Macro lens help for taking fly pictures?

[sbr 0]

Hi,

I’d like to get a macro lens for a Nikon DSLR I have, I’m not familiar with macro photography so would like to get some feedback from anyone here on what lens you use for nice macro shots of flies? What should I look for in a lens spec’s other than is stating it’s a macro lens? I’d like to get nice very close up shots, something along the quality of Han’s pics for example.

[Pike.ro 0]

A good old 55mm micro lens would do the job. You can find them on ebay, they're made in Japan

[SilverCreek 0]

I bought a Nikon macro lens in the 1970s that my son uses but they will not autofocus. The lens mounts on the current Nikons are backward compatible so the lenses can still be used.

[salmobytes 0]

I use a Nikon D7000 (wish I had better but it's good enough) with the Nikor 105mm Macro. It's not a cheap lens. It does allow the camera to be further back from the subject than a 55mm macro, which is convenient.

 

Camera $1000

 

Lens $1500

 

How far off the deep end do you want to go?

 

I also use an "extension tube" set which allows pushing the lens further away from the focal plane, which creates more magnification. $280

 

I once used a light tent made from curtain material, with incandescent lights. It works and it's cheap. But now I use umbrella strobes. The cheapest good ones are about $500 from "Alien Bees" in Canada. You can easily spend $3000 to $5000 on strobes but those are for big studio fashion photography. For tiny fly scene photos Alien Bees is hard to beat.

 

It's handy to put a 16" x 16" inch square of translucent white 1/8" inch thick Plexiglass on top of a mirror. Put the flies on the Plexiglass. The mirror and the white plastic erase any hard shadows from the strobes. Now you don't need a vise, which is nice because vises just clutter up the image. With that background you can make fly images that seem to float in space, as if they weren't resting on a flat surface.

 

Tripod $300 -- $3000 depending on which one you buy

 

Focusing rail $100 -- $2500 (I have the $100 variety)

 

Gimp photo editing software (free) ..... Photoshop is perhaps better. But not cheap. And you have to be an expert to use the parts of Photoshop Gimp does not have.

 

Geeqie software for rapid browsing of large numbers of photos (free) .... from Geeqie you can click to send an image to Gimp

 

Zerene Stacker focus stacking software $80

 

Helicon Remote software to operate my camera from a laptop $100 or so, for making multiple exposure focus stacks.

 

Apple and Adobe have MacIntosh oriented photo management and photo editing software a lot of people like (IPhoto Lightroom etc). But I don't like them. IPHoto is particularly exasperating because it puts your photos in a software jailhouse that makes them difficult to use with other programs. Lightroom is good but not cheap and not as powerful as Gimp. Lightroom is good amateur-oriented software. Gimp has more horsepower and it's free. And I vastly prefer the free combination of Geeqie and Gimp. And UFRaw if you shoot raw images (much better) rather than jpeg. Some people also like Darktable and Rawstudio, which are also free.

[ditz2 0]

The old Photoshop elements is cheap and does much more than most folks will ever use. The new Photoshop is rented monthly at like $30 per month. What a crock! The mirror/ plexiglass trick sounds like the real deal. No shadows and only one light source needed. A decent flash can be set off to any angle desired with a couple of cheap gizmos and activate remote from the camera. Any good quality camera shop should be able to set you up with the remote flash. Best Buys is not the place to go for cameras and extras. Go someplace you can get some service and help. ......I don't know if they are still available or how well they work but years ago lens add-ons were available to allow a normal lens focus quite close.

[Kirk Dietrich 0]

If you have a DSLR and want to get closeup shots, almost any lens will do I use my 18 - 24mm, 35mm, 50mm and 105mm. Honestly, most of my fly shots are done with the 35mm which is not a "micro" lens per se but is good for the close quarters in which I work. The 105mm is labeled a "micro" lens but as stated above you have to get a little further back depending on the size of your subject. The 105 is also considered a great portrait lens.

 

Kirk

[Woodpaddler 0]

Just get a set extension tube or revering ring to fit the lens you have. Tripod. Shooting for yourself or to show friends that all you need. Sunny window.

