Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5X Macro Photo - Magic Mole

Wonderful shoots everyone!

One more Robber Fly:

Beautiful^^^ What magnification? Any focus stacking?

Thanks!

No focus stacking was used. I've never had much luck with it as I handhold most of the time. That shot is handheld at around 3x magnification with the MT-24ex + stofens.

Goincarcrazy wrote in post #12917186
Thanks!

No focus stacking was used. I've never had much luck with it as I handhold most of the time. That shot is handheld at around 3x magnification with the MT-24ex + stofens.

That shot is exceptional. And even better that it was handheld. I would so love this lens!

Thanks! This type of robber fly is very photogenic, so I give the credit to it and it's little mustache.

This lens is very addicting once you get the hang of it. You'll find yourself contorting in so many different positions to get steady and to get the shot on the smaller things in life! Very specialized, but for what it does, there's nothing better!

Haha, I hadn't noticed the mustache!
Regardless it is a great shot!

Here's my plan for focus stacking...can someone with experience with this equipment tell me if I'm daft?

Set the 7D to high speed shooting (8 fps) then open the aperture all the way to 2.8 to minimize the output needed by the flash...that should minimize refresh rate on the MT24-EX flash unit, and hopefully it can then keep up with 8 fps for at least a couple seconds. Then, depress the shutter button, and just slowly sway back and forth with the DOF scanning the subject at full shooting speed...once the flash unit stops and needs to recharge, stop shooting to let the flash cool.

This should give me many (16+?) shots of the subject with the point of maximum focus at various points across the subjects depth, all taken within 2 seconds of eachother. Then it should just be a matter of sorting them into order from closest to furthest focus plane, and doing focus stacking in Photoshop. Any flaws in that plan?

Since I don't have the equipment yet, all I can do is previsualize how I'm going to use it. Haha!

At 2.8, you're DOF is going to be so razor thin that you WILL miss spots even with rapid fires. This lens is very unforgiving and focus stacking handheld is nearly impossible for any magnification great than say 2x. Your movements have to be in millimeters to get correct stacks.

I know some people can do it, other can't...I'm in the can't pile. I just try to make do with a plain old single exposure, haha.

Sounds like its going to be a game of aperture vs. flash refresh rate to see how much DOF I can give myself, and still have the flash firing at 8fps. Then sway VERY slowly. I'll report back after I have the lens and flash, and can give it the old college try.

I see what you mean, though. Just looked at the DOF table. If the animal is 5mm wide, and I have .4mm of DOF, and I take 16 shots, I would have to be extremely lucky to have gotten shots that fill in all the gaps. If I shutter down to f/8 to give me over 1mm DOF, now the flash is probably gonna have to work too hard, and will need a recycle time between each shot. At the DOF for f/2.8 we are talking more like 40 shots to make sure everything was caught, which is 5 seconds of shooting at full speed, and I don't think there's any way the flash will be able to flash 8 shots per second for 5 seconds is there? I guess I'll find out. Haha. Maybe an external battery pack for the flash unit to minimize refresh times would make the critical difference.

I'm not talking about a perfect sequence of shots here, where each next shot moves in just enough to cover the next slice. I'm talking about chaotic spraying of the target back and forth several passes at 8fps in desperate hopes of catching all parts of the critter, then arranging them in an order that works after the fact. Maybe just concentrating on the front half of the insect? That would reduce the area needing coverage to 2.5mm Much better odds with a .4mm DOF.

Man I'm excited to get this thing and start practicing. This is the sort of challenge that revs my ram-jets.

Remember that if you shoot RAW + JPEG as I do you won't achieve 8fps, not for more than a second at any rate.

I think you are approaching this from the wrong end. Take your time. Try to capture that perfect focus first (the eyes, etc). Then if the subject has not moved be ready to add to that. Capture what you need for the amount of focus you want if you have the time with your chosen subject. Going in there an spraying like Rambo is not going to help your technique.

Peter, no JPG here. Just raw in manual mode so no slowing for metering, and obviously no slowing for autofocus with this lens. The limiting factor will be the flash.

AbPho, Lol. Fair point. Think I'm gonna need an eyepiece extender or even an LCD viewfinder. Gonna be doing a lot of delicate focusing.

I agree with AbPho, any kind of swaying even with a normal macro lens, let alone when you have up to 5x magnification, will have you miss the focus you are after. You need to be moving your own body millimeters to change focus point with such narrow DOF.

With the MPE I shoot at f11 at life size and f8 above typically, if focus stacking I tends to use the slower speed (5fps ?), some conscious movement might be needed at life size but above that just random movements is generally enough (assuming handheld here) although much depends on the situation and how well supported you are.

8 fps produces a hell of a lot of frames and I generally only use it with fast moving small birds to catch the correct pose.