Macro Equipment

MichaelPlace

MichaelPlace

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Never really done any macro stuff and i fancy branching into it for a bit of fun and to expand my knowledge.

Dont want to spend much cash as it's thin on the ground and my recent expenditure on camera gear is a bit excessive :p

i have a 70-300 Sigma with a macro function a 50mm prime, the kit lens and a 10-20 sigma, no flash gun.

I'm looking at those small light tents and one of those 5 in 1 reflectors (also some v.cool acrylic stands that reflect light)

1) Will my 70-300mm be good enough? any advice on using it for macro use?

2) Are those light tents much kop?

3) should i be considering some lighting for the light tent?

4) any other advice? :D

cheers all :clap:
 
You will need some extension tubes, and really a flash would be handy, I had some good results with my 70-300 canon and tubes.
 
Not easy but if you just hold the lens in front of the body say an inch off being fitted you can look through the camera to see the effect of spacers and decide if you want to buy some. try the zoom and the prime.

I would say light tents and macro are generally not related. Macro bugs etc needs lots of light so with no flash you need to be in the sunshine. Suppose you could put the tent in the sun and a bug inside.
 
any suggestions on extension tubes - ive just ebayed and seen some for like £11 delivered from HK - that cant be right surely?
 
There are 2 types of tubes. Expensive ones with electrical contacts so the lens will AF and have aperture control, and empty sleeves with no contacts.

I have the cheap ones. Quite usable (for Canon don't know about others) but you need to know a trick or 2 to get the lens doing what you need.
 
I'm with you, i'll do some reading :p

I was wanting to do more kind of still life macro's rather than flower/insect macro's - inanimate objects etc. With the light tent i was assuming i could control the lighting to a much greater extent - admittedly it probably isnt that important.
 
Another thing for your list is a tripod - will mean you can shoot at lower shutter speeds and perhaps not need to use artifical light.
 
oh yes, sorry, forgot to mention i've got a manfrotto 190XproB with 390RC2 head - that's an obvious one
 
It also has a switch that converts the lens to macro photography at focal lengths between 200mm and 300mm with a minimum focusing distance of 95cm (37.4 inches). In normal mode the minimum focusing distance is 150cm (59.1 inches) at all zoom settings. Maximum magnification between 200mm and 300mm is 1:2.9 to 1:2.
Click to expand...

anyone have an idea about the size of extension tubes that would be useful?
 
Like I said - try it. You can't take a picture with the lens held in front of the camera but you can look through it.

When I used tubes with a 70-200 I had the full set of 3 joined together. Guess that was around 50mm/2 inch of spacers. Working distance was about 1 to 2 foot. Focussing was by moving the camera then adjusting the zoom (which doesn't zoom in this application) for fine focus.
 
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