Canon MPE-65 mm repair or replace with something else

[davholla]

I have had a quote of £460+VAT to repair my lens or £530+vat - Repair and Full Service.
(I am looking for another quote for any Americans that is USD 848).
However I thought should I look for an alternative as well whilst waiting for my lens to come back from the company that gave me this large quote, as it is quite heavy to use, worse than my Tamron 150-600 lens and I have shoulder problems which make this to be a pain.

I found this website Using Raynox Adapters For Extreme Macro
I have this lens and with a Canon 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 plus an adapter I could get very good magnification 5.05:1 and with a longer working distance than my MPE65.
However I think there is a flaw with my calculations, any ideas? If it were that easy and cheap everything would have done it.
I have masses of photos to look through from my Colombia trip so there is no real urgency, saying that I love it. I googled this combination but no joy.

If anyone has a really clever alternative, please let me know.

 

[jaomul]

Do you use the massive magnification that the lens offers, if so it's a one of a kind thing.

If you wanted just a little more than 1:1 you could use extension tubes or the raynox thingymybobs mentioned above. I do reckon a repair is worth it as those mp65 are gonna be like gold dust and likely sell for good money if you ever decide to offload

 

[davholla]

Do you use the massive magnification that the lens offers, if so it's a one of a kind thing.

If you wanted just a little more than 1:1 you could use extension tubes or the raynox thingymybobs mentioned above. I do reckon a repair is worth it as those mp65 are gonna be like gold dust and likely sell for good money if you ever decide to offload

I do particularly in the winter when there is not much to chose from. I could probably cope with 4x magnification.

EF7A9667Springtail by davholla2002, on Flickr

 

[petrochemist]

There are other approaches to getting high magnifications, but AFAIK the MPE-65 is the only lens capable of giving more than 2x without using any extra macro tricks.

The website you've linked to is IMO one of the best macro sites around. Johan has an 'anybrand MPE65' mentioned on it a jury rigged combination of older lenses to attempt to get the same sort of performance.

If you have a Raynox & the 75-300 give it a go! I have both the Raynox DCR150 & the DCR250 and find both excellent

 

[Overread]

You might also check out www.photomacrography.net :: Index and ask around there as well.

High magnification without the MPE 65mm macro can get complex because there are a lot of choices and variations. If you want similar image quality and performance then you want to be a bit more selective and there are lens combinations out there which can achieve better performance (though often at a specific magnification or limited range).

 

[jake337]

I'm sure you can get to 5:1 and closer pretty easy.

It's more of a question of will another setup give you equal image quality or at least close enough.

Here's is my go to link for anything macro. Tons of info.

Macrophotography by LordV



This as with 127mm of extension tubes + 100mm f2.8 macro and a reversed 28mm f2.8. I'm not sure how the weight would match up but it was as long as two 100mm macros. Plus no metering and a get dim viewfinder. I think this is like 7:1 magnification.

 

[kalgra]

Just out of curiosity what is the issue you are having with your current MP-E 65?

 

[davholla]

Just out of curiosity what is the issue you are having with your current MP-E 65?

It has error 1 bad connection with 3 different bodies and cleaning etc does not help.
Thanks all for that. I have now 2 quotes

1) £120 all in

2) £85 labour (at least) plus vat plus parts

I think (1) is going to be cheaper