Indoor lenses and kit
Price: £569 swains.co.uk
Canon TS-E 90mm f/2.8L Macro Price: £2199 If you’re a Canon user and fancy a macro lens with a difference, then look no further than the Canon TS-E 90mm f/2.8L Macro, which combines a 1:2 macro performance with tilt-shift functions. This makes it ideal for product photography, or shooting any small items, where the tilt function allows you to extend canon.co.uk depth-of-field, and the shift gives you lots of options to control perspective and composition. The lens focuses as close at 39cm, meaning you can shoot objects at just 27.5cm from the front of the lens, but naturally you can experiment with it for portraits and regular still lifes, too. Of course, as an L series lens, you can also expect excellent durability and first-class optical quality.
Irix 150mm f/2.8 Macro 1:1 Dragonfly
Price: £150
intro2020.co.uk
Price: from£21
srb-photographic.co.uk
Some macro subjects, such as small animals, need you to shoot from a bit further off. This can be because they’re easily startled, or even dangerous. And a bit of distance from your subject also helps you position lights between it and the camera. A mid-telephoto lens like Irix’s 150mm f/2.8 Macro 1:1, is great in these situations. The 150mm f/2.8 is a full- frame prime lens in Canon EF and Nikon F mounts, and has a wide f/2.8 aperture if you’re looking for subject isolation. It’s manual focus, but that’s fine for macro, and there’s a neat focus lock feature, so your focus point won’t accidentally shift between frames. There’s also internal focusing, a weather- resistant build, a hardy metal construction and a 77mm filter thread.
With an extension tube fitted, a regular lens will focus closer than normal. Unlike a teleconverter, there’s no loss of optical quality The longer the tube, and therefore the greater the distance that the lens is pushed away Kenko Teleplus DGAF Extension Tube Set
SRB Close Up Lens Set
from the camera, the closer you’ll be able to focus. The only catch is that extension means light loss, and therefore reduces the effective aperture of your lens. Kenko’s DG AF Extension Tube Set maintains TTL exposure and AF, depending on the lens and whether there’s enough light in the scene, so it’s a great pick. The set contains 36mm, 20mm and 12mm tubes and comes in Canon EF and Nikon F fits; 10mm and 16mm tubes are available for Canon RF and Nikon Z at £220 for the pair, and Micro Four Thirds and Sony E at £137.
Even if you don’t have a dedicated macro lens, there are accessories than can give you a macro effect. One type are close-up lenses, like this set from SRB. These accessories screw to the thread on the end of your lens and reduce its minimum focusing distance, therefore offering greater magnification than you’d normally get. And you can use them on macro lenses for even larger reproduction. Available in sizes of 52mm, 62mm, 72mm and 77mm, and with four filters in the set you can choose from 1+, 2+, 4+ and 10+ effects, or stack them for even greater magnification. Prices start at £19.95 for a set of 52mm filters, rising to £25.95, and each set comes with a protective case.
Just Ltd reversing rings Price: from£9
cameraclean.co.uk
Reversing rings turn regular lenses into macro lenses simply by turning them around. With the ring attached to the lens’s filter thread and mimicking the regular mount, it will sit back to front on your DSLR or CSC. This reduces the minimum focusing distance for a macro or near-macro effect. You need to pick the ring based on the filter size of the lens, and these Just Ltd versions come in 58-77mm
fits for Canon, 52-77mm for Nikon, and 52mm and 58mm fits for Micro Four Thirds mounts. At around £10 for a ring, it’s a very affordable and effective way of achieving macro images, but unlike extension tubes, you don’t get any control between camera and lens, so it works best with older, manual lenses that have a manual aperture ring, even those that don’t fit your camera’s mount.
Issue 76 | Photography News 23
photographynews.co.uk
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