fly eye macro

[rdking647]

finally got a decent shot of the compound eye of a fly.
ive been trying for a long time.

[magicarpet]

1. Oh my,..

It looks like my tea strainer or the screen on the summer time back entrance door.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. This is way better than decent!

Amazing shot, IMHO.

[3Hotdogs]

3. Looks a little near sighted to me.

[Callalily]

4. SPECTACULAR!

I literally said whoa out loud when I opened your photo!

[alfredo]

5. What lens did you use?

I’m thinking of buying the Olympus 60mm Macro.

[rdking647]

6. i have a 10 year old tamrom 180mm macro

it lets me stay further away from the insects

[alfredo]

10. My first love was a Tamron 80250 with a Spotmatic attached to it.

I still have a soft spot in my heart for Pentax.

I have used the Olympus 40~150 with extension tubes. I love that the zoom becomes the focus ring.

[Major Nikon]

7. At high magnification ratios the working distance is almost nothing

Short macros can have some of the best optics and they tend to be much cheaper, but for nature photography they are pretty much useless beyond about 1:2 magnification. If you are photographing objects sometimes you can get down to 1:1 and beyond, but working distance is measured in mm rather than inches which can make the lighting tricky.

[alfredo]

11. I use a ring light when I don't forget it.

[Major Nikon]

12. Ring lights are good for technical, not so much for creative

They tend to produce very flat lighting. So they work great for taking photos of dental work. Not so much for insects and flowers.

With close focusing you generally want to use the narrowest aperture setting that will produce a sharp image. Another problem is with a short working distance, blocking ambient light becomes a real issue. This makes supplemental lighting very handy, if not essential in some situations. Personally I don’t like ring lights. I prefer to use a bracket that holds two strobes if I’m hand holding and trying to capture a moving subject. For fixed subjects I’ll use strobes and light stands.

So I absolutely love my Nikkor 55mm macro for a number of reasons, but the big limitation with a short macro is working distance at high magnification which is a good thing to be aware of depending on how you want to use it.

[alfredo]

16. I take the ring light off the lens and aim it where it works best.

I don't get so close, I'd rather pull back a bit and crop.

[Major Nikon]

19. You can use a normal strobe for that

In fact even a very cheap strobe that only does manual settings will work just fine.

[alfredo]

20. I just go with what I have until I spring for a good flash.

One thing I like about the ring light is it can strobe or provide constant light. Sure makes for more reliable outcomes.

[Major Nikon]

22. I have 4 "good" flashes and a number of less capable ones

However as far as macro goes, that extra capability is mostly wasted since manual mode works better and even the Chinese strobes you can buy on the cheap work in manual mode. Pretty much all digital cameras have a histogram which works far better than any flash meter you can buy.

[rdking647]

13. thats why only part of the eye is in focus

and this is at f16

[Major Nikon]

15. Many aspects of optics change dramatically in macro

It’s not so much the optics themselves change, but rather our techniques. F/16 becomes the standard aperture for most macro, while much less often otherwise. The lens focus barrel becomes an adjustment for magnification, while actual focus is controlled by moving the entire camera in or out.

For moving subjects, I’m never able to achieve much better than 1:2 magnification. I set the lens focus to that magnification (my lens is manual focus only), and I use one or two strobes mounted to a bracket fixed to the camera. The strobes are set to manual mode because the lens to subject distance never changes, and I just move the camera in and out to focus. It takes a few tries to get a useable image, but otherwise works quite well.

With stationary subjects, you can do whatever magnification ratios your equipment allows and most serious macro people will use a focusing rail.

[alfredo]

17. I've used a reverse ring some times. I use it with my Yashinon DX 50mm 1.7.

[Major Nikon]

18. There's lots of ways to do it

Diopter filters are one way. Extension tubes are another. A true macro lens provides a number of advantages, not the least of which are close range correction for aberrations that tend to soften the corners when a normal lens focuses closely.

My Nikon 55mm macro will do only 1:2 magnification natively, but you can put it on extension tubes and get even better than 2:1. However the working distance gets so short the lens is almost touching the subject.

[alfredo]

21. The reverse ring is handy in that you can just flip it around and you have a normal lens.

[Major Nikon]

23. There's ways in which you can get extremely high magnification ratios using lens reversals

So it definitely works. There’s a few practical drawbacks that are solved by using a normal macro lens.

[alfredo]

24. I'm a cheapskate on SSI.

Legacy glass is another route.

[mnhtnbb]

8. Amazing!

[CrispyQ]

9. That is frickin' awesome!

~insert blue ribbon smilie here

How far away were you? Or did you sit perfectly still until the fly approached?

[rdking647]

14. maybe a foot