Canon FD 200mm Macro lens & 25mm tube on G1

[Dunk]

First experiment with my G1 using Canon FD 200mm macro lens plus 25mm extension tube. The live view screen is superb for this type of photography. I'm wondering just how much magnification can be squeezed from the lens ... somewhere i have some more tubes to add on and try. This is quite a heavy combination but the lens has a tripod collar to take the weight. Lens front to subject distance was 30 cm; camera to subject approx 60cm It's a very long lens ie 30cm including the tube and adaptor when racked out for closest focus. Magnification works out at 2.48:1 which is NADI 2.5:1.

Am impressed by the potential of this combination because there is very adequate distance between the camera/lens and subject to enable additional lighting at high magnification. This picture was taken using just window light.

Normally this lens would only be used at up to 1:1 on a Canon film camera but the micro four thirds format doubles the magnification.

Also planning some work with the G1 using Leitz Photar and Summar macro bellows lenses using Leica R bellows and R to 4/3 to micro4/3 adaptors when hope to achieve much higher magnifications.

The G1 is a superb tool for macro photography especially with the live view facility.

Cheers

dunk

 

[Pickett Wilson]

I just don't understand the point of this. Any Canon P&S digital will effortlessly do amazingly close and detailed macro stuff. Why go to all of this trouble with a huge, unwieldy rube goldberg contraption?

 

[Ronald_H]

Because the G1 + a good lens kicks the cr*p out of any P&S perhaps?

 

[Dunk]

I just don't understand the point of this. Any Canon P&S digital will effortlessly do amazingly close and detailed macro stuff. Why go to all of this trouble with a huge, unwieldy rube goldberg contraption?

Please identify a digital compact that will take a macro photo at 2.5:1 magnification. The point of it is to achieve high magnification images at greater than life size and with greater depth of field than the equivalent full frame format cameras. The point of me using the 200mm macro lens is to achieve a much greater subject to camera distance which should optimize lighting potential.

And a further point is to try and show just how versatile the micro four thirds format is as regards using previously obsolete lenses. I expect there are more than a few forum members with eg Canon FD lenses who might wish to breathe some new life into them. I can think of many possible applications for the G1 including astro photography .

I'm also planning to use fast aperture FD "L" lenses on my G1 .

dunk

 

[Dunk]

Because the G1 + a good lens kicks the cr*p out of any P&S perhaps?

EXACTLY!!

Thanks

dunk

 

[Pickett Wilson]

I dunno. The Canon SX 10 IS in Super macro mode is pretty amazing.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tedsla/3467532230/sizes/o/in/pool-924474@N25/

 

[Dunk]

I dunno. The Canon SX 10 IS in Super macro mode is pretty amazing.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tedsla/3467532230/sizes/o/in/pool-924474@N25/

The SX 10 is a superb camera within its limitations which include no raw mode, distortion at the wide angle focal lengths and uneven flash coverage. The super macro mode is at the wide angle end and thus would probably not be suitable for critical macro work eg photographing a postage stamp or a coin or a fossil . Distortion would not show up quite so much in the insect shot.

Proper macro lenses will always out-preform any point and shoot "Jack of all trades" macro zooms for serious scientific photography ... especially when enlarged prints as distinct from internet photo illustrations are required.

dunk

 

[ruby.monkey]

Normally this lens would only be used at up to 1:1 on a Canon film camera but the micro four thirds format doubles the magnification.

It's still doing 1:1, you're just throwing away more of the picture. 🙂

 

[splitimageview]

I just don't understand the point of this. Any Canon P&S digital will effortlessly do amazingly close and detailed macro stuff. Why go to all of this trouble with a huge, unwieldy rube goldberg contraption?

They can also work with under water housings, and are great for parties because of face recognition. They fit in your pocket, the tiny sensors mean lots of depth of field. They can even shoot video. Why does anyone use anything else but a Canon point and shoot? 😉

 

[Dunk]

It's still doing 1:1, you're just throwing away more of the picture. 🙂

But getting 12.1 megapixels on a half frame format.

Cheers

dunk

 

[Dunk]

They can also work with under water housings, and are great for parties because of face recognition. They fit in your pocket, the tiny sensors mean lots of depth of field. They can even shoot video. Why does anyone use anything else but a Canon point and shoot? 😉

They are superb cameras for their intended uses - I'm not disputing that. But if you wish to make a 15"x 10" exhibition print of a macro subject it is unlikely that any compact point and shoot camera would be able to fulfil the task.

I think we are getting a bit off topic here ... the point of my thread is to show some experimental work with Canon FD lenses on the G1.

Cheers

dunk

 

[Dunk]

The experiment is just to prove that this particular Canon FD 200mm macro lens is usable on the camera - partly because it opens up opportunities to take pictures of eg butterflies and other insects at relatively long lens to subject distances. I have a dedicated macro flash for the lens ie a Canon ML-1 which enables f22 at magnification 0.5 at 100 ISO albeit in manual mode - the flash is over 25 years old but still works fine but will probably require trigger voltage reduction with the G1.

I took a few more pictures with the 200mm macro lens just to see how much magnification is possible when using it on a Canon FD Autobellows. Measuring with the ruler again the picture shows approx 5x magnification at full bellows extension. This is not really a practical proposition because there are easier ways of achieving mag. 5x with shorter focal length lenses. The whole apparatus is really far too heavy to use on a copy stand which would ensure perfect parallelism between subject and image plane. And when used when used on a tripod it is just too fiddly to try and achieve the necessary image plane and subject parallelism. The depth of field is so small at 5x mag that even a few mm. out of parallel is critical. However, I tried taking the following close ups of coins using a tripod and the results are reasonable. It's unlikely the lens will be used at this "just a technical exercise" magnification in future. Planned butterfly pictures will only require 0.1 - 0.25 magnification on this format to more or less fill the frame. The self timer facility was used for these pictures which helps alleviate camera shake.

To prove the magnification ie 36/7.25 = 4.965 = approx 5x

HM's neck on a 5p piece

HM's head on a 50p piece

HM's cheek on a 5p piece

Britannia's shield on a 50p piece

Britannia's head on a 50p piece.

I had fun doing these and also learnt the rudiments of using the G1.

The FD to M4/3 adaptor was made in Poland and purchased on Ebay ... seemed cheaper to buy it there as avoided import taxes.

Cheers

dunk