Supermacro

[John Gulliver]

I will be going on a trip to the Red Sea in a couple of weeks and plan to experiment with supermacro for the first time. I have the 60mm D lens, which I have used for several years and am very happy with. I plan to combine it with a 1.4x teleconverter and +4 diopter. I realize that the depth of field will be very small and wonder if the set-up will make it difficult for the camera to autofocus. I have a good focus light but the light conditions and visibility in southern Egypt are so good that I have rarely had to use it in the daytime on past trips. Grateful for comments and tips.

 

[dbh]

IMHO, it will be hard to auto focus. I would either shoot in manual focus or move the camera in and out until desired focus is achieved.

Dave

 

[John Gulliver]

IMHO, it will be hard to auto focus. I would either shoot in manual focus or move the camera in and out until desired focus is achieved.

Dave

With my ancient eyes, anything other than autofocus is out of the question, but thanks anyway, Dave. Does anybody else have any comments?

 

[Warren_L]

I just got back from the Red Sea a couple of weeks ago. For macro shooting I used primarily the 60mm, but I did add a MacroMate Flip lens. Similar to adding a screw mount diopter, it reduces the DOF quite a bit. Manual focus is probably the best way to go, but AF is still usable with some patience. The problem with AF I find is that if you miss the focus the first time around, the lens spends a lot of time hunting for focus as it goes all the way in and all the way out.

I do have to say as an aside, the Red Sea was a big disappointment for me for shooting marine life, both macro and wide angle.....

 

[John Gulliver]

Thanks Warren! Sorry to hear you were disappointed by the Red Sea. You must have been in the wrong place. The northern part (Sharm el Sheikh etc) is badly overdived and nothing like as good as it was 20 years ago when I started going but further south (southern Egypt and Sudan) is still fabulous. I've dived in many places, including the Caribbean (many times), the Maldives (3 times), Mozambique, Thailand, the Philippines, the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea and Indonesia (3 times) and I'd rate the best parts of the Red Sea among the best of these.

 

[Warren_L]

Yeah, we went out of Hurghada an made our way down to the brothers and daedalus. The wreck diving was nice, but for marine life, we didn't see much at all. This year I've also been to papua new guinea, maldives, philippines, and bonaire and easily any of these were much better for the marine life.

Keep using the 60mm lens, it is my most used macro lens. But no matter how you use it for supermacro, whether a dry mount diopter, wet mount diopter, TC, etc, you will lose DOF so focusing will definitely be more of a challenge.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

Get the focus light out over the subject, shining almost straight down on it. The strong cross lighting will increase the contrast and help autofocus.

Also, set the D90 up so that a button on the back triggers AF, not a partial shutter release.

 

[aquaticman]

I have 'played' with the 60mm micro both in housings and just on land. I'd recommend taking the exact same setup and shoot some bugs and slugs if you can. Try getting in as close as the lens will allow and shoot at F32. Repeat it with the teleconverter and shoot again at F32. My really best results though are using an extension tube set. I'm of the old school. Anything that is optic that you put between your subject and the chip or film will affect the results. Your image is only as good as the glass if you add more glass. Extension tubes are not optical. They just shorten the focal length with the fabulous 60mm Micro optics only. As a general rule when you shoot at F32 with the extension tubes and get your strobes in really close (less water between them and the subject) you will get amazing results and excellent DOF too. You can also 'stack' the extension tubes for extreme closeups. I like using the 105 Micro for that. Practice it in air and you'll be better prepared in the water. You also will get used to liking good results on land and amazingly when that happens your underwater images become extreme.

 

[deeper thoughts]

Yeah, we went out of Hurghada an made our way down to the brothers and daedalus. The wreck diving was nice, but for marine life, we didn't see much at all. This year I've also been to papua new guinea, maldives, philippines, and bonaire and easily any of these were much better for the marine life.

Keep using the 60mm lens, it is my most used macro lens. But no matter how you use it for supermacro, whether a dry mount diopter, wet mount diopter, TC, etc, you will lose DOF so focusing will definitely be more of a challenge.

You do travel!! Envy

 

[WetLens]

Agree with Chuck - strong focus light and using AF button on back of camera. That said, I do find I get better results getting close with AF, then switch to M, steady the front of the camera, and rock in and out to achieve the best focal plane. I've been using ReefNet's +10 wet lens in front of an Ike port with both a 60 and 105. Find I like the 105 with the +10 the best.