Macro Bellows rigs

[anonymous]

Curious if anyone is using one. If so what lenses are you reversing or using straight.

My current setup-

and a sample-

Goes to 2.25:1 or so –

[John Bennett]

Focus stacking works reasonably well Will, but your constantly shifting it fowards/backwards. Changes in light can occur as can movement.

As you know I use Tubes instead of bellows. Same principle, similiar results. Im pretty sure this is a#20.

and this

Macro for me thus far is a sometimes sidebar. Have alot of fun with i but fining consistant hatches is a chore, this year in particular. Anyways the guys I know that really do alot use Tubes + 150 or 180 macros ad then they reverse a 50mm 1.8 or 1.4…Universally thats the prime they use for it. I forget the actual ratio they acheive but results are wicked. Im talking counting all the eyes on a jumping spider. One guy took pics of his 1 and 2mm Kidney stones and youd swear your were lookin at Crystalin boulders.

If you want to go the extra step for more magnification thats what you might want to look at.

[anonymous]

Hi John

Yep I know the focus stacking route requires adjustments between captures – I guess I was wondering if folks have used the method – how many stacks are

[John Bennett]

No cropping. Your maths about right though.

You start at 1:1 with just the bare lens.
Tubes. Essentially extension / focal length. So with a 100mm macro and 50mm in tubes youd get about 1:1.5. The down side is working distance. A 100mm macro already needs to be alot closer to the subject vs a 150mm and a 180mm macro gains you just that more at the cost of a little less magnification. Butyour alot less likekly to spook the bug or cast a shadow. I dont mind sacrificing the extra magnification as I find Mayflys already fill the frame and exceed my available DoF to begin with at F25.

90% sure no tubes at F32

I think we talked a bit about this on FTF and the difficulties of finding a nice balance. Maybe not. But that why I havent gone that route. For what I do, I dont need it and I prefer the extra working distance and less odds of spooking te bugs.

Either way most, actually almost all the serious bug shooters I know use a 150mm macro + 66mm in tubes + a reversed 50mm 1.4…Its largly the reversed 50 1.4 that adds serious magnification.

They shoot aphids and mites with that. Some do add more tubes but thats just crazy.I forget how he does it but Jody (check his post on PS) gets close to 5:1 sometimes

Anyways, if your lookingfor more magnification it might be worth trying a reversed 50 f1.4. At the worst you end up with a relatiely cheap fantastic portrait lens

J

[John Bennett]

Sorry for the double reply.

Check Jodys galleries. The guy is wonderfully gifted and taught me alot of what I know. Im sure he wont mind the plug 🙂
http://jmelanson.smugmug.com/

All or most of his macro shots are with a 150 + 66mm tubes + 50 1.4 reversed.

[yuhina]

IF you guys don’t care about the edge distortion. Try to reverse the 24mm or 20 mm lens. They will get into 2:1 to 5:1 and have some special effect.   Me and my friend usually use this set up to shoot butterfly eggs in field.

some quick search
http://www.nikonlinks.com/unklbil/macro_adapter.htm

If more working distance is needed. I use Micro 105mm /2.8 with two PK-13 extension tubes attached.

[John Bennett]

yeah Im pretty sure that the extra magnification provided by reversing primes is focal length / reversed focal length or something along those lines. So a 150 with a reversed 50 provides 3:1 on top of anything else from Tubes and Bellows.

The problem is working distance and DoF depending on what your shooting.

So in my case where I like to shoot bugs that are say .5 inch to an inch. The bare 180mm at 1:1 is about right. Fills the frame and depending on angle I get most within the DoF. If I back off a couple inches I gain more DoF, but gve up a bit of magnification. The Grey Fox above I beleive is such a case. MFD plus a few inches

Same Grey fox, different angle
F22 no tubes

Adding tubes gives me close to 1.5: 1

But in order to get that my working distance is drastically reduced. The bare 180mm has a working distance of 18.5 inches. For bugs tha are skittish thats handy. With Tubes though you kneecap that and you likewise kneecap your available DoF.

As I dont really have the interest in shooting mites, Aphids, and the like I havent added a reversed 50 (yet).  Wil oth may want to a reversed 50 or 35 given what hes trying to do.

[anonymous]

Ty folks for the input –

John – I totally missed that your first post suggestion had a reversed 50 stacked up front- I was struggling to see where the extra mag was coming

[John Bennett]

I think the Fred Miranda macro forums have a bunch of people that stack and probably some threds on it.

J

[anonymous]

Ty John- after some more research and poking around I found this site-

http://www.photomacrography.net/

Oh my my

[Neal Osborn]

warning this is addictive.

Yep

[anonymous]

All this mumbo jumbo about diffraction/macro

[Author]

Posts