MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY

During the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, I was tempted to experiment with some of my old Nikon equipment that I have had from my early days. When I first started assisting the local professional photographers in Cornwall, I upgraded to a (second hand) Nikon Photomic FTN with a 50mm f1:1.4 lens. Over the years I have acquired more lenses, notably a 43-86mm f1:3.5 and a 35mm f1:2.8 PCE lens, all of which have 52mm lens filter fittings, and an E2 extension ring. A cheap 'macro' accessory is a 52-52 m-m filter convertor, which allows two lenses to be joined 'front to front', the outermost lens acting like a 'close-up' lens, so I ordered one on the internet to try. See notes at end for converting from focal length to Dioptre to magnification.

I am not by any means an expert in macro-photography, but here are a few of my observations from my own experience at trying to get 'close-ups' of various subjects. Please be aware that these are my own personal experiences, and no guarantee, implied or otherwise, is given that any of the suggestions below will work for you. Also I do not admit any liability for any damage to equipment caused by following the suggestions below. I have had my camera freeze on me a couple of times, while trying various configurations of older lenses and filters, so I would urge you to proceed with caution when attempting to use old lenses on new digital equipment that may not be completely backward compatible.

In order to try and give some indication of the relative magnification and quality of image produced by the equipment used, I chose as a subject the electronic contacts of an old bank card. The images were all taken with the same camera, processed and cropped in Adobe Bridge, then placed on a grey background pf 1500 x 1500 pixels, or cropped to that size. This will give an indication of the relative size of each image.

There are several methods of doing macro photography, and you should choose the one most suited to your existing photographic equipment.
Long exposures are common with macro photography, so having some means of supporting the camera is an advantage. If this is easily adjustable, so that changing the position of the camera can be achieved reasonably easily, then this is a bonus. The position may need to be changed several times to get into the range over which the camera will focus.
You could also do with a remote cable release, or alternatively a 'self timer' on the camera to allow the shutter to be triggered without shaking the camera. Like telephoto photography, small movements in the camera can blur the subject and give disappointing results.

The most basic is the 'close-up' lens filter. These just screw onto your lens filter thread and allow you to get much closer to the subject and still focus. Getting closer makes the subject bigger in the frame, but does have the disadvantage of a smaller depth of field, and your camera blocking the light falling on the subject. Close-up filters are relatively inexpensive, and can be stacked on top of one another to increase the magnification, but the optical quality will probably not be as good as your camera lens.
These may not be available for owners of 'compact cameras', where there is no filter thread on the front lens mount. Push on filters may be available, but as the lenses usually 'pop out' from behind a protective cover, great care must be taken to avoid damaging the focusing mechanism. Instead, try experimenting with a large reading magnifier over your chosen target, and getting the camera to focus on the magnified image. If the magnifier has its own built-in illumination, so much the better.

The strength of close-up lenses is measured in diopters, with a higher diopter rating meaning higher power/more magnification. Close-up filter sets typically come with four filters, rated +1, +2, +4 and +10 diopters. These can be obtained from e-bay, for £7-14 for a set, or individually.


12x Close Up Lens		Wide Angle CU Lens

Another add-on is the 'wide angle' adaptor. Many of these come as a pair of lenses which can be separated, and the back half used as a close up lens of approximately 10-12 diopter strength. These are also available from e-bay for around £10.

For those with interchangeable lens cameras, the choice is much wider.

As well as close up filters, there are special 'macro' lenses. These allow you to focus much closer than the normal lenses, and therefore get a larger image. These are usually more expensive than the 'standard' lenses, and can come in both 'prime' and 'zoom' formats, some with image stabilisation. These lenses will usually perform better than the 'add on' closeup lenses. but are considerably more expensive.
Most popular among these are the 105mm (35mm equivalent), which offer the benefit of being a good portrait lens, as well as being good for macro because they allow you to be further from the subject (for the same magnification) and have a larger depth of field. They also work automatically, retaining all the camera autofocus and metering functions.

35 - 105 mm f1:3.5 Soligor

On the same theme are some older zoom lenses that have a 'macro' function. Some of these can be purchased cheaply because they do not have the ability to focus automatically, and will not provide any aperture or focal length information to the camera.

They will usually have the correct camera mount, and can be used in manual mode without causing damage to the camera.


Target		Soligor 35-105@85mm in Macro

Please check compatibility first, and make sure that there are no protruding parts that could short electrical contacts, or foul other parts of the camera body.
An interesting variation on this is the Vivitar 2x macro focusing tele-convertor. Available in Nikon F mount, and I suspect other brands as well, for around £15.00 from e-bay. Although manual only, this would appear to give the best of both worlds for macro photography, converting a standard lens to short telephoto, and also functioning as a variable length extension tube.


Target	Viv2x 50f14	Vic2x 50f14Rev

A popular version, and not so expensive, are the extension tubes. These have no optical components to degrade the performance of your native lens, just relying on the optical properties of the lens to increase magnification when placed at a greater distance from the image sensor. However most will prevent the lens now focusing on distant objects, and therefore can't be used as cheap telephoto adaptors.


Nikon F E2 ring


Vivitar 2x + 50 f1.4	E2 + 50 f1.4	E2+Viv2x+50f1.4Rev.

Depending on the brand and price they may contain electrical contacts, allowing TTL metering, and autofocus with some lenses. Cheaper, non automatic versions can also act as adaptors, allowing the camera to use lenses from another manufacturer (although usually only in manual mode, and without the ability to focus on infinity).

