Close-Up

Ohio · Jul 25, 2005

I wanna take close-ups of small stuff (petals, bugs, drops etc.) what kind of lens is best for that? I have a wideangle lens, a zoom lens and 2 normal lenses. Which of my lenses would be best to use?

And, do you have any tips of how I acn take close-ups without buying new lenses. For example using magnifying glasses or something?

Thank you

SLOShooter · Jul 25, 2005

A Macro lense would be the best choice since they are specifically designed to give you a large reproduction ration. However since you don't want to buy a new lens I would recommend a reverseing ring, which lets you mount a nomal lens backwards making it a pseudo-macro lens.

Ohio · Jul 25, 2005

Thank you. Well, I don't know a lot about camera paraphenelia, especially lenses filters etc. Therefore I will tell you what my "zoom"- lens says on it:

MC - Macro Focusing Zoom Ø 5 2 mm Vivitar 100-300mm 1:5.6-6.7

Anyone know what all this means? I don't know anything except vivitar, and that my lens dosn't focus on anything close range.

SLOShooter · Jul 25, 2005

I just checked out Vivitar's site and while I have no experience with Vivtar lenses I don't think that this one will be a good choice for macro shots. It has a minumum focusing distance of 4.9 ft which is why you can not focus on anything close to the lens but, it is a telephoto so that is not surprising.

Also it's minumum f-stop is 5.6 which will not give you the paper thin DOF that is usually seen in Macro photography.

Middlemarch · Aug 16, 2005

I'll piggyback on this thread...

My 70-210 lens has minimum ap. of 4 but also has a macro setting on its ring w/ numbers 1:5.1, 1:6, 1:8, 1:10, 1:12. What do these mean? The manual seems to assume that I should know, but I don't.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Macro is for close-ups, right? When you want to focus on an object that is very close, this is what you use, right? But how? Does the 1:5.1 number indicate that I can focus on something as close as 5.1 feet away? Or is this the aperture? Or am I way off?

A lens I am looking at on eBay is 28mm, 1:2.8, and says it can focus to less than a foot away. So, this is good for close-ups AND landscapes?

??????????????? So many questions!

Big Mike · Aug 16, 2005

I'll take a guess that the ratios on your 70-210 lens are reproduction ratios.... 1:5.1 being the most magnification.

Technically, 'macro' should only be used for 1:1 reproduction...that would mean that the size of the actual objects is the same size as the image on the film (negative) or digital sensor. Most lenses labeled 'macro' do not actually get this kind of magnification.

As for the original question...there are a few ways to do close-up photography. The best way is probably with a real 'Macro lens'...but they are expensive.

As mentioned, you can reverse mount one lens onto another...this can give you a lot of magnification...maybe too much. I don't know if a wider aperture is better or not...but typically you want to maximize your depth of field and not strive for the paper thin DOF that we usually see. That's just a result of focusing that closely.

Another option is diopter filters...or close up adapters. They are just screw on filters that go on the front of your lens to give more magnification. I have a set of them; +1, +2 & +4...they can even be stacked for added effect. They do degrade the image quality a bit...but they are a lot cheaper than a true macro lens.

You could also look at extension tubes. They are just hollow tubes that go between your lens and the camera. They allow the lens to focus at a closer distance to the subject.