Macro - Close Up Work

boojum

boojum

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OK, up here north of the equator the days are getting shorter and it is getting colder, too. Where I live it is not the rainy season but the rainier season so outside photo jaunts are fewer. So, stuck pretty much inside I have to photo something, right? And photos of the kitchen get boring very quickly so I am thinking the Land of Lilliput where the small things are. Macro/close up time!

My options seem to be, in ascending order of cost:

1) A close up filter
2) Extension tubes
3) Extension bellows
4) Macro lens

I would like to keep this as inexpensive as possible. I understand there is a trade-off between cost and results here so I ask what are your experiences with these options? What were your best results?
 
Tubes on a tele are probably your best bang for buck choice. I had the lenses and they do OK ish, but the results from the extension tubes is better. I got a Llowa 100mm macro lens for my Z7 and the results from it are just great. Macro is difficult for me so I do very little of it, all that bending and crouching is rather painful.
 
boojum said:
OK, up here north of the equator the days are getting shorter and it is getting colder, too. Where I live it is not the rainy season but the rainier season so outside photo jaunts are fewer. So, stuck pretty much inside I have to photo something, right? And photos of the kitchen get boring very quickly so I am thinking the Land of Lilliput where the small things are. Macro/close up time!

My options seem to be, in ascending order of cost:

1) A close up filter
2) Extension tubes
3) Extension bellows
4) Macro lens

I would like to keep this as inexpensive as possible. I understand there is a trade-off between cost and results here so I ask what are your experiences with these options? What were your best results?
Click to expand...
Boojum,

You don't mention what type of a camera you are using. How you view and focus as well as depth of field or a lack of it are major concerns.
If you are using a relatively high MP digital camera any sharp lens and a radical crop (1/3 to 1/4 linear) will yield good results without added expense and can help you decide if you like close-focus work. The next thing I would buy is a focusing rail.

As far as your 4 selections go any one would work, but extension tubes really need to be used with any of the others and not alone unless you have a variable length extension tube.

example of close up "filter"
_DSC4159 The Water Glass Detail.jpg
 
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Wow! Thanks for the input. Yes, I should have been more detailed. I'll be shooting with the X2D and will use focus stacking which can get everything to be in focus. I'll use the XCD 55V lens. The plus with close up filters is that the sensor stays clean. The plus with the extension tubes is that nothing glass will degrade the quality of the lens.

Focus stacking can get me hundreds of exposures and there is software to glue it all together. So that problem is solved. Mathphotgrapher on YT has shot some great focus stacked stuff in JPG, too. This eliminates the conversion of the HB RAW (3FR) to DNG. The HB editor, Phocus, eliminates hot pixels automatically so that is nice. But I am running Windows (10) and Linux (Mint) and really do not want to get into another platform. I have a used iPad Pro 3 that runs Phocus as it has no MS version but buying even the Mini Mac M2 is more than I want to do. Sometimes I think I should have stuck with the Baby Brownie.
 
OK, I opted for a new, to me, lens, the XCD 120 3.5 macro. I have the NiSi for that and it gets me very close. The trade-off is, of course, an amazingly shallow depth of field. So focus stacking is a real must for anything not moving. So that aspect is OK.

But the 120 + NiSi applies a lot of torque to the lens mount. I do not want to test if the mount is up to the strain and find out that it is not. So, what can I use to support this imbalance?
 
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boojum said:
OK, I opted for a new, to me, lens, the XCD 120 3.5 macro. I have the NiSi for that and it gets me very close. The trade-off is, of course, an amazingly shallow depth of field. So focus stacking is a real must for anything not moving. So that aspect is OK.

But the 120 + NiSi applies a lot of torque to the lens mount. I do not want to test if the mount is up to the strain and find out that it is not. So, what can I use to support this imbalance?
Click to expand...
Lookup support for long lenses in google. You will find numerous supports that you could use if you're worried about the torquing on the camera's lens mount. Or you might get a telephoto lens mount adapter that fits your lens and use that for mounting your system to the focusing rail.

