Some early tests of a Macro Fisheye setup

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kaleun96
Posts: 270
Joined: Sat Oct 20, 2018 3:47 pm
Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Some early tests of a Macro Fisheye setup

Post by kaleun96 »

I picked up a Fujinon 2.7mm f1.8 fisheye lens and thought I'd try some macro fisheye John Hallmén style.

Surprisingly I get good coverage on my full-frame A7R3 sensor, though with some slight vignetting.

The setup that has provided the best quality in-conjunction with a magnification I'm happy with is a reversed Raynox 150 tube lens with a reversed SK XNP 1.4/23 and about 20mm between that and the fisheye lens.

I didn't expect the sharpest images given what others have achieved with much cheaper fisheye lenses but I'm still experimenting to see if it can be improved. Though it's difficult to find a good substitute for the XNP as it has a C-Mount rear thread and a 30.5mm filter thread that I already had an adapter for. Plus it has a "fine focus" thread that lets me adjust the distance between it and the fisheye lens with reasonable precision.

I've yet to try this outside on some insects, mostly because it's winter so insects are hard to find. Here's some tests with 100% crops indoors. This setup requires a fair amount of light and the short working distance makes it hard to light the coin correctly without introducing lens flare. There's also a lack of ambient light given that the sunsets at 2:30pm here, hence the dark background.
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The extension required for the tube lens here is a bit excessive for any field macro work. I will see if I can short-focus it and still get good results.

Another issue is the size of the front element of the fisheye lens. It will make it very difficult to photograph anything at ground-level and that's where John's cheaper fisheye lenses are better suited.

I'm curious to try those cheap fisheye lenses to see if the Fujinon offers me any advantages optically, it's hard for me to say at this point.
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I'm keen to hear any suggestions on tips to improve this setup. I've been reading some of the old threads, as well as John's blog, but a lot of it seems to be trial and error.
- Cam

dickb
Posts: 342
Joined: Mon Jul 05, 2010 1:54 am

Re: Some early tests of a Macro Fisheye setup

Post by dickb »

kaleun96 wrote:I picked up a Fujinon 2.7mm f1.8 fisheye lens and thought I'd try some macro fisheye John Hallmén style.
Interesting, I first came across it through Bjørn Rørslett, so I call it that style
http://www.naturfotograf.com/roll_your_own_lens.html
But I'm sure many people have done similar things before them.
kaleun96 wrote:Surprisingly I get good coverage on my full-frame A7R3 sensor, though with some slight vignetting.
Why are you surprised? You use a fisheye lens with a small image circle and enlarge it with a high magnification secondary lens. Depending on that magnification you could fill a medium format sensor if you want to. A reversed XNP 23 on a reversed Raynox 150 gets you around 9:1 magnification, right? Using the Fujinon directly on a camera with a roughly matching sensor size (I'm guessing a Pentax Q) may well give you equally good image quality and much easier handling.

Anyway, I'm not saying you shouldn't experiment with this type of setup, just that the image quality is limited by the front lens.

Handling such a setup is easier with a field monitor, where you can flip the image so you are not working with the upside down view.

I once experimented with even more extreme front lenses, like the tiny lens from a CD player, with limited success btw. I vaguely remember a short documentary about the BBC filming in an anthill with a motorised camera using relay lenses and a lens from a smartphone.

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