Capturing Nature's Small Wonders: Comparison of Camera Configurations

[Andre]

It's a great joy to capture small creatures big on the screen without them even noticing it. There are several ways to do that. I used to utilize my old Panasonic FZ-18 bridge camera with a close up lens. Preferably #2 or 2 dioptries or 50 cm focus distance, with a moderate zoom 8-12x you get nice results.

Then came the Canon 450D and the same close up lens on the 70-300mm tele zoom at around 220 mm focus would give roughly the same magnification and shooting distance, however it's a lot to carry all day.

Then I decided to go for the 100mm macro lens, which is a bit a beast to handle with the large focus range. I kept wondering however if it was worthwhile. So today I did some comparison shots of a small (ca 5mm) spider and Althea flowers with all three configurations, all free hand. I compared 100% crops of the three, left the FZ18 with close up lens. In the center the canon with 100mm macro and to the right the70-300 zoom with close up lens. I think I'm happy with the 100mm macro lens, while it's not a good idea to use the tele with close up lens instead. Although I may settle for the FZ-18, if dragging equipment around was a factor.

All are unedited original jpgs

Original with the FZ18 (20% size):

The 100% crops:

Original with the FZ18 (20% size):

The 100% crops

Notice little difference in the petal due to the limited depth of field. But notice the difference of the pollen grains on the stamen.

Anybody with similar experiences?

 

[Sorry!]

If you can properly take macro shots while maintaining technical photography then its a really great and rewarding thing to do. I really like pictures of water drops sometimes u can get reflections in them i think that is amazing

 

[turbo]

That 100mm macro is a sweet lens, Andre. I've been thinking about getting one, but nobody in the US has them in stock. They're back-ordered.

 

[Ben Niehoff]

I have Nikon's 105mm macro and it's pretty sweet. I haven't made a trip to go chase bugs with it yet, but I'll see if I can do that soon and share.

Here's one I made using my kitchen table as a studio. I reversed a 20mm lens in front of the 105mm macro, giving me approximately 5:1 magnification (and a very short working distance), although the image is not very sharp, so I probably won't use this configuration again in the future. This is coarse table salt (the kind that you put in a salt grinder):

 

[Andre]

@Sorry!, great idea, I intend to try that tomorrow and post the results,

@Turbo, yes I'm quite happy with that glass. Curious that withdrawal. They are in stock here.

@Ben, yes the Nikon 105 is great glass, a direct comparison between Nikon and Canon is alway interesting. Pixel counting Canon wins according to that site but Nikon has vibration reduction and that's a big pro.