Reversing EF-s 18-55 3.5-5.6 II, Help

[KarlosDaJackal]

Yes that lens, the non IS 400d kit lens. It has a 58mm front thread, so I found the nearest other lens I had with a 58mm front thread (Sigma 70-300 APO) and held them together sans hood.

These look like they would work well together with some duct tape as the front elements are recessed back a bit due to the filter thread, externally they line up pretty well. Now the question is how on earth do you use these things!

So my 70-300 is the master and reversed 18-55 is the slave. do i focus both to MFD, do I focus both to infinity, or one to infinity the other to MFD. Is there any science or is it all trial and error.

I had some success with the 70-300 at 70mm f/8 and infinity, the 18-55 at 35mm and somewhere in the middle of focus and locked at f/8. I could actually see a thin band of focus on my finger and the narrow DOF at least looked really sharp, but it was about 5mm from the rear element of the 18-55. Funnily the exposure would have taken 22 seconds and I can't hold still that long so I didn't shoot it. Tried zoom the 70-300 but around 135mm the viewfinder goes completely black.

My aim is not to get a macro lens on the cheap, may aim is to use the kit for something useful, I know I can put it on a camera right way round and get good shots out of it, but I have better lenses for the job so I'd like to put it to some other use.

[jblaschke]

I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to accomplish here by duct taping two lenses face to face, as it were.

If you want to reverse your 18-55, why not simply by a cheap 58mm EOS mount reversing ring off Ebay? I'm not a font of knowledge when it comes to all the neat DIY tricks out there, but I can't see what mating those two lenses would accomplish.

[KarlosDaJackal]

Well i want to see is it useful before I buy anything. Isn't the idea is to get greater than 1:1 macro

[PKSmith]

it will indeed give you very high macro power, somewhere on the order of up to 6x magnification. However, it is going to be very hard to use.
I use a 50mm 1.4 reversed on my 55-250mm, and I have to use a tripod and mirror lock-up with a 10 second timer to get pics that aren't blurry or out of focus. Also, shutter times are sometimes over a second when I'm taking photos on my desk.

Another problem you may face is the small aperture on the reversed lens. You will want as large of an element as possible on the front to capture the light. I have the 18-55 IS, and have tried to use it instead of my prime. Truth is, it's a very dim viewfinder. It won't be impossible to focus, but it will be difficult. My suggestion would be to use that zoom with a prime instead.

As far as connecting the two, I currently use a reversing double threaded ring that I bought from Adorama for about 8 bucks. They sell them in many different sizes too. Before I got the ring I just used masking tape on two UV filters, which held perfectly.
One last thing- The sizes and distances you will be working with are very close and small. Think a dime filling the frame and then some, while it's setting about 5cm from the rear element of the reversed lens.

All I can say is that the ring is the best 8 bucks I've ever spent, and I've gotten some great pics with my combo. Have fun.

[KarlosDaJackal]

Originally Posted by PKSmith

it will indeed give you very high macro power, somewhere on the order of up to 6x magnification. However, it is going to be very hard to use.
I use a 50mm 1.4 reversed on my 55-250mm, and I have to use a tripod and mirror lock-up with a 10 second timer to get pics that aren't blurry or out of focus. Also, shutter times are sometimes over a second when I'm taking photos on my desk.

Another problem you may face is the small aperture on the reversed lens. You will want as large of an element as possible on the front to capture the light. I have the 18-55 IS, and have tried to use it instead of my prime. Truth is, it's a very dim viewfinder. It won't be impossible to focus, but it will be difficult. My suggestion would be to use that zoom with a prime instead.

As far as connecting the two, I currently use a reversing double threaded ring that I bought from Adorama for about 8 bucks. They sell them in many different sizes too. Before I got the ring I just used masking tape on two UV filters, which held perfectly.
One last thing- The sizes and distances you will be working with are very close and small. Think a dime filling the frame and then some, while it's setting about 5cm from the rear element of the reversed lens.

All I can say is that the ring is the best 8 bucks I've ever spent, and I've gotten some great pics with my combo. Have fun.

I'm starting to see that, got a shot of the side of a film box with the two lenses on my desk loosely coupled together with a lens hood joining them and stopping light leaks. Think the DOF was deep enough to get the "I" at the top right and nothing else. I think the reversing ring would be useful.

Question though. Is it better to stop down just one or both lenses? Is it better to focus with just one or both lenses? etc, etc. I can see its physically possible now, but I want to know the technique and settings more than the equipment needed.

This is the side of the film box

[tkbslc]

Stop down the lens on your camera to F16+ to mazimize DOF. The reversed lens will stay wide open, which is what you want.

My worry is that you are going to bust your AF gears or Zoom alignment by hanging a releatively heavy lens off the filter threads.

[PKSmith]

The technique is relatively simple, so long as you have a tripod, or some other way to support the camera.

Get the camera roughly in place, so that the lens is exactly perpendicular to the object you are photographing. the focus field is pretty much fixed, as well as spherical. Instead of a focus plain, you get a focus hemisphere if you are even slightly out of focus.

Once the camera is set up and the target is in place, I use the manual focus ring on the telephoto lens to get perfect focus, preferably with live view. The focus is difficult because just touching the camera is often enough to push it out of focus. Once everything is set I hit the shutter, with mirror lock-up and a 10 second timer. My settings for the camera are usually aperture value of around 8-11ish, with the ISO set to 200 or so, to minimize the noise. My shutter speeds are always on the long side, but it doesn't seem to make any difference as far as camera shake goes.

Watching the live view screen shows that the camera usually stops shaking after about 6-7 seconds on my tripod, which is just in time to snap the pic

[LostShootingStar]

This is really strange, but interesting!

[Mk1Racer]

Just something the other day showing this done w/ an old FD 50. It was called a 'flipped fifty'. There was a link in some thread on here.