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Macro Photography
In the Canon EOS system, going beyond 1:1 is as simple as calling up one of the photo.net recommended retailers and ordering a Canon
MP-E 65 1X-5X macro lens. Mount lens on tripod, mount camera on lens, twist ring on lens, release shutter:
(Flower interior at above left was captured with a traditional EOS film body; the jelly bean image at above right was taken with a D30
digital body.)
Beyond 1:1 with Nikon, et al
Going beyond 1:1 requires more than buying a Micro-Nikkor and turning the focusing helical. In fact, you probably should read a real
book by a real macro photographer. [Bob Atkins likes John Shaw's Close-ups in Nature .]
Here's a basic introduction to the tools, though...
First, you can get a bellows (flexible accordion) and/or some extension tubes. These will let you push the lens farther away from the
camera body. Extension tubes are rigid and tough; they only let you separate your body and lens in fixed increments. Bellows are
delicate but they let you continuously control the lens distance from the body. How much magnification this extra extension will get
you depends on the focal length of the lens. If you have a 1000mm lens that already needs its nodal point 1000mm from the film plane
to focus at infinity, then a 50mm extension tube isn't going to be worth much. However, if you have a 50mm lens, then that same 50mm
extension will take you all the way to 1:1.
Second, you probably want a "reversing ring" for your lenses so that you can turn the back element of the lens toward your subject.
Why? Think about the normal way you use a lens. You are taking a picture of the Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty is larger than
24x36mm. So you point the front element of the lens at the statue and the back element at the (smaller) film. Your lens is designed to
work like this, taking the large and compressing it into the small. However, if you are working at 10:1, where the tip of a pine needle is
going to take up a big portion of the frame, you want the lens to take the small and expand it into the large. So you want to just flip the
lens around.
Third, once you've reversed the lens, you probably want some way to retain the automatic diaphragm. You want the aperture to remain
fully open until just before your exposure and then close down to the selected shooting aperture. My old Rollei 6008 had all-electric
lenses so you could do this with a clean and reliable electric contacts. Nikon has mechanically stopped-down diaphragms for backward
compatibility so they can't do this; you end up with a strange dual cable release contraption. Canon EOS has all-electric lenses but in 10
years they haven't figure out how to engineer a bellows or reversing ring so don't hold your breath (instead they make a kludge to adapt
their ancient Canon FD macro system to the EOS).
Beyond 1:1 the Lazy Way
http://www.photo.net/macro/primer (6 of 8)15/11/2004 6:47:08 PM