My confidence with the (manual focus) Canon MPE-65 macro lens is slowly increasing and today, I managed to push it out to 2:1, where an object say 1 mm in real life will be recorded as 2 mm on the sensor.
This fly was extraordinarily cooperative, resting on the lip of a plant pot saucer so I managed to get a series of nice shots, with most in focus somewhere in the frame. I loaded the better frames into CS6 Layers and using Layer Masks, blended the in-focus parts of the Layers to generate a composite with most regions in focus.
The ants and spider are from the previous day where I was shooting at 1:1 although that was tripod mounted; I still had my training wheels on!
Thanks for looking and I hope they don’t appear too ghoulish and scary!
Thanks Cam, Laurie, Carlos and Ken, I appreciate your comments.
For stability, I used a broom pole in my left hand and by relaxing my grip, I can slide the macro rig up and down the pole. When I am at the right level, I then tighten my grip which steadies the camera and lens combo. It’s then just a matter of slowly swaying in or out until the insect is in sharp focus in the viewfinder, then hoping that the shot is in focus!
Lovely collection there. The MPE certainly is a beast to control, and you've done extremely well. Wish I had the time to get out and shoot
Hi Troy
I reckon you’ll have more fun with Hayden crawling around in your back garden that I had grabbing these macros! I guess there’s a time for family and with the classical division of the 24 hour day into 8/8/8 hrs. for work/sleep/family, right now there’s not much left over for chasing insects, but I’m certain the time will come.
Just look forward to having a willing photo assistant to help carry the gear!
Thanks Geoff, Steve & Zane, the MPE-65 is a very competent lens although it has a reputation of being challenging to use. The lens operates from 1:1 to 5:1 and is manual focus only, so you set the magnification you want, say 2:1 and then you sway in or out until the subject is in focus.
The depth of focus is razor thin and I have noticed that if I stop down below F11, I begin to see evidence of diffraction on the finer detail, such as the hairs on an insect’s body.
As you get past 3:1 the viewfinder becomes darker as the field of view shrinks and your subject takes on the proportions of something out of a horror movie!
Thank you to everyone for your nice words of appreciation, I am enjoying an unusually long run of good luck with flies in our back garden at the moment. I’m not sure if they have just got used to us being around the shrubs and plants, but they seem to be more relaxed and stay in one spot or region so I can slowly approach them and take some remarkable close shots.
It’s almost as if they are posing for me and they even occasionally land on me if I spook them as they jump away from the camera.
Outstanding Dennis!
