A new toy .. "Focus Bracketing"

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Yawns
Posts: 400
Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2015 9:18 am
Location: Benavente, Portugal

A new toy .. "Focus Bracketing"

Post by Yawns »

Just got (last Friday at work) a new camera and lens.. Oly Om-10 MKII and Oly M.Zuyko 60mm macro.
I did not buy exactly a new camera or a new lens ( I was not needing any) .. I bought a new function .. focus bracketing. I was / am very curious about using it.
Today (Sunday) I could do a couple of hours of experiments around my home...

The idea of going around without flashes and shooting with natural light is attractive..

No worries about DoF... so very wide apertures can be used .. flashes are not necessary (and efficient diffusers, and arm brackets... anda lot of parafernalia ) ..wide apertures also give very nice soft backgrounds...
In the paper sounds good and I was very curious to see it myself. And it's winter... I have a lot of time to practice before the next insect season (late February for me)

Little equipment in a small bag.. that's nice too.
ImagePC161620 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

My 2 production assistants went with me :) .. Tina & Sally
(they are very calm ##### female dogs (<< I was censored here ) and don't interfere...)

ImageP1018800 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

all photos bellow at f/3.5, ISO 400, natural light and stacks ranging from 25-60 photos at focus differential 3 or 4
.. except for the mushroom... i got 60 photos but only stacked 10 and the focus differential is 5 ot 6 (can't remeber)

amazing.. a Pentatomidae at Christmas?... my lucky day. It's very cold and he was not willing to go anywhere..
Even if the sun was low and weak produces to many shines
Imagemacroshed - 0879-0913 ZS PMax 2018-12-16-20.34.29 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

much better with the studio umbrella diffusing the sunlight
Imagemacroshed - 0949-0983 ZS PMax 2018-12-16-20.30.14 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

I need to buy / make a bean bag (and a remote trigger) for the mushrooms
ImageP1018847 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

Imagemacroshed - 0470-0480 ZS PMax 2018-12-15-15.01.18 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

and a few more to practice the focus differential / number of photos relation.. nothing very artistic

Imagemacroshed - 0396-0425 ZS PMax 2018-12-16-18.00.02 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

Imagemacroshed - 0336-0365 ZS PMax 2018-12-16-20.38.33 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr

Imagemacroshed - 0466-0485 ZS PMax 2018-12-16-18.16.55 by antonio caseiro, on Flickr :shock:

enricosavazzi
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Re: A new toy .. "Focus Bracketing"

Post by enricosavazzi »

Yawns wrote:[...]
My 2 production assistants went with me :) .. Tina & Sally
(they are very calm ##### female dogs (<< I was censored here ) and don't interfere...)
[...]
I am going to retire in 6 weeks (literally counting the days) and moving to an ideal location for field macrophotography (at least as much as possible in Sweden, given the long winters and short summers, but there is hope ... global warming is coming). I already have my own production assistant-in-training, a female shih-tsu/chihuahua/bichon mix. Still young and a bit too curious about anything that moves, but gradually mellowing up. Might get a second one some time.

Abundant ticks carrying a variety of nasty diseases are one thing to watch out for here, for both photographer and assistants. Not in winter, but then the only things to photograph in winter here are snow, ice and dry sticks.

The Olympus 60 mm macro coupled with a reasonably recent Olympus body are a natural choice, and my choice as well. I may also try a Sony 90 mm macro on Sony A7RII because I have both (twice as big and heavy as the Olympus combo, because the lens is massive, and the Sony functions are not as sophisticated as the Olympus ones).
--ES

Pau
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Post by Pau »

Nice images, Antonio, and congrats for your new toys.

The red shield bugs image is very interesting, what are they doing? Feeding on the balls in tandem....? What are the balls?
Pau

elimoss
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Post by elimoss »

Will it fire the flash when using the focus bracketing mode, if you choose to also use flash?

Fuji does not.

