reversed lens technique

[Sk8man]

i'm not sure if many of you know this technique but basically you take a lens, reverse it and place it on your regular camera lens.

the result is a very high magnification.

here are some samples:

this is my custom made ring

a pin

lion ring

fbi clip in the size of a fingerprint

bolt

stuffed animal fur

a book page:

a piece of fabric:

a match:

 

[Corry]

Holy cow!!!! Those are AWESOME!!! How do you reverse a lense?

 

[Sk8man]

my dad have a Zenit-E camera. I removed the lens from that cam and placed it reversed on my fuji adaptor ring.
after that, i took a toilet roller and removed the hard part to make a tube.
finally i put the toilet paper tube on the adaptor ring and the lens and taped them together.

as you can see here:

 

[Karalee]

Thats going to make for some super ghetto macro dude. Ill look forward to seeing more, cos I love the texture in the one of the book page

 

[photobug]

Or, if you aren't that handy you can spend the $20 needed for a macro coupler ring (male threads on both sides) to hook two lenses together.

To determine the magnification ratio you divide the focal length of the front (reversed) lens into the focal length of the lens mounted (normally) on the camera.

For example- with a 135mm lens mounted and a 50mm reversed you'd get 2.7:1 (135/50=2.7). Using two 50mm lenses you'd get 1:1.

Great pics Sk8man, and I applaude you ingenuity in creating your Macrostein lens.

 

[Sk8man]

tnx guys, i do need that male-male ring but it's hard to find.

also the DOF is very poor so it's hard to place the object in the frame.

 

[Artemis]

Can someone show me a link as to where to get these rings or whatever....cause I have a close up filter But I realllY! want a macro lens.

 

[photobug]

I lied, they don't cost that much. See this thread.

 

[mistakendavis]

freaking amazing, i have always wanted to try out some macro but i am a poor colage student and cant buy a macro lens thanks for the info i just made one and am pumped to use it.

 

[terri34 6]

Awesome macros! Very ingenious of you, mad props for working this out and getting these great results.

Thanks for sharing all this!

 

[talonop]

Dude, those are awsome. I never knew you could do that with a lens. The fiber texture on that page is really cool.

 

[starving4rtist]

Great pics!

I'd be interested in trying this...what kind of lens is needed for this?

 

[Lu Tze]

those are awesome, mate! i love the match photo! :thumbsup: there is such a thing as "male-to-male ring" (no giggles, please), which is basically just a ring that looks like a filter but has the bolt cuts on both sides; you screw it to the lens and then screw the other lens reversed to that ring - clean work and you don't have to use toilet paper rolls with that kind of setup you are also able to use the focus rings of your lens, although there is not much use for that... :scratch:

 

[Lu Tze]

awh, sorry to repeat what everyone else said... i should read the other posts before i post anyting...

 

[photobug]

Starving- you can use anything, but a lens with a wide aperture helps immensely (makes the viewfinder easier to see). An older screw mount 50mm lens works great for this and can be had for next to nothing on ebay. Brand really doesn't matter.

Normal procedure is to open the reversed lens aperture up as far as it will go (most newer lenses are already in that state) and set the focus ring to infinity on both lenses.

Then you manually focus the lens mounted on the camera by moving the whole camera/lens assembly toward or away from the subject.

A tripod is almost mandatory. You could use a bean bag or something, but you aren't going to hand hold these shots. A focus rail is really handy to have, rather than moving the whole tripod back and forth for final critical focus.

Once you have the camera positioned you set the aperture and take the shot. A cable release is helpful, as is mirror lockup, but it can be done with the self-timer if you're careful.

hth