First Outdoor Session With Photar 50mm And Flash

[Harold Gough]

Elsewhere I have been trying a reversed zoom lens,on extension, on a tripod this time, for possible outdoor use.

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... 818#115818

The shutter speeds for ambient light showed that flash would be needed for mobile subjects. I use Olympus OM T-series flash with my E-P2. It has been clear that calibration is needed as the digital sensor is much more sensitive to flash than film is.

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... hp?t=16626

The size of subject I was most interested in is around 3-5mm long so a field of view 10mm wide is a compromise between good framing and allowing for subject mobility. My lens which is most suited to this magnification is my Leitz Wetzlar Photar 50mm f2.8.

With the T32 flash unit (no diffuser) on the camera hot shoe and the Photar on 115mm of extension (including adapters) I set the ISO to 400 but found I had to vary that according to the subject material and its surroundings. The camera was in manual mode, shutter speed 160# sec. The aperture was f11 throughout as the previous owner had suggested that this was better than the f8 used previously.

Problems encountered included:

1) that the aperture ring, which is very stiff to turn, was turned by the hood being supported by my fingers.

2) that the use of the hotshoe for the flashgun meant that I could not use the VF-2 viewfinder. The display on the back of the camera is very poor for macro.

3) The shutter speed setting "got knocked" numerous times. The dial for changing the speed is cleverly located next to the shutter release button. See # entries below against individual shutter speeds affected..

Here are the results from my first session:

Spider eggs nest under stone 1/160 ISO 800:



Nest of beetle larvae 1/250# ISO 100:



Beetle larva, cropped from another image



Canna anther (base), shot in greenhouse cropped vertically 1/250# ISO 1000:



Canna anther (tip), cropped vertically 1/250# ISO 1000:



Young woodlouse and mite (focus not quite right) 1/400# ISO 800:



Crop:



Patterned, empty slug egg shell, cropped about 60% 1/200# ISO 800:



2 shots of Valerian anthers (both cropped)* 1/160 ISO 1000.





Conditions for the Valerian shots were even windier than here:

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... 818#115818


Harold

[Harold Gough]

This was all done in a rush to beat the weather and was partly done in light rain. It is now time to consider what to do next.

1) Re-allocate the shutter speed selection to another button/menu. (Previous use of manual flash has been indoors, with the camera static and it was not realy an issue).

2) Use lower ISO which requires:

3) Move flash further forward on lens/tripod collar

4) Diffuse the flash. (The flash slide-on diffuser tends to become detached when the flash gun is on the camera hotshoe and the bounce articulation on the T32 is angled downwards. Moving the flash onto a tilting hotshoe will overcome this).

5) Use twin flash.

Harold

[Harold Gough]

This was all done in a rush to beat the weather and was partly done in light rain. It is now time to consider what to do next.

1) Re-allocate the shutter speed selection to another button/menu. (Previous use of manual flash has been indoors, with the camera static and it was not realy an issue).

2) Use lower ISO which requires:

3) Move flash further forward on lens/tripod collar

4) Diffuse the flash. (The flash slide-on diffuser tends to become detached when the flash gun is on the camera hotshoe and the bounce articulation on the T32 is angled downwards. Moving the flash onto a tilting hotshoe will overcome this).

5) Use twin flash.

Items 2, 3 & 4 have been dealt with in a similar setup here:

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... 014#117014

Harold