Extension tubes are available in various sizes (lengths 10mm - 35mm, stackable), and can be used in combination to create even longer extensions. Look at the illustrations above for examples of how the magnification changes with variations in the makeup of the combination.

In the days before fully automatic focus and TTL cameras, you used to be able to get extension bellows, which were variable length extension tubes. Some of these are still available.


F bayonet 52mm male		50 f1.4 reversed		52-52 m-m reversing ring

Another gadget that allows close focus is the 'lens reversing adaptor'*. This gadget allows you to fit your lens to the camera back to front via the filter thread.
Why? Well the answer is, because the lens manufacturer spends a lot of time and effort to make sure that the lens brings all the light to focus on the 'film plane', which in modern cameras is the sensor, and is flat. If you reverse the lens it will allow you to focus on objects that are very close to the camera, typically less than the distance from the front of the camera lens to the back of the camera. Except in certain instances, the lens is now fully manual, requiring focusing and stopping down to the correct aperture manually. Also opening up the aperture to allow more easy focusing has to be done manually as well.

As can be seen above, this adaptor can be used with the reversing ring to allow you to 'piggy-back' your existing lenses onto the front of another lens with the right filter thread. This can be useful when you have a selection of lenses with varying sizes of filter threads. It can also shield the rear element of a reversed lens, by allowing you to attach a filter to protect it.

Lastly, a cheap little gadget that allows you to fit a 'e-bay/car-boot-sale/ bargain-bin special' lens* to your camera. This is a filter ring reversing adaptor. You get one to fit your camera lens, then, to add another lens 'back to front' all you need is an additional step-up or down filter ring adaptor to suit the second lens. The second lens is then attached to the camera lens by its filter ring, like a 'super-dooper' multi element close up filter. The lens can be any make, and does not need to be automatic, in fact a fast (f1:2.8 or better) manual lens is an advantage.

Lenses of this type can be picked up very cheaply on e-bay if you bide your time!
However beware of e-bay listings that say I'm selling this for my uncle/granny/ etc, I don't know how/if it works or I don't know how to/ haven't got the equipment to test it. etc.
Alternatively, if you are uncertain about what to look for to check the quality of a lens, look at 'second hand' dealers bargain stock. In this case, you would do better to stick to dealers specialising in photographic equipment, as you will have more of a 'come back' if the item does not match the description.

This can build a very powerful, almost microscope like, optical setup capable of some extreme magnification. Depending on the components used, this setup may allow some degree of automatic function of focusing and aperture via your camera's native lens, but only if that makes up the rear element that connects to the camera. Because of the reduction in light coming through a combined lens system, autofocus may not work unless a very fast prime lens is used as the 'add-on' lens, and is set to its widest aperture. All the functions of any of the additional lenses or adaptors will need setting manually at the time the picture is taken.

Where a variety of lenses and adaptors are available, one should give a little thought to the configuration of the combination. A longer focal length lens makes a good rear element, but is not so good as a 'close up' lense because of its lower Dioptre**value (or magnification). The aperture should be set on the rear element, and the rest set to their widest calue. Likewise the focus should be set to infinity for any 'add-on' lenses.

Focusing the combination is acheived by altering the relative position of the whole setup in relation to the subject, unless you have a 'macro focusing' element included. Altering the focusing control on any of the combined lenses has very little effect on the focus of the combination. Anyone with experience of microscopes will know the problems of focusing after changing the magnification of the objective lens.

Beware that the combination lens can be very heavy, and may damage your camera lens mount if not handled with care, and properly supported.

25mm f2.8 PC Nikkor (attached to camera) with 50mm f1.4 Nikkor
connected by a 52mm reversing ring, back to back.

Subject:
The Infamous Greenfly 'David' (on the right) and his associate 'Justin'

(Well, after all - everyone has heard of an 'AphiDavid'
and, due to depth of field limitations, Justin's 'just in' focus!!)

* These adapters will allow non-native lenses to be used, in manual mode only, on your camera. Try looking for lenses from Soligor, Vivitar, Tamron, Tokina or Sigma. Some of their older, non automatic or autofocus, lenses can be picked up very cheaply. Another choice is to pick up older, pre autofocus or automatic aperture lenses from your camera manufacturer. Many old lenses will use the same camera mounting, and will not interfere with modern camera electronics, but can be used in manual mode.
DO CHECK COMPATIBILITY with the manufacturers website. Some of Nikon and Canon's older pre automatic lenses are exceptional quality, and can be obtained for a fraction of their original cost.
Do beware, however, of any which have mould or fungus growing in the elements because of improper storage, as this will degrade the image. In most cases the lenses can be restored but it can be expensive.

* * Calculating magnification:
The Dioptre of a lens is found by dividing 1,000 by the focal length in millimeters. The magnification given by an 85mm lens used as a close-up lens is the Dioptre value divided bny 4, then add 1. Hence, an 85mm lens has a Dioptre of 12 (1000/85 = 11.76), and a magnification power of 4x. (12/4 = 3; 3 + 1 = 4 ). Also, a 35 mm lens - 28.5D = 8x.

Here are some examples of prices that I found mid 2020 on e-bay:
Soligor 35-105 f1:3.5 Macro zoom Nikon mount pre AI £25.00
Vivitar 2x teleconvertor with macro focusing, Nikon mount £15
Reverse Macro Adapter + 52mm Rear Lens Filter Ring £7 - £20
52mm reversing ring £4.50 (Kood brand)
Set of 18 step up(9) and down(9) adaptors £11 - £18