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Macro lens for Canon EOS
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 10:28 pm    Post subject: Macro lens for Canon EOS Reply with quote
Hi,

I am looking for a nice manual lens for macro photography.
Most of the time I will use for a scientific project and it will be mounted on a repro copy stand.
Do you have any suggestions, which manual lens I should get for my Canon EOS 350D?
So far I do not have a preference for a certain bayonett type or screw mount, but thought about M42 as there is a lot of good lenses out there.
Or would you prefer a bayonett like the Pentax K as the lenses are not quite as old?
What do you think?

Thanks, Georg


PostPosted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 10:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Welcome!

Many good or superb macro lenses available what you able to mount on your
camera.

My order is next:

Any Olympus OM macro lens:

Like 50mm f3.5, 50mm f2 or 90mm f2

Any Nikkor macro lens like 55mm f3.5 or f2.8 ,105mm f4 or f2.8 200mm f4

Kiron 105mm f2.8

Tamron SP 90mm f2.5

Yashica 55mm f4

etc, etc you can see many samples in mflenses.com/gallery.

I never seen any bad macro lens I am pretty sure if you pickup any macro lens picture quality will be from very good to superb.


PostPosted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 9:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thanks for the tips,
I will look for these lenses.
So far, there is not much of those on ebay, it seems that macro lenses are more difficult to find.

Any other suggestions?

How about a regular MF lens in combination with an extension tube?
That would probably be the cheapest solution, however I am not sure about the quality of the pictures. What is your experience with that?


PostPosted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 9:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Best and cheapest solution buy a Nikkor 55mm f3.5 NON-AI lens earliest version has macro 1:1 later ones have macro 1:2 they are very cheap and common. Plus take any cheap Chinese made extension tubes.

http://www.mflenses.com/gallery/v/japenese/nikon_nikkor/micro_nikkor_pc_auto_55mm_f3_5/
Click here to see on Ebay
Click here to see on Ebay


PostPosted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 9:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Georg wrote:

How about a regular MF lens in combination with an extension tube?
That would probably be the cheapest solution, however I am not sure about the quality of the pictures. What is your experience with that?


As long as you don't use optical means (such as enlarging lenses), the quality will not suffer from extension tubes (maybe in a theoretical way there could be some light dispersion factor to be taken into account but I think that on the practical side nothing will change, and anyway, as Veijo once replied to me, macro lenses use the same principle -tubes- to get closer to an object).

OK the main difference between a dedicated macro lens, and a standard lens with extension tubes, does not reside in the peak quality (you can find standard lenses as centre sharp as macros, or more). It does reside in other features that macro lenses are built especially for:

- performance in the closeup range: standard lenses are used, and have to work, on the whole focusing range from very close, to infinity. This does not come without compromises, and all standard lenses either choose an average compromise, or privilege performance at infinity or at closeup (more rarely). Except, of course, for those lenses with floating elements (such as many Distagons have) that optimize the performance at all focusing distances.
Macro lenses, being built for a specific task, can afford to perform not really well at infinity, as long as they shine in the nearest closeups.

- flatness of field: macro lenses usually have zero or near zero distortion, to allow for correct reproduction of objects whose precision is important (such as paintings, drawings, documents etc). This aspect is not regarded as critical by many lens builders for standard lenses.

- even performance corner to centre: rightly because they are often used to shoot pictures which will be closely scrutinized, macro lenses are usually designed to offer the best possible corner performance. This becuase, differently from other kind of pictures (such as landscapes or portraits), macro photographs get very close to subjects and in this proximity situation, a poor corner performance is immediately visible and annoying - especially, again, when photographing documents etc.

-


PostPosted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 9:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Orio wrote:
(............as Veijo once replied to me, macro lenses use the same principle -tubes- to get closer to an object).


Thats correct... Thats why,

1) Most of the macro lenses are not very fast (another and main reason is, to keep distortions level very low).
2) Has the front element deep inside the front treads. Some people put on forum, "great lens with inbuilt hood...". The reason is, macro lenses has 2 lens bodies. After around 2:1magnification, the lens acts more like a special extention tube mechanism where the whole lens mechanism moves away from camera mount. This mechanism needs threaded extension tubes to cover the final magnification distance. And usually these tube (or internal lens covering) required length, which is much more than the distance between front element distance from mount.
3) The focusing ring moves almost 360 deg. (reason as provided in 2)


PostPosted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 7:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
May be worth considering Volna-9 for close-ups ( http://www.xs4all.nl/~tomtiger/russcam/volnaindus.html ) which could be cheaper or even a cheaper solution when considering the Industar.


PostPosted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 9:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Reversing rings are cheap and well worth an experiment with too. Some standard and wide angles work surprisingly well reversed.


PostPosted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 9:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
montecarlo wrote:
May be worth considering Volna-9 for close-ups ( http://www.xs4all.nl/~tomtiger/russcam/volnaindus.html ) which could be cheaper or even a cheaper solution when considering the Industar.


I'd like to second that.


PostPosted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 10:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
welcome Georg
it's important to know what factor is needed
to 1:3, 10cm object you can use many lens
to 1:2, 7cm object better use macro lens
to 1:1, 4cm a very good macro lens
more than 1:1, a expensive specialized macro lens
of course it depend of what quality is needed for your scientific project


PostPosted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 4:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
See Georg

you can buy a whole arsenal of lenses.... Smile Smile Smile


patrickh


Seriously, any of the solutions offered could work for you.


PostPosted: Sun Feb 03, 2008 8:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Thanks for your input!
This is a great forum!

I bought a Tamron SP90mm with Adaptall-II/Minolta MD coupling - so now I have to find a Adaptall/Canon-EOS adapter.
Tamron used to make them, but the original ones are hard to find.
There are some cheap chinese ones on ebay - what do you think of them?
Does it make a difference to the original Tamron adapter. They look somehow different, the original one seems to have some springs etc whereas the chinese one is just a plain piece of metal...

Or do you know a source for an original Tamron/Canon EOS adapter?

Thanks very much!


PostPosted: Sun Feb 03, 2008 8:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Click here to see on Ebay


PostPosted: Sun Feb 03, 2008 8:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Georg wrote:
They look somehow different, the original one seems to have some springs etc whereas the chinese one is just a plain piece of metal...

EF (EOS cameras) mount is 100% electronic actuation, while Adaptall-2 100% mechanic so you can go without springs and all, the lens will become fully manual (step down metering).


PostPosted: Sun Feb 03, 2008 9:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
For macro work you will not use auto focus confirmation so dont worry about getting the EOS tamron adapter with the AF chip, there is also a tamron extension for the 90mm which takes it to 1:1 some others are also possible http://www.adaptall-2.com/lenses/52B.html I remember Atilla mentioned the pancolar on a reversing ring was very good too.


PostPosted: Sun Jun 15, 2008 2:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
hacksawbob wrote:
For macro work you will not use auto focus confirmation so dont worry about getting the EOS tamron adapter with the AF chip, there is also a tamron extension for the 90mm which takes it to 1:1 some others are also possible I remember Atilla mentioned the pancolar on a reversing ring was very good too.



Hi,

Would you please explain why the af confim chip will not work on my tamron 90 2.5mf macro? I also have the tamron sp 60-300.

I am looking at buying an adaptall 2 >eos adapter with af confirm chip.

Thanks!
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