Originally posted by Purusam Thanks for so many replys,
Im going to photograph in nature with freehand.
Cant you guys just tell me what to buy :-)
Today i tried extensiontube + tamron 17-50 it was very dark. even with the ringlight it was dark.
Lol
I wish it was that easy. Just buy this..... but there are so many ways to the bugs
I dont think you will need to get much closer the 1:1 if your shooting freehand.
That bug image in my previous post was shot at about 1:1 and I then cropped of the sides and rotated it a bit so that image is probably only 40% of the real frame.
Maybe you should just get the Sigma 105mm 2.8 Macro lens?
I have seen others get great results with it.
It goes down to 1:1 so that will get you far.
If you need to get closer just put a reversed, smaller lens on top of that.
Just for fun....
Heres another way that I havnt really tried in the field yet.
I use an old Exakta lens that has a nice and big button to close down the aparture. The lens is a Carl Zeiss Pancolar 50mm f2.0 that you should be able to find on fleebay or similar.
It can be used on extension tubes both normal and reversed.
You will get a lot closer if you reverse it so thats probably the best way to go.
Heres my lens with a total of 50mm tubes. Not reversed.
This is great for flowers and similar when you dont need to get that close and theres no bug to scare of.
Heres a full frame of that kit but reversed on a 20mm extension tube + a flash. Click on it to see the full version.
Heres the same shot cropped 100%.
My focusing skills on this shot wasnt that great though.
The great thing using these old Exakta lenses is that big button.
I hold my thumb on that one while trying to find the focus/distance and this is with the lens fully open. When I think I found it I press the button to close the aparture and then take the picture with flash. I used f8 or maybe 11 on this picture.
I have never tried a ring macro flash so I cant say what the result would be. My flash is an older Pentax AF240Z. I use it slightly pointed up so that I dont get the direct hard light. Putting a diffuser on it works great too.