Bill
 
I have looked at the Manfrotto. I have other Manfrotto gear, audio stands, and their gear is nicely made. This particular piece seems a bit ungainly and a kludge, but it may be the answer, I was hoping for a collar which is smaller and easier to use. And hoping that some person had already dealt with this problem personally and found a great working answer. I am between a Fotoduix 82mm ring and the Manfrotto now. There is a nice piece of gear at B&H https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...ner_sc_atoll_x_b_atoll_x_rotating_camera.html but I am unconvinced it supports the lens. The weight of the lens makes me think that support is a really good idea, I have asked B&H for clarification about this mount grasping the 120 3.5 macro but have not gotten an answer yet.

Thanks for the support. It does mean that you must later look at pics of nose hair, navel lint and other trash. ;o) Hah!
 
boojum said:
I have looked at the Manfrotto. I have other Manfrotto gear, audio stands, and their gear is nicely made. This particular piece seems a bit ungainly and a kludge, but it may be the answer, I was hoping for a collar which is smaller and easier to use. And hoping that some person had already dealt with this problem personally and found a great working answer. I am between a Fotoduix 82mm ring and the Manfrotto now. There is a nice piece of gear at B&H https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...ner_sc_atoll_x_b_atoll_x_rotating_camera.html but I am unconvinced it supports the lens. The weight of the lens makes me think that support is a really good idea, I have asked B&H for clarification about this mount grasping the 120 3.5 macro but have not gotten an answer yet.

Thanks for the support. It does mean that you must later look at pics of nose hair, navel lint and other trash. ;o) Hah!
Click to expand...
If you want a collar try this . Looks like what you're looking for. I never used any except Novoflex, so I cannot speak to the rigidity or quality of this one.

Bill
 
Bill Jones said:
If you want a collar try this . Looks like what you're looking for. I never used any except Novoflex, so I cannot speak to the rigidity or quality of this one.

Bill
Click to expand...



I see nothing in your example. I am even more curious now. Oooops, OK, it showed up after a moment in the quoted post above. I followed it to Amazon and your suggestion looks like a really good solution. I have a tripod which accepts the ARCA plate connection so that is solved. I put the collar in my Amazon basket so I can go back and find it. I want to see what HB says about this, too, so I shot them off a note. I do not want to cause any damage to any of this gear.

Hey, thank you.

NB The link to Amazon shows only in edit mode. When the entry is posted the link vanishes. Strange.
 
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Seems everybody is making things too complicated.
Extension rings and a helicoid can work pretty well and aren't too expensive.
Why focus stacking all the time?
Use the potential of narrow dof, and just look at the bokeh potential.
Main thing is to 'mess around' and enjoy yourself.
Develop your own style.
 
jesse1dog said:
Seems everybody is making things too complicated.
Extension rings and a helicoid can work pretty well and aren't too expensive.
Why focus stacking all the time?
Use the potential of narrow dof, and just look at the bokeh potential.
Main thing is to 'mess around' and enjoy yourself.
Develop your own style.
Click to expand...

Agreed. The complication here is about support to relieve the load on the camera lens mount. HB indicates that the mount is plenty rugged and point out that their tilt-shift adapter weighs about 1.7 pounds and will work with teles. They add what I do with non-HB gear is at my own risk. Legal insists on that line, I guess. However the suggested collar seems the simplest and best solution.

Now, focus stacking. I like it because the camera distance to object is fixed, automatic and adjustable. I can set focus stacking on the object itself after I focus on it. Then I can set the number of images to be taken, the size of the steps, the number of steps and whether I want it symmetrical on the object. Yes to all. Then just make sure everything is right, light, object and settings and then press the button and let the camera make it happen. So all the work is done before the shutter is pressed as opposed to during the shutter pressing process. With a lot of small steps symmetrically on the object I can get the object quite sharp and still have the background to have bokeh.

As for cost, focus stacking was a firmware upgrade. The macro lens was a good way to go and the close-up lens just gets me closer without having to remove the lens to add rings. This seemed to me the better way. YMMV
 
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