Why is it called macro diving?

[DiveShopBarbie]

I have been diving for over 6 years now, and am a huge fan of macro diving. One thing that has always bugged my buddy and I, though, is why is it called macro? Shouldn't it be micro? Macro by definition means large-scale, but macro diving means small marine creatures. I know I must be missing something and that there must be some other definition of the word I'm not aware of... otherwise the entire dive community would be using the term wrong! Does anyone know why it is called macro and not micro?!



Thank you!!

 

[tursiops]

It has to do with photography of the small critters, and macro means a large magnification, not a large critter.

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[Grocio]

It's probably due to the fact that it involves macro photography, that is very close up photography of small critters.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Your reasoning that "micro" might sound more accurately descriptive to most of us today is sound, but the term "macro photography" is firmly entrenched. See Wikipedia's entry on "macro photography":

Macro photography - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

See the section on History of the term "macro photography."

 

[Doc]

Micro photography actually comes from the old standard film metric.

If the image that you created on the usual 35mm piece of film was larger than the real life object itself, that was known as micro.

The accepted photo reference to Macro lenses came from marketing. It fell into common application and usage in regards to the advent of otherwise standard use lenses that had a special "close focus" range. These "macro" lenses started to appear as lower end casual consumer level lenses from companies such as Tokina, and Vivitar (late 1970's). Soon, more well known and better regarded companies (Canon, Olympus and eventually Nikon) were pressured by competition (and popularity) to offer "macro" (close focus) on their low end products.

Withe a "macro lens", you could get pretty close to technical "micro" magnification levels.

In that era, micro was professionally attained by the use of extension tubes, a simple (and costly) metal cylinder that was fitted between the camera body and lens, extending the lens further away from the film plane. They gobbled up a lot of light.

Common usage and marketing nomenclature has replaced technical jargon. But- you still continue to see comparative references to focal lengths of current day digital lenses stated as "in 35mm equivalent". (because image sensor size can vary camera to camera)

I used to know every facet of my 35mm film Nikonos (Or Nikon F), but now with my basket of digital cameras, I am relatively befuddled.

You can argue about what is micro but I don't get much argument when I show this and other images parked at NOT Macro Its MICRO Photos by Doc_Adelman | Photobucket

This might be about 1.5mm in length:


To the OP: I do lead "micro dives". All participants get a tethered glass lensed magnifier. They must have a small flashlight. I carry a red beam laser and a very thin fluorescent plastic pointer.

My biggest hurdle is to get divers to just slow down.

We swim past so much cool stuff, logging a dive with "no critters" and posting the bad report on the internet.

It's all right there.

 

[tursiops]

Doc's right on with this. "Macro" meant up to 1:1 magnification. "Micro" meant larger than 1:1, i.e. larger than life size. Now "micro" is called "super-macro," and it is not clear whre the dividing line is anymore. Maybe 1:1, maybe not. Some new confusion comes from cameras with sensors smaller than a 35mm frame. With the same optics, a small sensor sees less of the image than does a large sensor, so looking at the picture it seems magnified. Now this is called "cropping."

And, I suspect the description of a site as a "macro" dive came from some cameras needing to be set up in advance of the dive as a macro setup (with appropriate lenses) or as a wide-angle setup; you could not have both on the same dive. So the description of a dive as a macro dive meant that's how you should set up your camera for that dive, because it was teeming with little things and it was unlikely a manta or a whale shark would swim by. But they did...so some of the modern cameras are less constrained and try and compromise with their lenses and ports so you can do modest macro and modest wide-angle, all on the same dive. Whoo whoo.

But on the OP's original question, this is all about the photography, not the critters.