Where have I gone wrong on this?

job3210

This was taken with an MP-E 65 (about x5) and Canon 400D
RAW Format
ISO 100
AV f14
Duration 0.5 (s)
On tripod mount

There seems to be alot of chromatic abberation with this shot
Any ideas where I went wrong

Thanks in advance
glenn

Icebear

I don't know about CA, but it looks very soft to me.

Skippy

job3210 wrote:

This was taken with an MP-E 65 (about x5) and Canon 400D
RAW Format
ISO 100
AV f14
Duration 0.5 (s)
On tripod mount

There seems to be alot of chromatic abberation with this shot
Any ideas where I went wrong

Thanks in advance
glenn

Hi Glenn, when you get to X5 your more likely to run into problems.
There is no room for error.

The DOF at X5 is for me unworkable.

It is far easier to hand hold at 1x .. 2x .. and even 3x than to go beyond that point.

The image you have shown us doesn't look in focus to me
Chromatic Ab. is found in many lenses, and can be removed post processing.

Not sure the I'm really helping you any here, but X5 is not easy to shoot in.

Hopefully some other folks can offer you some help too .... Skippy
.

Lord Vetinari

I think it is slightly OOF but the main effect will be from diffraction softening which gets worse as you increase the magnification.I tend not to shoot smaller than F11 at 1:1 because of diffraction softening. Try taking a similar shot at F6.3 and see what you get. When I'm using the lens at high mags around 4 or 5X I tend to rest the lens on the same surface as the subject to help stabilise it.


Brian V.

job3210

Thanks for the replies . I shall try it out and see how I get on.
Thanks again

ccpickre

job3210 wrote:

Thanks for the replies . I shall try it out and see how I get on.
Thanks again

Even with a tripod, I can't imagine .5 seconds being very steady, not if you don't have a remote switch.

Try upping the ISO so you can lower the shutter speed.

Robinivich

All the thoughts on shake probably apply, and should account for most softness you're seeing, but it occured to me that aperture might also have to do with it.

Is this a crop we're looking at? Or the whole thing? If the whole thing, I'd say just shake, though I can't see any streaking, just general fuzziness. Is is possible that there just isn't any more detail than what we're seeing? The edge of the whatever it is, bottom left, seems fairly crisp.

I have another theory, but bear with me, as I've never used the MP-E 65mm personally, but according to a pretty thorough review I've read, http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-MP-E-65mm-1-5x-Macro-Lens-Review.aspx
setting this lens to f14 @ 5x magnification equates to an effective aperture of f84... Which is approaching the mystical threshold of "omnisharp" where everything is equally in focus, and at the same time, out of focus, very zen... I'm thinking this is also why you had to shoot at 1/2 sec exposure. I'm sure the depth of field here is miniscule in any event, but it might also be that diffraction is being so cruel at this point that there's not as much "focus" left at f84

If those who have the almighty magnifier would like to chime in, I'm all ears

Lord Vetinari

Robinivich wrote:

All the thoughts on shake probably apply, and should account for most softness you're seeing, but it occured to me that aperture might also have to do with it.

Is this a crop we're looking at? Or the whole thing? If the whole thing, I'd say just shake, though I can't see any streaking, just general fuzziness. Is is possible that there just isn't any more detail than what we're seeing? The edge of the whatever it is, bottom left, seems fairly crisp.

I have another theory, but bear with me, as I've never used the MP-E 65mm personally, but according to a pretty thorough review I've read, http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-MP-E-65mm-1-5x-Macro-Lens-Review.aspx
setting this lens to f14 @ 5x magnification equates to an effective aperture of f84... Which is approaching the mystical threshold of "omnisharp" where everything is equally in focus, and at the same time, out of focus, very zen... I'm thinking this is also why you had to shoot at 1/2 sec exposure. I'm sure the depth of field here is miniscule in any event, but it might also be that diffraction is being so cruel at this point that there's not as much "focus" left at f84

If those who have the almighty magnifier would like to chime in, I'm all ears

As I said above I do think this is probably caused by diffraction- you just cannot get a sharp picture at F14 at 5X with an MPE-65. I'm not sure that the apparent aperture increase you see as the magnification increases has quite the same effect as normal aperture increase has on diffraction (mathematically I mean) but certainly does have an effect.
I tend to shoot at the following apertures when I want to minimise diffraction.

1:1, 2:1, 3:1, 4:1, 5:1

F11, F9, F7.1, F6.3, F5.6

Brian V.