Got myself a 6D...

fantastic stacks, excellent job!

Lovely morning stacks. I have the gear for this style but have yet to find anything suitable when I get up early and we don't seem to have many dewy mornings here anyway but fingers crossed.

Thanks again, all.

racketman wrote in post #15813194
Lovely morning stacks. I have the gear for this style but have yet to find anything suitable when I get up early and we don't seem to have many dewy mornings here anyway but fingers crossed.

Yes, you have the perfect gear for this type of stuff. I have found that the trick to finding good subjects has everything to do with the percentage of plants that are native. I have tried numerous locations with lots of interesting plants, but I end up going back again and again to places in which 100% of the plants are native (e.g., nature preserves). I guess most species of local insects in my area can only eat native plants (or eat the things that eat the native plants). Even in a park with tons of plants, if they aren't native to the area, I generally find nothing but the occasional lady beetle or hoverfly, and even those can be hard to come by.

really great set Ryan, I like all of them. Great light...

Congrats on the 6D, I cannot wait to use mine for outdoor macro... but we are getting 20cm of snow on Friday, I guess I will have to wait some more.

I have found that ISO 6400 on my 6D is pretty much the same as ISO 800 on my 50D, that indeed opens up a whole set of possibilities for NL handheld macro photography.

I originally thought I would pair it with the MPE, but I think the 100L will be it's mate!

Great set again

Martin

Super set. Amazing set of stacks.

Wonderful shots and superb quality Ryan.

How are you finding the ergonomics of the 6D?

Thanks, Martin and Chrisa. Martin, I hope for your sake that spring starts soon!

Lester Wareham wrote in post #15816406
How are you finding the ergonomics of the 6D?

Lester, I'm finding the ergonomics to be identical to the 60D (the dimensions are basically the same). That's not a good thing for macro, because I would like a little more camera in my hand for those times when I'm shooting with just my right hand on the camera and my left hand holding the subject too far away to steady the end of the lens. I could add a battery grip, of course, but then the camera would be too tall to get the right angle on insects that are on flat surfaces. The 5D mk2 (and mk3) have better ergonomics for macro, in my opinion. However, even if I had infinite money, I would still go with the 6D over the 5D mk3, because the high ISO performance of the 6D is superior. The high-ISO capabilities are going to allow me to carry out shots that would never have looked acceptable on my 60D.

gatorlink wrote in post #15812410
Thanks a lot for the comments

I use a Hejnar micro focusing rail. It is a lead-screw drive that moves 1mm with each full rotation of the knob. I need a lot of shots in my natural-light stacks, because in order to get an adequately fast shutter speed and get that nice background blur, I must use a relatively wide aperture. Wide apertures equate to really tiny depth of field at these magnifications.

Thanks for you answer Ryan! Great work!