On 10 Aug 2004 at 16:35, Anders Hultman wrote: > If you look at some macro shots I've done with a regular 50 mm lens > and a bellows, could you say in which way these pictures would be > different if I had used either of the two new lenses instead?
Practically there will be little difference (and virtually nil if you are are looking to replace your 50mm bellows with a regular 50mm macro aside from the operation differences). The long and short of it (pun intended of course) is that when using a short FL macro you will be relatively closer to the subject, this means that lighting may be made more difficult, your subject may be disturbed by the proximity of the lens and you may not be able to isolate the subject as effectively due to the relatively wider AOV. On the positive side shake is diminished somewhat and the maximum apertures are fastest with short lenses so they are generally easier to use and more forgiving when shooting hand held especially when using available light. Longer lenses provide greater working distance and a tend to isolate the subject more effectively however they are far more difficult to hand hold effectively. I guess this is why macro lenses around 100mm are so popular as they offer a reasonable compromise between all the factors mentioned above. In order to show the visible (but sometimes subtle) differences that FL makes I set up a semi-scientific macro test (2:1) using 50, 125 and 200 macro lenses. All shots were made at f5.6 at a mag factor of 2x and the tripod was slid out from the subject until focus was achieved The framing isn't perfect between each frame but it's good enough to highlight the differences. You will see more background details in the 50mm shot and you will see the perspective distortion flattening out in the 200mm shot. http://members.ozemail.com.au/~audiob/temp/_igp5685.jpg A50/2.8 Macro http://members.ozemail.com.au/~audiob/temp/_igp5686.jpg V125/2.5 Macro http://members.ozemail.com.au/~audiob/temp/_igp5688.jpg A*200/4 Macro (w/mirror pre-fire) The easiest way to compare the images is to DL them and use an image browser with sync capabilities like ThumbsPlus, then you can pan around in the images synchronously. Looking at these images again I wish I also had a 28mm (or wider) macro lens for use in instances where working distance isn't critical. I'll leave these images on line for a couple of days. Cheers, Rob Studdert HURSTVILLE AUSTRALIA Tel +61-2-9554-4110 UTC(GMT) +10 Hours [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://members.ozemail.com.au/~distudio/publications/ Pentax user since 1986, PDMLer since 1998
