Poor mans macro photography

[martini161]

I discovered something pretty cool when taking pictures of a board today, using my regular non macro lenes combined with a magnifier i have produces pretty decent macro photo's! (nothing like a real macro lens, but still pretty good!)
I whipped out my old P&S to take a picture of how i set it up, then tested my two lenes with and without using the magnifier

The setup

there's the board, the area I'm taking macro pics of is outlined in red

that's the best my 18-55 can do by itself (in this one i accidentally took a pick of the wrong one, but there the same size)

that's with the magnifier

that's the sad best my 75-300mm can do by itself

that's the best the 75-300 can do with the magnifier. i could have zoomed in more, but beyond that it was darn near impossible to focus, as it depends more on the positioning of the magnifier than anything else. it would of been easier with a better magnifier, as that one i got for free from work because of the fact that it was so hard to get to stay in the place you put it and nearly ruined a couple of one of a kind boards the blur on the 75-300 is not due to the magnifier or bad focusing, but the fact that i need to get a real tripod as the camera and that lens are too much for it and it moves

[DMB2000uk]

Well the light idea works, and works well, but I'm not convinced on the quality of the magnifying glass in the middle of it (does it come out at all?).

With a bit of tweaking, the pictures can be made to look alright again though
(added a load of contrast, added a (small) amount of black offset, and put on a magenta photo-filter to get rid of the green cast)



Dan

[martini161]

no, the glass in the middle doesnt come out. and its some weird optics with the camera and the lens right on top of the magnifier. i found out after experimenting that the magnifier doesnt so much make the magnified area bigger in the picture, but what it does is reduce the minimum focusing distance.for example, for the 70-300 with out it i had to be back a good 5 feet from the board just to focus, but with the magnifier i could have it a foot or two away