Wouldn’t you like to explore your environment through a microscope? I have wanted to this for a while and been intrigued by the world of Super Macro Photography for over a year now.
Super macro magnifies subjects and enables you to see the details of the eye of an insect or the texture of a hundred dollar bill or each pollen stuck to a bee’s leg.
It is surprisingly easy to do – all you need is (1) a camera (duh!), (2) two lenses and (3) a coupler attaching the two lenses face to face.
The two lenses should be a combination of a wide angle lens and a longer focal length lens attached face to face. I used a 105 mm lens attached directly to the camera and a fifty at the outer end attached in reverse. The lens directly on the camera (the 105) is in the regular position on the camera and the fifty is attached via a ‘reversal coupler’ facing the camera. The coupler allows me to screw on the fifty like it is a filter.
Here is a link the coupler that I used (a male 52mm-52mm) – it attaches on the filter end of the fifty. I also had to use a step down ring to fit the thread on the 52mm coupler to my 105 at 62 mm (see this one here). That one attaches to the male coupler and to the filter end of the 105. Although not necessary – I also put an adaptor on the ‘reverse’ end of the fifty so I could put a protective filter on it because I felt is was exposed to the elements. I got a Nikon BR-3 to allow for that (see link here). After attaching lenses, rings , and filters – make sure that the lens closest to the camera is set to manual focus (the 105 in my case) and the aperture on the outer lens (in my case the fifty) is wide open – i.e., the dial is set to (f/1.4 to f/2.8) to maximize the amount of light entering the lens while avoiding vignetting (so f/22 would be too small of a aperture – and surely would create a heavy vignette). … the focusing was strange, you have to be very close to the subject (just an inch or so) and the DOF was super thin. I found Nikon’s Live View handy for this. I also used a tripod since again – the DOF was so thin – and I wanted to avoid camera shake. You may want to use a flash to allow more light and freezing any movements – I used an off-camera speed light to avoid sharp shadows.
- 1 dSLR (e.g., D300)
- 1 long lens (e.g., 105 mm lens)
- 1 step down ring (if needed)
- 1 coupler (52-52 mm male filter)
- 1 ‘wide or normal’ lens (I used the 50mm f/1.4D)
- 1 (optional) lens protection kit of outer lens (BK-3) with 52 mm UV filter.
My complete setup:
From left to right: A D300, a long lens (105mm for my setup), a step down ring (from 62mm to 52mm), a 52mm-52mm coupler ring, a reversed ‘wider’ lens – I used the 50 mm, and then finally the optional kit , consisting of an adaptor, Nikon’s BR-3, allowing my to attach a filter on the far end of the fifty and a 52mm UV filter.
- Ching-Kuang Shene’s “The Lens Reversal Technique” (Great!)
- Darren Rowse “How to Shoot Super Macro”
- Earthbound Light’s Close-up: Stacking, Reversing and Other Lens Gymnastics
- Flickr Discussion Thread in the Technique Group Reverse Lens as Macro
- Another Flickr Discussion Thread in the Super Macro Group Building a Super Macro Lens
