Macro
Macro photography is 1 special interest area that most people have a go at at some time. I briefly entered into this area several months ago and did a few pictures and never really explored it.
Well that will probably change with an addition to my kit - an extension tube.
Before I go into this too much, as I see it there are basically 3 avenues into Macro photography with a DSLR camera.
The first one (read cheapest) is by getting either 1 or a set of "macro filters" that simply screw onto the front of your standard lenses. A Macro filter set can be picked up for around $20-30 and up to about $100 fof a high quality macro filter.
The next option, (not quite as cheap, but very versatile) is using an Extension tube. An extension tube is basically an extra "air gap" that mounts onto the front of your Camera, and then your lens mounts on the front of it. It simply moves the whole lens forward and away from the sensor. You can turn your Mid to long zoom into a Macro Lens.
Finally, you could purchase a dedicated Macro Lens. A macro lens will generally offer excellent quality, a nice dedicated lens that can also (generally) double up as a portrait lens.
I started out with a set of Macro filters - it is a set of 3 filters - 1x, 2x, 4x. They can be used individually or stacked for more magnification. I used them on the front of the Kit lenses that came with my Camera. I sued them a few times and eventually put them aside when I upgraded to better Glass. The reason I put them aside is simply that the filter size on my newer glass is bigger and they don't fit. They offered reasonable quality and for what I was doing, it was acceptable.
Once I upgraded to better Glass, I simply put aside the macro filters and had not purchased any to fit.
I saw an extension tube come up 2nd hand at a pretty good price. It arrived a few days ago and finally got around to taking a few pictures to give it a test run. After looking at the compatibility chart, I put it in between the Camera and my 50-200mm Zoom. The Compatiblity chart indicated that this would give me Magnification in the range of 0.49 @ 50mm at a distance of about 28cm (from the sensor) to 0.12 at a distance of 88cm. I just looked up which lens I would be using on the Chart
Magnification of 0.49 means that an object would be approx 1/2 of it's actual size at 28cm away. So, with my sensor with it's 17mm (diagonal) an object that is 34mm long will fill the Frame. The whole reason I decided to purchase the extension tube was to make use of the reasonable working distances to expand my options somewhat.
I could have gone out and spent about twice as much and purchased a dedicated Macro lens, but decided to go the cheaper way and see if it is something that I enjoy doing before purchasing yet another lens!
Well, my test shots were ok and I knew that I was not shooting in ideal conditions - but here it is.
Technical Info: I shot this handheld at 1/60 sec, 100 ISO, F6.3 and used a Flash on a Cable to properly light the scene. It was shot at 79mm, so I was probably about 40-45cm away from the subject.
What I should have done is to set up 2 tripods - one for the Camera and 1 for the Flash, but the light was fading fast, and it really was a bit of an experiment. I will probably have another attempt of the same or a similar subject using Tripods!
You can see that the DOF is very very shallow - no more than about 3-4mm! I will need to set up some suitable test subjects so I can take some time shooting at different Apertures so I can learn how much (or Little) DOF I have at various aperture settings.
I guess now I have the means, I will take more shots of small things. Next time I see a spider, I'll reach for the Camera (and extension tube) first and the fly-spray second!
