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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

OK so I bought a new Macro Lens

Mark Thorpe

Mark Thorpe

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The MPE-65mm (with the MT-24EX speedlight) goes up to 5x magnification but with really crazy DoF issues at those settings. This guy, shot just 20 minutes ago was shot at 2x and measured around 5mm wide. My goal is to get this thing working underwater. Imagine that World??

spidermomzn7.jpg


Cheers,
Mark.
P.S All those lumps on its back? Babies!!
 
holy fucking shit!


...sry, I think I gotta lay down...
 
did you say 5mm wide? holy crap in a hat basket!
 
That's awesome. That's a lens I've thought of getting, but I don't know if I have the patience to work with. Are you using macro focussing rails? I have a hard enough time with the 1:1 180mm F3.5 macro. But I have a lot of fun with it, and also makes for an interesting portrait lens too. Nice glass.

Graeme
 
Wow, thanks for the words guys.

Graeme, believe it or not this shot was with no tripod, rails or other support other than a small stone!! Shot at 1/200th at f16 using the MT-24EX on -2/3 EV. This is an incredible setup, one which I have hardly started to use. This is just the beginning.

Cheers again,
Mark.
 
Hi Mark. That's convinced me. MPE-65 is on my order list for underwater macro as well. Now where is that Birger mount? Hope you're enjoying the US. Ken and Jonny are back this evening from Botswana and staying over before heading back tomorrow. Hopefully will have some interesting footage.
 
How close do you have to get to get that sort of magnification?

I imagine that little fellow lit with a ringlite - imagine those reflections in the eyes.

Thanks for sharing & inspiring. Just put that lens on my B&H Wish List ;)

Jon, I want my Red NOW. Erik, get those mount out. Martin: patience!
 
Hey Russ, good to hear the guys are back in town and in one piece. This lens is just mental. I will post an image of it later with the set up flash etc. Need a lot of light and close to the lens, you will see later.

Martin - I never thought my imagery would create a knee jerk reaction and induce such words but there ya have it. I have had that experience before simply because nothing else can come to mind fast enough. Gotta fill that emotive void with something. Optimum distance ratios to magnification are as follows: (distances in inches).

1:1 = 4"
1:2 = 2.5"
1:3 = 2"
1:4 = 1.7"
1:5 = 1.6"

I will post a photo of the complete rig set up later. The flash units sit on the very edge of the lens but allow for the lens base to be put on the ground which is nice as it allows this kind of POV.

shooter - All in this system with the flash set me back about $1600. The next thing on my shopping list is a micro slider for the Tripod. Allowing me to make small small adjustments in the position of the rig when on the tripod. Now thats gonna be a challenge to find a similar mechanism and incorporate that onto an underwater housing. But not impossible.

Cheers,
Mark.
 
CamDiver: The next thing on my shopping list is a micro slider for the Tripod. Allowing me to make small small adjustments in the position of the rig when on the tripod. Now thats gonna be a challenge to find a similar mechanism and incorporate that onto an underwater housing. But not impossible.

For your underwater housing, you could use a bellows with a rail like this: http://www.novoflex.de/english/html/fr_ema1.htm but I'm not sure it will hold up the weight of the red. You could make your own: http://www.ganymeta.org/~darren/photo_bellows.php.
 
Nice thought but with the housing I have to have the lens flat against the port. I will have to look at designing a slider mechanism for the housing as a whole. Underwater the systems are neutrally buoyant but that also means that any mechanism needs to be located solid to the base of the housing. Imagine something along the lines on a base plate with serrated edges and then a cog gear which fits to that to allow forward and reverse geared movements via turns actuated on the gearing. That and a secondary laterally moving plate would be the ideal setup.

Cheers,
Mark.
 
CamDiver said:
Optimum distance ratios to magnification are as follows: (distances in inches).

1:1 = 4"
1:2 = 2.5"
1:3 = 2"
1:4 = 1.7"
1:5 = 1.6"
Click to expand...

Mark:

Are those figures to the front of the lens or to the film/sensor plane? The closeness is going to be the issue with the macro. We may need to go to the 100mm or 180mm macro lense to get enough distance, so the housing/port isn't right on the subject. Even if the creature let's you get that close is it pretty tough to get it lit. (Maybe circular LED lights?)
 
Hi Mike,
These are to the front of the lens measurements. Yeah, its going to be tough but for coral spawning, focusing on shellfish, skeleton shrimp, textures of underwater flora and other stuff I'll staple to the reef :-) no worries.

Cheers,
Mark.
 
Great shot Mark, love the detail, as you can see the MP-E has such a shallow DOF, but you did right to get the Micro flash as well.

Good to see that I'm not the only creasy one with this specialty lenses, even so I didn't yet had a chance to shoot something seriously, but did play around to test the glass and also the MT-24EX, but will do a Botanic assignment next week and will post some, for now you can visit below

http://ketchrossi.smugmug.com/gallery/5020490_2rwoZ#302731534_D6hP6


ciao.
 
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