1st Macro attempt with reversed lens

Raphy

So I 've read about the reversed lens technique...not sure how you guys feel about it, but since i just purchased my camera and extra lens..and bag...and lens-hood...and filter...and...(you get the point)... I just don't have the funds to get a REAL Macro lens...not yet, anyways... So I found my old man's old 35mm f=50mm 1.8 Practicar lens... and reversed it and hand-held it front-to-front to get the following results...

Let me know your thoughts... thanks for looking!

Not much here in terms of COMPOSITION, but more of a technique test i suppose...

patricia kay

Raphy...

Looks like it works well....must have a go...have to buy a conector thingy though i think as i dont think my hands are as steady as yours...Its an expensive hobby but i love it and after a whole year of wanting i have finally invested in a canon 60mm macro lens...but i still want to try all the other things you can do!!!

Patricia.........:D

Qarik

Love the eye shot
I believe that is the lens I see refkected in his eyes? Didn't catch it at 1st

did you have flash?

Raphy

Qarik wrote:

I believe that is the lens I see refkected in his eyes? Didn't catch it at 1st

did you have flash?

THanks ! ....Yup, it's the lens reflected right where the pupil should be...... it's very subtle... the lens and my hand, trying to focus it..lol... no flash.. i didn't want to completely blind my brother - taking into consideration how close i was to his eye

Lord Vetinari

All good shots - reversed lenses directly on the body work well - the biggest problem is lack of aperture control. Always makes me wonder why one of the lens manufacturers doesn't do this properly with something like a 28mm to 70mm zoom lens.

brian v.

Skippy

Raphy wrote:

So I 've read about the reversed lens technique...not sure how you guys feel about it, but since i just purchased my camera and extra lens..and bag...and lens-hood...and filter...and...(you get the point)... I just don't have the funds to get a REAL Macro lens...not yet, anyways... So I found my old man's old 35mm f=50mm 1.8 Practicar lens... and reversed it and hand-held it front-to-front to get the following results...

Let me know your thoughts... thanks for looking!

Not much here in terms of COMPOSITION, but more of a technique test i suppose...

Excellent Raphy
Reversed lenses produce excellent detail, but as Brian pointed out,
lack of control of aperture control.
I also find it awkward to hold the lens up to the camera.

Love the detail in the finger and the eye ... Skippy
.

JetCrocodile

Lord Vetinari wrote:

All good shots - reversed lenses directly on the body work well - the biggest problem is lack of aperture control. Always makes me wonder why one of the lens manufacturers doesn't do this properly with something like a 28mm to 70mm zoom lens.

brian v.

When I was searching for my reverse ring find something similair
http://www.calumetphoto.com/item/NF3103/
not exactely by lense manufacturer but anyway

I think that price is a problem. Most probably it is not economically reasonable to manufacture such lense.

puzzledpaul

Raphy - I've no idea about other camera manufacturers (assume they have something similar), but with old Canon FD lenses, it was (is?) possible to get a device (F-Stop) that could be inserted into the lens bayonet mount to force the lens to be wide open.

Apart from being ideal / nec for back to back lens configurations, it also allows you to (manually) alter the aperture in a (single rev. lens) situation like the one you tried.

You'll need a 'laggy band' or similar to work against the spring loaded pin - but it's a small price to pay imo for this inexpensive macro opportunity.

However, the 'proper' Canon device for doing this sort of thing (for FD lenses) is a 'Macro Auto Ring' - which offers full aperture control in a reversed lens situation, via an old style (non electronic) shutter release cable.

Pretty sure you'll find either / both on Ebay for little money + body mount coupler and a 50mm F1.8 ... probably going free with a jumbo pkt of cornflakes, these days

Keep up the good work, btw - off to an excellent start

<< something like a 28mm to 70mm zoom lens. >>
2 or 3 yrs ago I removed all of the front optics from a completely knackered (electronically) version of such a lens and ended up with a more than passable (I thought then) zoom macro. With some messing, it's also possible to get to (and manually) operate the aperture lever of such a device.

I bought this for about £5 ... initially just wanting the lens mount to make an FD-EOS converter ... there seemed to be plenty of completey duff old 28 - 70 / 80 lenses around that shops would part company with for just a few quid ... just grovel

(If the shop bod tells you it's u/s 'cos the AF doesn't work (and no-one - BUT no-one focusses manually these day, do they, eh?) but 'it's optics is still awight, mate' ... just smile inwardly ... )

pp

Raphy

THanks for all the feedback guys !

There is a "ring" that can "fuse" the two lenses together, but i'm having trouble finding a 52mm-49mm one.. as my kit lens takes 52 and the Practicar lens takes 49. Regarding apeture, the thing is that i have to keep the 50mm reversed lens at wide open (1.8 - it has a manual apeture ring) otherwise i get black outlines in the pics...and i can only control the apature in the kit lens.. don't think this would work if i just reversed the lens next to the body... Don't know much about this stuff yet as i'm quite new to dslrs and photography, but i figured trial & error never fails.. lol

THe problem i'm having, and it was most evident with a zoom lens, is that the focus area (or area in focus) was VERY limited... it was like a line 3/4 of the frame...

here's what i mean...



see how the top and bottom are out of focus... i wish i could make the entire coin in focus for example..

