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Author Topic: MP-E 65mm  (Read 73584 times)

  • Offline zpyder

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MP-E 65mm
on: June 21, 2013, 22:05:54 PM
Quite frankly, this lenses magnification is obscene.

The lack of any kind of focus is going to take some getting used to. The lens just has a twist barrel to zoom from 1:1 to 5:1. Along the zoom range the only way to focus is to move the whole camera. Also, at 5:1, it's ridiculous trying to find the subject in the viewfinder, it's not just very dark, but the area the viewfinder covers is about the size of a grain of rice, and has a DOF of around 0.2mm, at most!

But anyway, here are my first attempts. They are the result of a combination of experiments with both the lens and the MR-14EX ring flash I also bought at the same time! All hand held I should add!


Stowa flieger balance wheel pallet by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


Stowa flieger Winding pinion and transmission wheel by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


Ant carrying twig by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


Woodlouse by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


Money spider underside by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


IMG_5009 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

The thread is the fine cotton weave on my trousers. Caterpillar was about the width of a hair.

IMG_5004 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

red mite

IMG_4993 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

Aphid

IMG_4992 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

money spider

IMG_4973 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

2mm long beetle

IMG_4967 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

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Re: MP-E 65mm
Reply #1 on: June 21, 2013, 22:10:36 PM
wow. great stuff.
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Re: MP-E 65mm
Reply #2 on: June 21, 2013, 22:50:15 PM
Now that's a macro lens!  The magnification is incredible and it looks stupidly sharp too, in comparison to my sigma 105mm it really does show how much more magnification it gets but then the sigma only goes to 1:1 without the aid of some extension tubes.

But have you tried it with some extension tubes... lol

You've made me want to try doing some macro stuff over the weekend, I won't suggest a competition to see who can get a better shot I think you might have a slight advantage!
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  • Offline zpyder

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Re: MP-E 65mm
Reply #3 on: June 22, 2013, 00:13:30 AM
One thing I'm pleased with is that a lot of sites say that the lens really shows up dust and crud on your sensor, and I've yet to spot anything really, after 4 years!

Only thing I've noticed though is I've got quite a few stuck pixels :(

Will be trying a macro rail tomorrow on some of the more obliging critters in the garden I think!
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  • Offline Clock'd 0Ne

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Re: MP-E 65mm
Reply #4 on: June 22, 2013, 13:24:25 PM
That ant shot is fantastic, and the woodlouse coming head on. That's a terrific piece of kit!
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Re: MP-E 65mm
Reply #5 on: June 22, 2013, 18:55:41 PM
Some really awesome stuff there!!
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  • Offline zpyder

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Re: MP-E 65mm
Reply #6 on: June 25, 2013, 08:51:47 AM
After a bit of playing around I'm slowly getting to grips with the lens. Not sure if it's progression of skills, modification of technique, or tweaking the processing, but I think the photos I took last night are much better than previous photos. The MP-E seems to be sharpest at f5.6 at 5x mag, which is good to know. Also I've modified helicon settings to the slowest, highest detail preserving stacking method, and that must have helped too.


Strophosoma melanogramma by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


Strophosoma melanogramma 5 #upclose by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


Otiorhynchus arcticus 1 by Chris_Moody, on Flickr
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Re: MP-E 65mm
Reply #7 on: June 25, 2013, 21:46:33 PM
Mate this is insane magnification. You need to stand up a website with the other data associated with these critters and promote it amongst education folk.

Some of the detail on these photos are incredible.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

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  • Offline zpyder

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Re: MP-E 65mm
Reply #8 on: June 26, 2013, 23:02:21 PM
Chuffed with this one.Really does seem that the longer you sit in one spot, the more you see. Kind of increased the contrast a bit, but I think it shows off the speckledness of the nymph really well:

Speckled bush-cricket (Leptophyes punctatissima) Nymph by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

More aphids, I guess they're popular with macro folk due to being so slow moving:

Aphids by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

Not sure on this one. Think I missed a trick. These guys were on the underside of a honeysuckle leaf. Prime opportunity to actually focus stack them and get a really good shot of them all. Sadly by the time I'd gotten everything set up and half way through the stack, the adults were moving around too much for the stack to work properly. I also rushed it which meant the stack wasn't aligned as well as it could be. This photo is a fudge using photoshop, rather than a stacking software run. As such I can see a lot of minor mistakes that all add up :(

Bugs by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

And an obscene fly-eye close up:

Lucilia sericata by Chris_Moody, on Flickr
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Re: MP-E 65mm
Reply #9 on: June 27, 2013, 00:50:25 AM
A honeysuckle leaf? Those tiny leaves? My god man, you appear to have attached an electron microscope to the end of your camera.

Blown away also wtf are those "bugs"?

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

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  • Offline zpyder

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Re: MP-E 65mm
Reply #10 on: June 27, 2013, 07:35:38 AM
Honeysuckle isn't that tiny, leaf was about 1.5 inches long.

The bugs are baby shield bugs, yet to identify the species!

Sent from my GT-N8010 using Tapatalk HD
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Re: MP-E 65mm
Reply #11 on: June 27, 2013, 08:28:34 AM
amazing. that cricket has a right cheeky grin on him. awesome work fella.
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Re: MP-E 65mm
Reply #12 on: June 27, 2013, 10:29:31 AM
Next time can you take a shot of the setup?

The cricket shot for example, surely you've got a very small amount of time to take the photo before he hops off? So how on earth did you set everything up in time? I assume it's a single shot?

Really fantastic picture though!!
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  • Offline zpyder

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Re: MP-E 65mm
Reply #13 on: June 27, 2013, 11:27:10 AM
Thanks guys!

It was a single shot indeed!

Actually that cricket was much obliging and didn't shift much. It wasn't until I paused for a second and decided I could increase the aperture to f8 due to being only at about 2x mag, that it disappeared when I took my eyes off of it.

The reason I've got a few shots on different backgrounds was because it was fairly easy to "encourage" it to move in different directions. The biggest challenge was that you only had about 5-10 seconds each time to take the shot before it would turn around so it wasn't facing the camera!

As to the setup, it was "hand held", ring flash, I was experimenting with using a walking pole as a pseudo-monopod, so I'd have the body in my right hand, with my left hand holding the pole and supporting the lens. I'd then focus by rocking back and forth.

I've been meaning to get some set-up shots, as the stacking "studio" set-up is a bit of a beast, but annoyingly it doesn't look too professional on a dining room table...or a carpeted floor for that matter! I'll be doing some work on campus in a week or two though so will be able to get some proper sciencey backgrounds then.

Next time I'm doing the stuff in the back garden though i'll get the other half to take a few snaps. Or if I do tripod work I'll do it myself.
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Re: MP-E 65mm
Reply #14 on: June 27, 2013, 12:48:47 PM
How on earth are you managing to focus that handheld? Are you taking several shots and picking the best or do you have a really steady hand?
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