If you haven't invested in specific macro lighting or practiced your focus stacking its kind of difficult to assess the utility of increasing the magnification of your shots. Yes, its a pain how thin the focal plane becomes when you start increasing the magnification, but with a steady hand (or even easier with a tri-pod) one can rack through the needed focal range to precisely acquire all the needed in-focus information to be reassembled later in post into a final image where the desired subject matter is entirely in focus. Check out this guys stuff to get an idea of what you can do with this method:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drlazer/sets/72157627224049688/ Craig Taylor

He also includes very detailed information on how he took the shot, what equipment he used and how he processed it. Worth checking out.

Much thanks for asking the question, doing the testing and posting the results. I won't go down those other paths and just crop when I want greater than 1:1. You have saved me a lot of effort and a lot of wondering it some other method would yield better results.

Hi!

Here are the results of a quick test.
I took photos of a 1 Euro cent coin. Here the photo taken with the 105mm micro:

A crop of that:

The same area cropped out but taken from a photo wtih 105mm plus 2x Teleconverter:

The same taken with 105mm and a bellow with max extension:

Same as above, smaller aperture:

Same crop area taken with a 28mm MF Nikkor mouted with reversal ring:

And finally with 28mm reverse on the bellow:

Admittedly the test was very quick and dirty. I did not take too much care to adjust the exposure similarily on each shot. But it gives a rough overview. The result for me:
The easiest way to take macro shots is still just using the 105mm, the get the desired magnification by cropping. The other methods provide more magnification, but they are not as sharp, or get easily blurred by the slightest camera shake.

Al shots were taken on a tripod and with 3s exposure delay. The bellow or teleconverter increase the sensitivity of camer shake enormously. Probably a better tripod and using live view would help. But still my feeling is just using the 105mm and the high resolution of the D800 is the easiest way to get crisp macro shots. The teleconverter can help when you cannot get very close to the object. The bellow has advantages since it offers T&S options.

Best regards

Thomas

Hi!

I got the bellow and played around with it a little:

I made some tests which method gives the best macro shots, will post the results later

Thomas

Hi!

Thanks for the hints, I already have an extension ring. I got the bellow for it's wider range and continuous adjustability. And mainly for the tilt & shift functionality it has in addition.

I will also give reversing lenses a try.

But first I will experiemtn with the bellow as is.

I'm aware that DOF will become very shallow. Thanks for the idea with focus stacking. I was not aware of that.

Best regards

Thomas

With bigger magnifications you will, as someone pointed out, very very very shallow DOF. One way to get around that is to use focus stacking and combine several images into one.

Photoshop can do stacking but not as good as special stacking programs as Zerene Stacker or Helicon Focus. Zerene you can try for free for 30-days.

From my experience extender rings works better with shorter lenses and bellows are basically an adjustable extender ring.

For use with bellows you could probarbly grab an old Nikkor-EL from Ebay rather cheap and use it reversed for some decent magnification.

An affordable way to get more magnification is to use a close up lenses that you attatch to your existing lens. From what I have gathered most of these arent very good but macro enthusiast I have spoken with speak highly of Raynox's line on macro close up lenses.

Hi!

I ordered the bellow from Novoflex. I got the one with tilt and shift. Very nicely made!
Unfortuntaley I only ordered the adapter ring for the Nikon lenses with it and forgot the adapter piece for the camera. That is on order now and should arrive soon. I will report how it works out. I guess a lot new stuff to learn with this.

Best regards

Thomas

warprints said:
Back in the film era, I did a fair bit of micro work with a bellows - sometimes with the lense reversed (using a reversing ring). Been thinking about getting a bellows again (all my film gear was Minolta), but may give the teleconverter a try (won't be nearly as micro as a bellows, though).

I was going to suggest just that.

But I've never understood the reason for reversing the lens.

Back in the film era, I did a fair bit of micro work with a bellows - sometimes with the lense reversed (using a reversing ring). Been thinking about getting a bellows again (all my film gear was Minolta), but may give the teleconverter a try (won't be nearly as micro as a bellows, though).