Olympus -- not sure

Panasonic might in one it's bracketing modes, but again, I'm not sure.

Lou Jost
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Post by Lou Jost »

Yes, Olympus fires the flash in all modes, though the synch speed is slow in electronic shutter modes (including focus bracketing).

elimoss
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Post by elimoss »

Lou Jost wrote:Yes, Olympus fires the flash in all modes, though the synch speed is slow in electronic shutter modes (including focus bracketing).
Neat. So is focus bracketing mode electronic shutter only, or can you choose mechanical as well?

Lou Jost
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Post by Lou Jost »

In my PEN F it is electronic only, when bracketing. I never use the mechanical shutter. There is no vibration, tremendous burst rate, and no camera wear.

Ichthyophthirius
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Post by Ichthyophthirius »

Pau wrote:The red shield bugs image is very interesting, what are they doing? Feeding on the balls in tandem....? What are the balls?
Hi Pau,

The firebug https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrhocoris_apterus feeds on seeds. In Northern Europe you can often see hundreds of them sitting together at the base of lime trees.

Pau
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Post by Pau »

Thanks for the info, Ichthy

It's a very abundant bug here in Spain, although I've never found it feeding. Will look next spring.
Pau

Yawns
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Location: Benavente, Portugal

Post by Yawns »

Thank you everybody...

You're doing many questions I don't have an answer yet.. flashes and everything ...I did not even customised the camera setup and did not look deep in he menus..


The bugs are not feeding :)

They are just holding themselves in very tiny snail shells.. they where in a perfect vertical wall.. I gave the camera some rotation.

here where I live snails are like sand in the beach.. people eat them ( I get disgusted...)

Yawns
Posts: 400
Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2015 9:18 am
Location: Benavente, Portugal

Post by Yawns »

Ichthyophthirius wrote:
Pau wrote:The red shield bugs image is very interesting, what are they doing? Feeding on the balls in tandem....? What are the balls?
Hi Pau,

The firebug https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrhocoris_apterus feeds on seeds. In Northern Europe you can often see hundreds of them sitting together at the base of lime trees.
here where I live they are very abundant too and they look to live in the mauves (if there are any) .. now in the winter they go to the base of the apartment buildings (maybe the walls are warmer than the grass because if the heating in the buildings).. In winter also find many colonies well packed inside broken bamboos... they don't look to completely hibernate.

Yawns
Posts: 400
Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2015 9:18 am
Location: Benavente, Portugal

Re: A new toy .. "Focus Bracketing"

Post by Yawns »

enricosavazzi wrote: I am going to retire in 6 weeks... (...) Still young and a bit too curious (...)
(...) (...) .
Congratulations on your retirement.. here now retirement is at 67yo 0r 40 years at work.
I use to say.. my retirement day will be an ambulance and paramedics at my workplace.

The dog is "helping" .. you're behaving like an hunter...in his little head he is just collaborating .. you're a pack...

I just got this camera because it was the cheapest with the focus bracketing function .. as I had to buy also a compatible lens I couldn't buy anything better.. the 60mm lens was more expensive than the camera...anyway I am happy.

Lou Jost
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Post by Lou Jost »

That is an excellent lens, I love using it in the field. So light! And focus bracketing makes it fast and easy to take macro landscapes.

Lou Jost
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Post by Lou Jost »

It looks to me like the bugs are feeding...don't they have their probosci inserted into the opening of the snails?

Yawns
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Location: Benavente, Portugal

Post by Yawns »

Lou Jost wrote:It looks to me like the bugs are feeding...don't they have their probosci inserted into the opening of the snails?
you are absolutely right ... :shock: :oops: as I saw one a few moments before hanging on a snail I just assumed that ...

I just checked the full size image and yes it looks like to be seeds .. I just turned the picture form private to public on Flickr.. you may check yourself (the picture expands to full size)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/themacros ... ateposted/

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