Playing with the kit lens at widish angle

Before parting with any money (something I am loathe to do) thought I'd test out the kit lens at wide angle with a closeup ring. I was thinking of getting a Tokina 12-24mm lens for this- see
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=118956
but the reply made me think twice.
widest zoom that made any focusing sense was about 22mm with a 13mm ring (smallest I have). I reckon the magnification at the closest point of focus was about .66:1. I set the aperture to F22 just to see what DOF was achievable. Seems there might be some mileage in this but not worth buying a specific wide angle lens for.
Brian V.


ruler at about 30' angle.

Brian,

I took a few macros with the kit lens and tube over the summer. It worked pretty well from 30mm or longer. The working distance was extremely small tho. I traded the kit lens up to a 28-105 in the autumn and that's a lot more useful. I've now decidied to splash out on the 500D filter which will fit my Sigma 70-300 and the 28-105mm - the results I've seen with this filter are fantastic and I'll get much better than 1:1 magnification with it with no loss of light.

LordV, stunning as always. I think we need to name you Lord of the 3D.

Thanks for the info pxl8.
Only reason for trying or doing this was to see if I could get close to 1:1 but get a greatly increased DOF over that I normally get with my nacro lens.
Brian V.

thanks jr#8
The 3D does work well on that leaf doesn't it
Brian V.

How exactly do you see them as 3D? I'm missing something here.

Unfortunately focal length matters not one bit when it comes to DoF, only magnification. 1:1 with a 18mm or a 500mm lens and the DoF will be exactly the same.

Yes sorry about that- I've done a few of these now and thought most people knew how to try.
It's obviously only the last image pair- you have to stare at them, slighty defocus your eyes and start to cross your eyes until you see an image in the middle- then try to relax your eyes to see a stable 3-D image which should appear between the two images.
Brian V.

Ah wondered if I was making an optical mistake here. So how do P&S cameras get such amazing DOF in macro mode?- is the dreaded small sensor size again?
Brian V.

Yep, 'fraid so. Reminds me of the old "Speed, Quality, Price - pick any two." saying...

I like the affect Brian, the petals of the red flower look neat.

I tried but it hurts my eyes!!

That is friggin cool!
It gets to the point that when your eyes are relaxed, you can actually look around the leaf and really see the 3D.

Did you just take one image then move the camera over about 3 inches to one side and re-shoot?

Thanks all, will probably play with this lens combo some more just to check any differences between it and a macro lens on identical shots.
RAitch Yes you do just move the camera sideways and re-shoot, but in this case the movement was only about 1cm, the end of the leaf was only about 1.5cms from the front of the lens. It's a bit alarming the way the tip of the leaf follows you around if you move your head when you have a stable 3-D image.
Brian V.

sounds like you need to buy a Pro Shot or G6 with an adaptor for close up lenses instead of a wide angle for your dslr. My guess is you'd be dissapointed though. I took decent macros with an FZ20 and a C70z but not as good as with dslr/macro lens. DOF isnt everything.