Does anyone know if this can be done?

[smithwilson011]

I think you should bye a good quality camera to capture a wonderful moments of your life. You can buy canon or sony camera.

 

[Edsport]

As mentioned by Overread, a reversing ring will get you good magnification...

 

[Shane Anderson]

Hubby's boss is asking if this can be done, so hopefully you guys will know if this is even possible. He is wanting to take shots of defects in steel that are the size of the end of a fine tip ball point pen. His idea is to take these pictures with a slr camera and a macro lens and wants the defect to be full frame, in other words the defect take up the majority of the picture. He's also wanting to do this for $1000 or less. Does anyone know if that is even possible, and if so, any ideas as to what would be a good camera/lens in that price range that could actually accomplish that? Sorry to ask such a crazy question, but honestly, I have no idea if you can even do that.
Thanks again,

May I ask what this will be used for? There are metallurgy labs that have microscopes set up for this exact thing. If it's for some practical purpose then this would suit what you need.

If it's for some artistic purpose then I'm not sure what the photo quality will be like.

 

[Edsport]

Does anyone know how well the add on magnification lens works?

If you're talking about those macro closeup lens they do work but you will lose quality because of adding extra glass. I have set of them but never uses them.

A set of rings would be better because you're not adding glass. The cheap rings has no electrical components so you'll have to manual focus. With my canon i can set the aperture before removing my lens from the camera and adding it to those rings but maybe you can't with your camera model. Not sure what you have. You could also just hold something between your lens and camera (like some kind of tube) so the lens is moved out from the camera a bit, it will allow you to achieve focus at very close distances. Macro Extension Tube Ring For CANON EOS EF DSLR & SLR on eBay.ca (item 180503449311 end time 30-Dec-10 20:58:28 EST)

You could get them with electrical contacts but more expensive. Nikon PK-11, PK-12 & PK-13 Auto Extension Rings on eBay.ca (item 110622428014 end time 15-Dec-10 20:26:17 EST)

 

[Ron Evers]

Overread's post made me wonder what I cold achieve with my poor mans macro set-up.

Industar 50/3.5 ($25) plus a set of extension tubes ($10) off eBay. Tripod & macro rails.

Original shot

Crop of original

 

[Village Idiot]

I think you should bye a good quality camera to capture a wonderful moments of your life. You can buy canon or sony camera.

Because steel defects are the most wondferul moments of your life.

Brought to you by: Reading comprehension fail

 

[digabella]

Thank you guys so much for all of your help on this. There truly is a wealth of info in this forum! We have a pretty good idea of the options available now.

As far as the Floyd Firestone's reflectoscope, they are not needing to detect the flaws, just photograph the ones they have found. Also,the metallurgy labs are not an option, because this is 5000 lb axels, so they need to be able to take the pics without having to send the axels anywhere else.

Overread, Edsport-thank you guys so much for the great info on the ring sets. I think that is what he is thinking he will go with and just add to the camera that I already have. But, let me ask a question on that since I don't really understand this part. The rings go between your camera and your lens, correct? So if your minimum focus distance for your lens is I'll just throw out, 1 foot. You put on the extension rings which gets your lens say 6 inches closer, why does that make your lens focus at less than it's minimum distance focus? What is the "trick" that is going on in the camera that makes that possible? Hopefully that made sense.

Ron, I thought your poor man's set up created a really good macro.

I think you should bye a good quality camera to capture a wonderful moments of your life. You can buy canon or sony camera.

Because steel defects are the most wondferul moments of your life.

:lmao:

 

[digabella]

One more question. I have a Nikon d40x. I know the lenses have to be af-s to actually be auto focus. I just popped over to amazon to check, and it's not pulling up any extention tubes with af-s. It pulled up a bunch, but they don't say they will work with af-s. Only that they will work with nikon af cameras. Does that mean that I could not use these rings and be able to auto focus?

 

[oldmacman]

Hubby's boss is asking if this can be done, so hopefully you guys will know if this is even possible. He is wanting to take shots of defects in steel that are the size of the end of a fine tip ball point pen. His idea is to take these pictures with a slr camera and a macro lens and wants the defect to be full frame, in other words the defect take up the majority of the picture. He's also wanting to do this for $1000 or less. Does anyone know if that is even possible, and if so, any ideas as to what would be a good camera/lens in that price range that could actually accomplish that? Sorry to ask such a crazy question, but honestly, I have no idea if you can even do that.
Thanks again,

Most consumer level macro lenses are 1:1. This means that if the defect is 1 mm across, it will fill up 1 mm of the sensor. On a full frame camera, the 1mm speck will fill up 1/35th of the frame. It sounds like he wants to take a micrograph. You'd have to do some research to see how much the equipment would cost. At our school, we have some low cost digital microscopes that provide 10x magnification, but the image capture is only 2MP and the unit has to be tethered to a computer via USB.

 

[Ron Evers]

In macro work, manual focus is the only way to go.

Yes, the tubes go between the body & lens & the more length of tube the greater the magnification & reduced distance between lens & subject.

 

[Bend The Light]

Any old lens and some manual macro tubes will work if you have a steady hand.
My favourite method nowadays is a 135mm f2.8 lens, set around f11, on 3 macro tubes.
The first shot here is an old spider leg, shot handheld, the second is a coin shot with a normal (kit) lens, and the third is a detail of that coin with the macro set up. The hand is about 2mm across...


Spider Bits framed by Bend The Light, on Flickr



50p by Bend The Light, on Flickr


Hand on 50p piece Macro by Bend The Light, on Flickr

 

[gsgary]

Does anyone know how well the add on magnification lens works?

Crap

 

[Bend The Light]

Does anyone know how well the add on magnification lens works?

Crap

Agreed...lots of chromatic aberration (fringing)...and less light, so slower shutter leads to softer images.

 

[Ron Evers]

Does anyone know how well the add on magnification lens works?

Crap

I agree if you are talking about the close-up filters 1x, 2x & 4x sets but not if you are speaking of the Raynox DCR 150 or 250 close-up conversion lenses.

This was shot with a DCR 150:

 

[Bend The Light]

Does anyone know how well the add on magnification lens works?

Crap

I agree if you are talking about the close-up filters 1x, 2x & 4x sets but not if you are speaking of the Raynox DCR 150 or 250 close-up conversion lenses.

This was shot with a DCR 150:

True. Not used a Raynox, but been recommended one...

...lovely shot, that one, Ron.