"IMHO": Getting More With Macro

Excellent resource, thank you.

Very interesting topic and which has gotten my little gears spinning and thinking about macro photography. So I went to a camera store yesterday and I saw a used Sony 50mm macro lens for 300 euros.

My question is: are there any advantages to a 50mm macro lens over a 100mm macro lens other than smaller size and lower price? (Though I'm not sure the 300 euros is such a good deal even though it was in perfect condition.)

dilettante wrote: brian33 wrote: My question is: are there any advantages to a 50mm macro lens over a 100mm macro lens other than smaller size and lower price? (Though I'm not sure the 300 euros is such a good deal even though it was in perfect condition.) 50mm is considered a more 'normal' field of view, but the disadvantage is that working distance gets very small, i.e. for a given level of magnification, you'll need to be a lot closer to your subject with a 50mm lens than with 100mm. That can mean it's hard to light your subject, and if it's a live subject, you may end up scaring it off. I'd say only consider 50mm macro if you want to take studio shots of static subjects.

Thanks! The other thing is I have a minolta 50mm 1.7 which I don't like because I have a hard time shooting around the chromatic abberation and it's not a terribly sharp lens either so replacing it with the Sony macro would give me a respectable 2.8 and much sharper. But what you're telling me about the advantages of 100mm (or 135 I suppose) make a 100mm macro sound much more appealing and versatile for the macro aspect.

THe 50mm reversed direct onto the camera should give about 1:1, a 28mm gives about 2:1 the 18-70 kit lens at 18mm gives about 4.5:1, but at only a few mm working distance

This page is a good reference even though it is aimed at Nikon usersclick here

Adding a link with more useful information.

Macro Link

I thank the author of this article for writing it. I recently saw, and purchased a Minolta bellows set, along with a MD-MA adapter ring, and included a Vivitar 200mm f/3.5 lens. Need to stand back four [bad word filtered] ' feet from the subject, but it does work.

I'm going to be looking to replace the 200mm with a 35 or 50mm Minolta MD lens. Also, I'm looking at getting a set of tube rings, since I can't get my KM 7D to attach to the bellows. There's a spot on the camera that interferes and gets in the way. I think if I put one ring in there, I should be able to move the camera back far enough to get it on. My A58 doesn't have any problems getting on, though. But, I don't have the ADP-MAA flash adapter yet, so I can't program my 3600HS for off camera use with the A58.

I think this will be fun, although I was told I've opened a Pandora's box. We'll see.

Gary

This thread is certainly making for some very interesting reading and should (hopefully) get me motivated to take more macro pictures as I have been neglecting the subject somewhat.

Curiously enough, I was looking up any information I could find on the Sony angle finder last night and was wondering if this bit of kit is actually compatible with my a57? That being said, the a580 is often my choice for macro shots anyway so would it work on either of those?

Best regards

Gavin