The Macro Experiment - Part One

[pevelg]

I have always loved macro photography. Something about having the ability to see an object at such a close distance, see it's most intimate details. Sadly, macro photography in the RF world is difficult, if almost non-existant. I purchased an Elmar 90 Macro lens from popflash photo around 5 months ago. I used it only for about two months and though I thought the lens was great and loved the ability to focus down to 0.7 on a 90mm lens, I could not afford the Macro adapter so I ended up selling the lens on eBay and purchasing a Mamiya 7 w/ lens (and now I just love MF photography). Anyways, I still wanted the ability to do Macro. I used to own Russian macro rings in LTM format but could never figure out how to use them with the RF. With my recent purchase of the FED 2, I also acquired an interesting device from the seller (makes my headache with FED worth it), a device that allows you to take Macro pictures with a RF. It is actually very simply. You attach the lens to the device and mount it on a tripod. There is a piece of ground glass in the back. You are now able to focus the lens. Once focused, you remove the piece holding the ground glass and insert your camera of choice. In theory, the distance between the rear lens element and ground glass should be the same as the rear lens element and the film plane. So, does it work? Here is my story in pictures:

 

[pevelg]

Continued....

Continued....

Here are several pictures of the device. The silver piece is removable and contains the ground glass. The black piece is a newly purchased macro ring, FED.

I wanted a white background to my items so I used a metallic lamp shade painted reflective white inside.

Here is some pictures of the setup:

Here I am ready for the first picture. I focus using the ground glass (above pictures are taken with Heliar 75mm on Leica M6, pictures below are taken with Industar 50, the one I am selling in classifieds) Scroll down to MACRO 1 to see result:

Silver piece removed and camera is inserted:

I attach the first Macro ring. I was unable to focus as I could not get my tripod close enough. It's a good thing I can make that bar horizontal!!!

Camera is inserted again. Scroll down to MACRO 2 to see result:

I attach a a Larger sized ring, MACRO 3 for result.

It was quickly getting dark, so I went inside for the rest of the expirement. Here I setup my projector screen, hung a painting I started YEARS ago, and then turned on my projector. For the first time I am glad it doesn't have a dark screen (Leica P 150):

The above setup didn't work, so I set tripod back to vertical (MACRO 4):

I continue adding rings until all four are used up. MACRO 5.

HERE ARE THE RESULTS:

MACRO 1:

MACRO 2:

 

[pevelg]

Continued.... Again....

Continued.... Again....

MACRO 3:

MACRO 4:

MACRO 5:

 

[pevelg]

Part II: I will work on this tomorrow. Due to working in low light, my camera was angled when taking pictures of painting so I wouldn't get in the way of the projector light. I will take my tripod outside tomorrow and take pictures of things like dirt, grass, shrubs, pavement, and etc. This time I will try to make the film plane parallel to the surface so there is no longer just a "razor" thin portion of the picture being in focus.

More photos can be seen in this Flickr set.

NOTE: All these pictures are original, NON CROPPED.

 

[meven]

excellent work.

 

[vdonovan]

Your careful explanation of your technique is much appreciated. And the photos are great, especially Macros 4 and 5, which are lovely.

 

[pevelg]

Your careful explanation of your technique is much appreciated. And the photos are great, especially Macros 4 and 5, which are lovely.

Thank you. I just think that this is a great tool that can enable us as RF photographers to take macro shots. I still need to do several tests like accuracy of focus. For that I plan to have a piece of paper with bold vertical lines. Paper will be angled to film plane and lines will have numbers. I will focus on line #5 and when film develops, I'll see which line is actually focused on. The angle from film plane will be around 15 degrees, though I'll test several different variations. I'll do a test like this for different apertures as well. This will be part 3 of my experiment.

The most fascinating thing is how little this costs. I purchased it for ~$10!!!! One can easily develop a better device though. You would have the main piece the same, but the front would be a movable track with bellows. So instead of attaching macro rings and then moving the tripod, you simple expand the bellows. Here is an example of what I am taking about. Also, a better piece of ground glass would be nice. Mine is hard to focus with. I usually have lens wide open to focus, then I stop it down to the aperture needed.

 

[visiondr]

Nice work. Thank you for your submission.

I've used a more primitive technique using parchment paper rather than ground glass and a reversed 35mm Summicron. See:

 

[pevelg]

Wow, great shots Ron!!! I'll go out tomorrow and shot some flowers as well.

 

[visiondr]

Thank you Pavel. They're all hand held. The lens is manually held against the camera body. I guess at the 9 to 10 cm focus distance of the test subject as well as the parallax correction and shoot. It is primitive. But it works.

 

[infrequent]

@visiondr - can you please explain your process as well? the photos are lovely!

 

[visiondr]

Well, thank you.
I first opened the camera and flipped up the back to expose the shutter curtains. I then gently taped a piece of parchment paper over the film gate. Then I reversed the 35 summicron on the lens mount (just hold it there - it actually fits very nicely inside the mount). The image appears on the paper. Then, move the camera back and forth to find the optimal focus. It measures out at about 9 to 10 cm for this lens. Then, remove the paper, load the camera and pick your subject, aim (guesstimating for both parallax and distance) and fire. You can meter through the lens, but you cannot compose this way. You have to get a feel for where the image is. The method is decidedly primitive, but it works anywhere with no extra equipment at all.

 

[payasam]

Pavel, this reminds me of the Leitz Focaslide.

 

[Ray Nalley]

Impressive technique. I don't quite understand the point of shooting macro with an RF. But I'm looking forward to seeing more of this stuff.

 

[oftheherd]

Impressive technique. I don't quite understand the point of shooting macro with an RF. But I'm looking forward to seeing more of this stuff.

If it's all you have, or you just like to do the seemingly impossible.

pevelg - if you like that Mamiya 7, look into the Mamiya Universal or Super Press 23. You can use extension tubes and get a 6x7 negative. Of course, you get a bigger camera too. 😛

Your photos are really great. Being able to find that kind of gear could incline me to get a FED.

 

[pevelg]

Here are some shots I took at a park yesterday. All shots are taken at f2.8 with CV 75mm Color Heliar. Visit my Flickr page for more.

 

[pevelg]

Here I am trying to figure out if there are issues with focusing accuracy.

I eyeballed the setup so that the film plane was parallel to the desk. I then focused on line 1. In the following two pictures, you can notice that I tend to focus on a point further back.

I can not remember what the f stop was for the above shots... Most likely 2.8

 

[pevelg]

Lastly, here is an example of the change in DOF by going from f2.8 to f4.0

For my next outing, I am going to compare the DOF at all apertures. I just need to wait for a really sunny day as the past several days have been cloudy and rainy. All photos thus far taken have been at ISO 200. I'll probably just get some Kodak 400 UC for the rest of the test.