Macro Focusing Rail Really Needed?

Give me a few and I'll test it out. Like I said though, you can get perfect light in a completely dark room, so I'm sure in ambient you'll get decent shutter speeds.

Okay, first off, apologies to the OP for the thread hijack.


Here are three shots. Shot in ambient light, which is the ceiling fan lights in my office. Two light bulbs covered by frosted glass. Good for office-type stuff, not good for stellar photography images. 40D/Sigma 180mm macro, handheld, Exif intact. Shot at 1/200, f/3.5. These are quick and dirty, so don't expect perfect IQ...


No lights...

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Byte size: ZERO | PHOTOBUCKET ERROR IMAGE

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Byte size: ZERO | PHOTOBUCKET ERROR IMAGE

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Byte size: ZERO | PHOTOBUCKET ERROR IMAGE

Here is a shot 1/200, ISO400, f/16. Before and after a little processing. There's not a big difference between lights on and lights off in ambient, but it's certainly better than no lights. And, shooting 1/200 at f/16 is a tricky thing to do no matter what you use. At least it is for me.

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Byte size: ZERO | PHOTOBUCKET ERROR IMAGE

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Byte size: ZERO | PHOTOBUCKET ERROR IMAGE

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Byte size: ZERO | PHOTOBUCKET ERROR IMAGE

not bad at all

The lights do pretty good, I'm happy with them. The settings that you gave were tough to shoot in under low-light and no light, but some simple processing can bring the shots to life, and without sacrificing IQ. The one shot I processed and posted wasn't what I'd consider the final product, I was just trying to get a quick edit on to show the difference.


At least the shot has great focus and depth of field.