Category Archives: Canon 65 mm f/2.8 1-5x
Spider nets and water drops = amazing combination
Colorful spider nets
With Canon 65mm f/2.8 1-5x macro lens you can get pretty cool images. The pictures above is taken of spider nets after it has been raining. The patterns you can get is amazing. I used a magnification of 2-3x. With this lens i can get very close and get pictures of things you cant really see with your own eyes. You need to have a macro lens to capture these moments.
2014©Expressive Photos
Extension tubes, close-up filter or macro lenses – What to choose for macro photography?
What is the best way to get closer to the object?
You can choose for example macro rings, extenders, close-up filters or you can go for the real deal and buy a macro lens.
The good thing with extension tubes is that you do not need to have a macro lens to use them on. Any lens can become a macro lens with a little help of macro equipment’s. Although the real deal, a macro lens, always gives the best result. Since a macro lens is intended for macro photography it is easy to get good result without any fuss. If you use close-up filters it might take longer time to get ready when you change between the different strengths. There are usually 4 options to choose from. They are for example +1, +2, +4 and +10. It also depends on what brand you buy. Some brands are cheap and might not be as good in clarity like the more expensive and well known brands. It all depends on how much time and money you want to spend on macro photography. If you only want to try something out then it is fine with the cheaper versions but if you want a good result you need to go for the more expensive versions.
On the picture above I am displaying one extender with 2x magnification and one with 1.4x from Canon. There is also a Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro lens. Close-up filters from Hoya and extension tubes and another extender with 2x magnification from unknown brands.
If you are not happy with the magnification you can always combine 2 equipments. For example I have combined a Canon Extender 1.4 with a 65mm macro lens 1-5x. This combination gives me a chance to come really close to any object. For example if you would take a picture of salt you would be able to see the crystals on the grain of salt. With the combination seen on the picture above I get this close to the grain of salt:
Try your own combination. Let me know which one is your favorite macro equipment?
2014©Expressive Photos
Testing Canon 65mm f2.8 1-5x macro lens
Come closer to your object
Elasmucha grisea
I recently wrote about the Canon 65mm macro lens, but I had not yet taken any pics at that time. Now I have tried it out and I will show you a picture of a bug called Elasmucha grisea. The bug is barely 1 centimeter. When I took this picture I was using 3-4 times magnification. The shot was taken outdoor on a windy day. The picture was also taken handheld. The odds were against me but I managed to capture this bug in the right moment when the wind was not blowing to much.
If I would have used the 5 times magnification on this lens, think about how close I could have got but that is almost impossible to do since it was handheld. It needs to be on a tripod to take a picture with 5 times magnification.
2014©Expressive Photos
My new lens – Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x macro
Taking macro photography to the next level
I got a recommendation about a lens for macro photography. So of course I had to have it and here it is! It is the Canon 65mm f/2.8 1-5x macro lens. Forget about extension tubes or close-up filters, because you only need this lens to take great macro pictures. This lens is not for amateurs, then I would suggest you first start with Tamron 90mm f/2.8 or Canon 100mm f/2.8. The Canon MP-E 65mm do not have image stabilizer and no auto focus. So what is the advantage with this lens then? Answer is 5:1 macro, it is hard to beat that with any other lens. The Tamron 90mm and Canon 100mm only have 1:1 macro.
In the box there is only the lens and a CD and warranty papers. It did not come with a bag or a lens hood, that you have to buy seperatly.
I haven’t been able to try it out yet. Pictures of what this little lens can do will come soon. For now I will just show you some picture of the lens itself.
The lens comes with the front- and back lid and a removable tripod collar. It is a pricey lens for about 1049 US dollar.
This lens needs a flash of some kind, for example a ring flash is good when you take on insects and flowers. This is because when you zoom in it will get darker then you need light to brighten the picture up. The aperture range is from f2.8 to f16. It is also possible to use Canon extender 2x to get a even larger magnification. Stacking is a good way to get sharp images from this kind of lens. It is almost necessary in order to get a whole insects face sharp using stacking. I will try stacking and then post some pictures to show the results in another article here on Expressive Photos website.
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