Canon D40 and Canon MP-E 65mm 1x-5x Macro Lens

ashmore

Has anyone out there tried this setup? A Canon D40 and Canon MP-E 65mm 1x-5x Macro Lens. I am looking to setup a high end coin photo setup and I need to be able to shoot VAMs without a microscope. I have seen some stunning shots from this lens and I understand how it works. I just need to know it can stand up to lighting and shot distances for coins.

I saw the thread on the EF 100mm Macro and I think I would get that lens for my standard full-coin shot lens.

Ash Harrison

mgoodm3

I know of this specialty lens but don't know how it performs. Another way to achieve higher mag is to reverse mount a fairly short lens (such as a 35 or 28mm). It requires a $10 reversing ring. More mag can be obtained by putting a extension tube between the reversed lens and the camera or using a bellows (more $$).

This was shot with a reversed 55mm lens on a bellows

ibzman350

Dang Mark, your photography skills never fail to amaze me!


Nice work.




Herb

ashmore

That is as good a shot as I've ever seen. And I've seen a lot of them as a VAM aficionado.

I was considering the new Nikon D300, with an older PB-4 bellows. However, the body is very expensive compared to the Canon D40, not to mention it's not available until later this month. I'm looking to purchase before the 19th of the month.

Does Canon have a good bellows? Surely they do.

What setup did you use on that pic?
Thanks.

Ash

IrishMike

I am going to wait till next spring to see where prices are on the Nikon D300.

ashmore

I was just sending mail to Mark telling him I was seriously considering the D300. I have been looking at PB-4 bellows and my father must have 10-15 really nice Nikon lenses. He was all for the Nikon, but my budget is more like Canon. But, it's only money...

mrearlygold

Great shot Mark

mgoodm3

While a D300 body would be nice, most any SLR body will work fine. Image quality is mostly in the lens you use.

planetsteve

<< <i>
Does Canon have a good bellows? Surely they do.


Ash >>



Actually, they don't. The MP-E is their solution replacing the bellows for EOS cameras. (The manual focus FD mount was a different story, but the EOS mount superceded it 20 years ago, and there is no practical compatibility between the two.)

You might be able to find a Novoflex bellows that has the capacity to work with the Canon EOS, but I recall that it is about as expensive as the MP-E itself. Since the EOS has always used electronic signals for aperture control, using indirect methods of lens mounting like bellows or reversing rings is going to be a technical challenge.

BXBOY143

can someone tell me what a canon d40 is?

ashmore

It is a typographical error. I meant 40D. I work with Nikon and Canon and half the time I get the numbers flopped

ash

Coxe

Ash -- I considered shooting with microscope objectives right on the SLR. Edmund Optics (Edmind Scientific) sells most of the necessay parts: extension tubes, focus tube, adapters and objectives. ThorLabs has useful parts too. I am going this route for my own book(s). -- JC

messydesk

I've used the PB-4 bellows on my Nikon D80 with the short-mount 105/4 Micro-Nikkor. Great pictures (memo to mgoodm3 - do you have all the proof nickel photo contest pictures yet?), but the setup is hardly what I'd call "nimble." I prefer a manual focus 105/4 Micro-Nikkor, which is ridiculously sharp, and a bargain at $150-180 used. Paying for auto-focus and vibration reduction on a lens which will be used primarily on a copy stand is silly, especially considering the number of moving (i.e., potentially breaking) and electronic (i.e., potentially malfunctioning) parts in those lenses. Moreover, some VR lenses don't work well on tripods or copy stands.

As for a microscope substitute, this picture is pixel-for-pixel what came out of the camera at the corner of the frame (did I say how sharp the lens is?), without post-processing, shot from over 1 foot away. I'm not sure why I don't have a more interesting picture, but here it is:



If I needed to get closer, I could with a cheap extension tube and still not be very inconvenienced in the lighting department. If you're using a short lens reversed, you have a fixed focus lens, since all the focusing ring will do is give you a lens shade. You'll need a bellows. You'll also be very close to the coin in question (note the long shadows in Mark's picture), making lighting tricky. One way to light a coin like this is to lay a fluoroescent tube ringlight down around the coin, which should give you nicely lit edges, but dark surfaces. Since this is the opposite of what you typically want to show someone, invert the image for presentation. The pitted reverse varieties photograph especially well this way (see 1897 VAM 6A picture in the Top 100 Attribution Wizard -- I'll post the picture later).

messydesk

As promised, here's the 1897 VAM 6A shot as described above:

ashmore

ashmore

I was able to get a Bellows for the EOS camera, along with an adjustment rail for $48 on eBay.. I'm thinking that was either a steal or I got a serious piece of junk... anyway, we'lll see......