Thanks again for looking everyone !

toofast

Raphy wrote:

see how the top and bottom are out of focus... i wish i could make the entire coin in focus for example..

Couldn't you adjust the lens to get the bottom, middle, then top in focus. Then stack the photos for a clear pic?

Raphy

toofast wrote:

Couldn't you adjust the lens to get the bottom, middle, then top in focus. Then stack the photos for a clear pic?

Ya, I could... but that wasn't my intention.. i want to capture a sharp image in one step and not play around in photoshop trying to sow parts of photos together.

JetCrocodile

Nice images!

Raphy wrote:

Ya, I could... but that wasn't my intention.. i want to capture a sharp image in one step and not play around in photoshop trying to sow parts of photos together.

I use BR2A reverse ring with Nikon 50mm 1.8 prime lense. It is not an easy to focus, but possible. Usually I set aperture between 2 - 5.6.

Glenn NK

Somewhere in the back of my memory (it's starting to come back) I recall a do-it-yourself solution that utilized a filter and a body cap (assumes a DSLR).

The body cap had the centre cut out and the two were (glued?) together. This formed a light-tight connection, and with a relatively light lens (50 mm) would also support the weight of the lens. I tried years ago to hold a lens in front of the camera and at the same time manipulate the shutter and hold the camera - quite a chore.

The components must be accurately centered and aligned or the lens will be off axis from the sensor and/or the axis will not be perpendicular to the sensor.

There must be cheaper filters that have plastic rings that could be "crazy glued" to the body cap. Anybody have any ideas?

As for getting the edges of the penny in focus (I'm partial to the maple leaf), it just has to be perpendicular to the lens axis (parallel to front of lens or sensor).

Lord Vetinari

Raphy - you can normally find macro couplers on Ebay for reversing one lens onto another. If you can't find the correct size 49 to 52mm you may need to get something like 49 to 55 and then a 55 to 52 mm filter step down ring. It's normal when reversing a lens onto another to have the reversed lens focused on infinity and wide open. The DOF will be thin but the same as with any other magnifying system at the same aperture (set on the main lens). With the coin as someone else pointed out you just need it flat on to the lens to get the whole thing in focus.

Brian V.

puzzledpaul

Raphy - I've just entered 'eos reverse' into Ebay (UK) search and got 30 responses - the first is for one with a 52mm thread ... total price landed approx £8 (BIN)

There's other thread sizes / prices too.

pp

Raphy

Thanks a lot guys...this is really usefull info !

Ignacio

Hi Raphy,

Use the Scheimpflug principle (tilt lens) to get the whole thing in focus in one fell swoop. Here is a setup I use cannibalized from an old screw mount bellows to achieve that for macro shots.

Sorry, I've tried to attach a picture of the setup, but the manage attachments button just brings up a list of file types but nothing happens when I click on them. I'll try and send you a PM with the photo.

Cheers,

Ignacio

Ignacio

Hi again Raphy,

I'm trying "insert image", but I can't see it other than as an icon. We'll see if it works after I hit Submit Reply...
[IMG]C:\Documents and Settings\Ignacio\Desktop\Scheimpflug\Scheimplfug.JPG[/IMG]

Ignacio

Raphy

Ignacio wrote:

Hi again Raphy,

I'm trying "insert image", but I can't see it other than as an icon. We'll see if it works after I hit Submit Reply...
[IMG]C:\Documents and Settings\Ignacio\Desktop\Scheimpflug\Scheimplfug.JPG[/IMG]

Ignacio

Ignacio... the image has to come from an ONLINE photo hosting site... like flickr, smugmug, etc.... if you want to insert from your harddrive, use the PAPERCLIP icon and use the linek you had (C:\Documents and Settings\Ignacio\Desktop\Scheimpflug\Scheimplfug.JPG).. contact me thru email if u need help

jogle

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Raphy - you can normally find macro couplers on Ebay for reversing one lens onto another. If you can't find the correct size 49 to 52mm you may need to get something like 49 to 55 and then a 55 to 52 mm filter step down ring. It's normal when reversing a lens onto another to have the reversed lens focused on infinity and wide open. The DOF will be thin but the same as with any other magnifying system at the same aperture (set on the main lens). With the coin as someone else pointed out you just need it flat on to the lens to get the whole thing in focus.

Brian V.

Hi Brian, the cheaper and easier alternative to hard to find reversing rings is to buy Colkin P series adapter rings and superglue the flat flanges together. Voila, custom reversing rings that you can pry apart and re use if your lens needs change.

Lord Vetinari

jogle wrote:

Hi Brian, the cheaper and easier alternative to hard to find reversing rings is to buy Colkin P series adapter rings and superglue the flat flanges together. Voila, custom reversing rings that you can pry apart and re use if your lens needs change.

Agree good idea. I actually used to use a cylinder made froma strip of spongy campin mat. I shaped it so it gripped the 50mm lens tightly but slipped over the barrel of my macro lens.

Brian V.

jogle

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Agree good idea. I actually used to use a cylinder made froma strip of spongy campin mat. I shaped it so it gripped the 50mm lens tightly but slipped over the barrel of my macro lens.

Brian V.

oooh, that's a good idea, you could also bend it a bit to get a bit of a tilt shift effect to get the focal plane just where you want it.

Living in New Zealand you have to make a fair few bits of camera gear like that yourself because it takes forever to ship it in.