reverse macro help

[lathamemmons]

ok i bought a 58mm reverse thing to put my 28-90 on my 75-300
but i put it togeather and i cant see crap. what ever i look at is just one big blur
ive tyred focasing in every way possible with both lens.
is it because my 28-90 has a convex front glass and the zoom has a flat front glass?
plz help

 

[Big Mike]

I've never tried reversing a zoom lens onto a zoom lens. I have always reversed a prime lens...but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

Firstly, the focus point will be very, very close to the lens. Maybe less than an inch. Secondly, the depth of field will be razor thin...anything that is not within that thin DOF....will be out of focus and be "one big blur".

You will probably need to have the camera mounted on a tripod or other support and then carefully find the distance where objects will appear sharp. Getting light on the subject may be tricky because the lens will be so close.

Then again, it might be possible that that combination of lenses just won't work.

 

[lathamemmons]

WoW you were right the focus point is like 1/4 away but the results are amazing
i can almost fill the veiw finder with the ball of a pen thats with the zoom at 100
and the small one at 35.
im having a bit of trouble focusing at 300 but ill get it figured out thx

 

[Big Mike]

I don't know if your camera has DOF preview or not, but remember that you will have more DOF as you stop down the lens. Of course, you will have slow shutter speeds so be sure to use a tripod (or support) and fire the camera with a remote (or use the self timer) and don't touch the camera when it fires.

Here is a shot I took, can you guess what it is?

 

[Torus34]

Flipping a macro with a reverse ring can result in sharper images when working at ratios of greater than 1:1 -- that is, an image at the film/sensor plane larger than the actual object.

Marrying one lens to a second lens doesn't make much sense normally.

 

[lathamemmons]

i wish my camera had a dof preview but unfortantly it dosent
its very hard to keep something in focus and the shutter speed is already slow
from the lack of light im gona try some faster film (800) what i did was rolled up a blanket and layed my camera on it im gona get the film devolped here in a few hours so well see. thx for the help.

o yea and is it bread?

 

[Big Mike]

Ya, you don't really need a tripod...but it's important to use a remote or the timer...in which case, you don't really need faster film because slow shutter speed won't be a factor. (besides the slight shake from the mirror slap, I doub't your camera has Mirror Lock Up)

Yes, that is bread. Last time I put that up, nobody guessed it.

 

[lathamemmons]

i was gona use the faster film so i could get a smaller apruture and wouldnt have as big of a prob with dof.

lol well what can i say i eat a lot of bread

 

[Big Mike]

i was gona use the faster film so i could get a smaller apruture and wouldnt have as big of a prob with dof.

That's the right idea, but is unnecessary if the camera is completely still. You could stop down to F22...as long as you keep the shutter open long enough. In fact, for longer exposures, lower ISO film is probably better.