[Kentuckysteve 0]

You may check into using the mirror lockup function if your dslr has this option.This will prevent alot of the camera shake that causes the blur.Also a good remote shutter release or cable release.If you dont have either of these then use the timer.Anything that prevents you from having to press the shutter button.And definately use a tripod.

[ditz2 0]

Good one KY and also stated above about the tube extender. Man, I forgot about them. My Cannon DSLR does a pretty good job with the lense that came with the camera though I bet a set of tube extenders would let one get really close.. If you use a large pic format the pic can be cropped quite close and still have good resolution unless you are looking for pro quality.

[Crackaig 0]

KISS is the system I use. I use a sheet of card formed into a tube and hung around the head of my tying light. The tube causes the light to be reflected in all directions giving a really good diffuse light source from a lamp I already have. Cost about £0.07 The fly goes in the bottom of the tube. If you want to get a little more complex punch a hole in the bottom of the tube, and stick a small piece of foam with a cross cut into it on the outside of the tube with the cross over the hole. Poke an electrical probe clip through the foam and hole in the card to hold the fly.

 

If you want a lens that will do the job look for a short prime lens. The "standard lens" for any format is the diagonal length corner to corner across the format. (A little known fact) making the standard lens for 35 mm (36 x 24) aprox. 44mm That is why 50mm became the standard on 35mm. If you use a smaller sensor work out the diagonal to get the equivalent lens for your format.. These lenses are available very cheaply and will work well with extension tubes. I know for a Nikon the cost of a 50mm f1.8 lens and a compatible set of auto extension tubes is about £120 to £130. This set up will give you every bit as good a result as a dedicated macro lens costing 5 times as much. Where you loose out is you do not have the ability to focus from macro to infinity without removing the tube. Not a big deal for most of us.

 

You do not need a tripod if your shutter speed is high enough. With practice quite slow shutter speeds can be used hand held but as a rough guide is you use a minimum shutter speed of the 1 over the focal length of the lens + the length of any extension tube you will not need a tripod.

 

What A joke all that is. I said KISS at the start and got into all those technical details, but, if you look at it, the technicals keep the cost down.

 

Cheers,

C.

[afraid not 0]

You can buy a set of "close-up lenses" that will screw into the filter threads of your Nikon. They are like contact lenses for your camera. They come in a set of three (+1, +2, +4) and they can be stacked for more magnification. A set should cost about $30.00 USD.

[Kentuckysteve 0]

 

You do not need a tripod if your shutter speed is high enough. With practice quite slow shutter speeds can be used hand held but as a rough guide is you use a minimum shutter speed of the 1 over the focal length of the lens + the length of any extension tube you will not need a tripod.

 

 

This is great advice and it works but don't forget to add in the crop sensor.Unless your Nikon is a top of the line with a Full frame sensor.Nikon has a 1.5x cropped sensor.You will need to multiply the focal length of the lens by 1.5 to get the true focal length.This means a 50mm lens used on a Nikon APS-C camera would be equivalent to a 75mm lens.

[Kimo 0]

Here is my take on photographing flies.
I no longer use a macro focusing rail.
This is what I use instead.


It lets me do a rough focus and framing.
Then I use the cameras zoom to fine tune the focus and framing.

Kimo

[bellevue.chartreuse.trout 0]

That sliding mounting plate is a nifty idea! That link worked for me - as in redirecting when I clicked on it. Kimo - when I clicked on the "photographing flies" link Firefox came back with a 'Server not found' error page. Maybe a Firefox issue? Would be interested in reading what you redirected to.

 

thanks

 

BCT

[Kimo 0]

That sliding mounting plate is a nifty idea! That link worked for me - as in redirecting when I clicked on it. Kimo - when I clicked on the "photographing flies" link Firefox came back with a 'Server not found' error page. Maybe a Firefox issue? Would be interested in reading what you redirected to.

 

thanks

 

BCT

BCT,

Just tried the link and it worked.

 

This is the hyperlink.

 

http://www.flytyingclips.com/photo_flies.html

 

Kimo