EL-Cheapo Macro

With all this Macro talk I thought Id show you all what I found today. My girlfriends granfather died a few years ago and left her all his old manual Minolta equipment, body, 50mm 1.7, 90-230 4.5, macro bellows, a flash and a box full of junk. Well going through the box today I found a set of Camron 52mm close up filters. A +1, +2 and a +3. I thought hey they will fit my 50 1.8 so I did some playing around. This is just a quick test at ISO 200 color is off but I havent touched the files except to resize them. I shot from a downward angle on a trypod so the depth of field is paper thin. Adding each new filter and scooting the camera up until it wouldnt auto focus then pulling it back just slightly.

I uploaded the pics to another message board, hears the link

http://groups.msn.com …e&mview=0&ID_Me​ssage=6354

Got a set of these I have had for a number of years, they seem to do the trick.

As I have never used a real macro lens, what are the advantages over a good lens with the close up 'filters'? (I'm guessing clarity for starters)

Reverse mounting a lens is another goodie at a cheap solution, if you can find a way of mounting it, had my 28-105 reverse mounted on my G3 until I discovered the secret of super macro

There are also those Macro extension rings as well, I believe the issue there is you lose so many stops per extension length. Had a bellows on my OM1, so close it was almost unusable!

Yeah... those are fun to play with.

I've got some set of dusty close up filters with my 50mm prime also. Today I got an extension cable for the flash, do I'll soon be able to get a bug and blast it with my vivitar close up at F/22

I expect the bug to last 2-3 flashes till it goes crusty

Yes, extension tubes are fun. Put them on a long zoom and you can really have fun.

Ok... just ordered the 25mm extension tube... What can it really do with a 70-200 zoom?

1. Is there some way to calculate my minimum distance for the focus to work?
2. I read another thread that leads me to believe it will magnify the image about 27% or so... is that true?

[QUOTE]

The rough calculation for percentage of magnification is: Divide the focal length (mm) of the lens by the length of the extention tube (mm) for an approximate percentage.

There is a formula for an exact % which is not much different in percentage than the rough % calculation.

I have not found a chart or calculation for minimum focus distances for a lens longer than 50mm yet. If someone knows of one on the net I would be glad to get the link.

I just shot this tonight as an example of distance in another forum.
Shot at 3 feet from subject with 68mm of extension at a focal length of 200mm.

Full frame -resized

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Here is a good macro tutorial, which explains the different options you have when you want to do macro photography - macro lenses, extension tubes, close-up lenses etc.

This *completely* depends on the extension tube length as compared to the lens length. Putting a 25mm tube on a 50mm lens will result in a huge difference. Put that same tube on a 500mm lens and it will make a slight difference.