trying macro

phuong · June 17, 2007

i had a chance to try the mpe65 yesterday (borrowed from a friend). after seeing LordV's works i was really eager to shoot with it. however i have a feeling that it is overpriced. first of all, the higher multiplier goes, the darker it becomes, up to the point where i can't see anyhing through the viewfinder. not to mention the dof is so thin that you can easily lose track of your subject or even can't find it at all. so, LordV's ability to shoot multiple shots at different plane of focus, hand held, so that he could stack them later, makes me amazed how skilled he is. i don't think i'll be able to do that ever.
and finally, it is manual focus. not saying af is needed for macro, but there's no separated focus ring for each "zoom". all these make me think that the mpe65 is just a macro lens on top of an extension tube - the only difference is that this tube's length can be changed right on spot - and it costs over $500 for that "feature" :huh

there goes my first impressions with this "super lens". the photo i shot here was at 5x.

Lord Vetinari · June 17, 2007

phuong wrote:

i had a chance to try the mpe65 yesterday (borrowed from a friend). after seeing LordV's works i was really eager to shoot with it. however i have a feeling that it is overpriced. first of all, the higher multiplier goes, the darker it becomes, up to the point where i can't see anyhing through the viewfinder. not to mention the dof is so thin that you can easily lose track of your subject or even can't find it at all. so, LordV's ability to shoot multiple shots at different plane of focus, hand held, so that he could stack them later, makes me amazed how skilled he is. i don't think i'll be able to do that ever.
and finally, it is manual focus. not saying af is needed for macro, but there's no separated focus ring for each "zoom". all these make me think that the mpe65 is just a macro lens on top of an extension tube - the only difference is that this tube's length can be changed right on spot - and it costs over $500 for that "feature"

there goes my first impressions with this "super lens". the photo i shot here was at 5x.

Lovely shot

The MPE-65 does take a bit of getting used to - the problems you describe are just Light physics at work- the higher the magnification, the lower the light and the smaller the DOF, nothing you can do about it. I suspect you are right about the price but it is a very specialist lens and you pay for that. Having used a macro lens with a full set of ext tubes and a reversed lens on the front, I can tell you optically the MPE-65 is better and a lot more conveniant to use.
Autofocus would be pointless on this lens- you wouldn't want to use it 99.9% of the time. In a similar manner to the way I use my sigma 105, i don't really use the focus ring at all. I pre-set the magnification I want and then focus by moving the camera.

Brian v.

Skippy · June 17, 2007

phuong wrote:

i had a chance to try the mpe65 yesterday (borrowed from a friend). after seeing LordV's works i was really eager to shoot with it. however i have a feeling that it is overpriced. first of all, the higher multiplier goes, the darker it becomes, up to the point where i can't see anyhing through the viewfinder. not to mention the dof is so thin that you can easily lose track of your subject or even can't find it at all. so, LordV's ability to shoot multiple shots at different plane of focus, hand held, so that he could stack them later, makes me amazed how skilled he is. i don't think i'll be able to do that ever.
and finally, it is manual focus. not saying af is needed for macro, but there's no separated focus ring for each "zoom". all these make me think that the mpe65 is just a macro lens on top of an extension tube - the only difference is that this tube's length can be changed right on spot - and it costs over $500 for that "feature"

there goes my first impressions with this "super lens". the photo i shot here was at 5x.

The MPE 65 is not a cheap lens, try buying one here in Australia they are around the $1,500 mark :cry
Unless you were really keen on Macro you wouldn't buy this lens,
as it serves no other purpose than to do Macro.

That is an excellent FLY photo, glad you got to try the lens out,
nice of your friend to allow you to use it.

Great Shot Phuong

thanks for sharing your views ..... Skippy

.

phuong · June 17, 2007

thank you very much.
i guess one of the reason for my frustration about light being cut off is that i was shooting at... 7:00PM. being inexperienced in shooting macro, i just simply thought it wouldn't be nice to shoot under harsh sunlight even at 4:00PM. therefore eventhough there were plenty of light at 7:00PM, but the sun was also setting very fast too.
nontheless, i would definitely give this lens another try if i have a chance.

Awais Yaqub · June 18, 2007

This is superb!

Cuties02q · June 19, 2007

Great job!!!

trying macro

Comments