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Optical camparison of macro solutions |
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The three commonly used solutions for doing macro photography are: • extension tubes It is well known that the dedicated macro lens yields the best results in optical performance and versatility but this is also the most expensive solution. Extension tubes and close up lenses are cheaper and are often recommended as the first investment to explore the world of macro photography. The choice is then: Extension tubes or Close up lenses? To find out which of the two gives the best optical performance I have done a test between both set-ups using a standard Canon zoomlens. I also included the |
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by Siu Fai Au |
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These are the set-ups I have used: • Canon EF28-105 3.5-4.5 USM @105mm f11 with a Kenko 20mm |
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I used my EOS 5 on a Silk Able 300ST tripod. Mirror prefire together with a cable release were used in order to prevent any camera shake. The film was an iso100 slide film from the Dutch departmentstore Hema. The results were scanned with a Nikon LS20 Coolscan II filmscanner at its maximum |
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I have chosen a PC harddisk as a subject because it has lots of small details which facilitates the evaluation. It was lit by available light coming from a window. The magnification was about 1:4 which could be read from the distance scale of the macro lens. |