Hi!

I run a blog about audio amplifiers using vacuum tubes:

http://vinylsavor.blogspot.de/

So mainly photos of amplifiers.

Occasionally I make detail photos of vacuum tubes. Sometimes I dissect them and take shots of the tiny details. For example in this post:

http://vinylsavor.blogspot.de/2012/05/tube-of-month-ec8020-revisited.html

If you scroll down to the last photos, there I took pictures of the tiny wires inside compared to the human hair. These wires are invisible to the human eye. These shots are still taken with my D7000. I did not have the D800 yet when I wrote that post.

I plan to do more such photos in the future. I think that can be considered photomicroscopy.

I just browsed the Novoflex site. I ordered the T+S bellow with Nikon adapters. I think that is exactly what I need!

I've enjoyed NR blog and it's forum a lot in the past months. Lot's of useful information. Thanks to all who participate to the site and forum!
This site made me buy the D800 and I love it!

Best regards

Thomas

Thomas can you tell what you are photographing

Reproduction ratios much greater than 1:1 are somtimes considered to be photomicroscopy,

You might look for a old Nikon Bellows system as well. There are many variations and a couple that offer the tilt/shift movements. You would need an older AFD or MF lens if you go this route.

I have used my tc 1.7 but not for much macro other than to try it. As Pierre said, you will get razor thin DOF and you do loose some sharpness, and the bokeh is a bit odd for my taste. If you do image/focus stacking it would be good for that.

Hi!

Thanks for the hints and link to Novoflex. I was already contemplating about tilt and shift lenses. A bellow might be the ticket to allow T+S and macro photography. I will check their offering

Best regards

Thomas

I have used a few time the TC-20E III + 105 macro + kenko extension tubes on a D700. You can get very close to your subject but loose lots of sharpness and end-up with paper-thin DOF. Extra light required for best result. Don't forget to make best usage of your cropping space.

And in English http://www.novoflex.com/en/products/macro-accessories/bellows-systems/

However, Vivitar makes a nice set of extension rings as well, 12, 20, 36mm for less than $100 USD from B & H. and these have worked for me in the few shots I have taken.

The TC-20e III w/ the 105 VR results in a magnification of rawly 2:1 if I'am not mistaken, additionally you get twice of the working distance. With bellows you could get far beyond this magnification. Novoflex (a German company ;) ) offers various bellows for macro: http://www.novoflex.com/de/produkte/makrofotografie--blitztechnik/balgengeraete/

Hi!

I got the TC-20EIII. It works nicely with the 105mm. Exactly what I wanted. Thanks for the tip

Thomas

Hi Gareth,

thanks for the tip. I was not aware that the close distance range stays the same with a teleconverter. I will give this a try.

Best regards

Thomas

use a teleconverter. the tc-20eiii is great on the 105.

Hi Tao,

Thanks for the reply. I'm aware of the Nikkor 200mm. But due to the larger close distance focus range the magnification is the same as with the 105mm (1:1). My question is how to get a larger magnification say 1:2 or larger with high image quality.

Best regards

Thomas

Well, Sigma and Tamron both have macros in the 150mm to 180mm range. Both are suppose to be very good. Sigma and Tamron have always done macro primes much better than the rest of their line-ups. Nikon has a 200mm and a 70-180mm macro - older but very, very good.

Those are the only one's I know of.

Hi!

I've been lurking this forum and the NR blog since about half a year. I eagerly read all the reports and posts about the D800 and that made me want one.
I just upgraded from the D7000 to a D800 last weekend. A local shop here in Germany had a few in stock.

Great camera, I love it!

Now to my question. I mainly do macro work. I have the Nikkor 105mm / 2.8 for macro shots. Occasionaly I could use even greater magnification. The D800 helps here since I can crop more than with teh D700. Is there a possibility to get bigger magnification optically? I already tried extender rings, but didn't like the results that much. Are there special lenses for that?

Thanks for any hints

Thomas