloop.com/IMG_2769.JPG
Check out the IQ on f/11... handheld 1/80th no flash!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
full...f/11
http://www.jdhaesloop.com/IMG_2772.JPG
f/18 iso 800 for the heck of it...- what time is it???
full...f/18
http://www.jdhaesloop.com/IMG_2781.JPG

without a ring light, external flash+offshoe, or some better constant lighting then an IKEA expresso mini desk light.. f/18 was a bit noisey (See below). A tripod would work well too... but I think this clearly shows the reverse lens capabilities of the nifty fifty. The 35mm F/2 should have even more zoom, and will get tested later this week when I have a chance. I have heard of people hack apart extra body caps and gluing a filter ring on backwards so you can screw the lens on the body. I have a hoya 1b skylight filter on the thing now, and the damn thing fits snug into the little body mount like its supposed to be there!! Pretty sweet actually.
100% crop
the same results can be had with the $80 elcheao cheapest of the cheapest canon lenses! 80 BUCKS!!! Who needs a $900 65mm lens anyways?

Nice informative post, couldnt even see that HI engraving till the last shot, its pretty tiny isnt it......... I want Brian to will me his lens when he dies hahahaha .......the reversal stuff looks great but it's still fiddley.
The thing that bothers me is the worry of accidently damaging the back of the lens when it's reversed by getting too close to something.

Its always fun to experiment, you got great results there too
Thanks for sharing your findings and images ...... Skippy (Australia)

sirsloop

heh heh... i cut the hi mom in there for the last shot. Its still super small if you compare it to the lettering on a quarter. This is definitly a cool way to get a "macro" shot... but picking up a set of kenko extension tubes will get you the same results...