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In view of the fact that my usual subject (music) isn't available and I'd joined a 'photo a day for a month' challenge on Flickr, I've been busy either shooting the cats or anything that's come into flower in the garden. However, I really missed my old Sigma 105 macro lens. I'd used it very rarely (no use at all for music) so it hadn't been out of the cabinet for quite some time when I tried it last year and found that the ribbon had broken, and my trusty local repair shop said that my version was so old that parts were no longer available. I don't use one enough to warrant buying another, so what were the alternatives?
So on Wednesday I had a look on Amazon, as you do, and thought I'd investigate extension tubes. A lot of good comments, but the 1* also seemed fairly high so I read those as well - and ran away from the monitor as I saw tales of fried electronics, not being able to take the weight of a prime telephoto and lens falling off etc.
Ok, not extension tubes then - what about close-up rings? Once again, mixed reviews (but no fried electronics) and then I found a set of 12 Neewer filters. Various macro/close up filters, polarising filter and circular polariser, fld (never heard of that one!), plus the usual uv/sky/etc. Placed my order and noticed that free delivery would be around the 1st May - fair enough, I thought, we'll be locked down for a while yet and essential supplies are more important. Obviously not - order delivered just before I finished work on Thursday so this is the result of the first two days tests.
So far, I've jumped in at the deep end and only used the +10 macro and have noticed that even at f11 the depth of field is still extremly small. Obviously the speedlite's had a good workout as well.
Dicentra/bleeding heart
Last year's buddleia flowers. Both of these images were taken with the 24-105 f4.
I'd chosen a filter size of 77mm as that would fit my three main lenses - 24-105 f4 walk around, 24-70 f2.8 and 70-200 f2.8. The 70-200 was rather a failure as expected, but I can see me using the 24-105 a lot more because it weighs a lot less than the 24-70.
In the final image I was focussing on the spider, so the centre is out but I still liked it.
So on Wednesday I had a look on Amazon, as you do, and thought I'd investigate extension tubes. A lot of good comments, but the 1* also seemed fairly high so I read those as well - and ran away from the monitor as I saw tales of fried electronics, not being able to take the weight of a prime telephoto and lens falling off etc.
Ok, not extension tubes then - what about close-up rings? Once again, mixed reviews (but no fried electronics) and then I found a set of 12 Neewer filters. Various macro/close up filters, polarising filter and circular polariser, fld (never heard of that one!), plus the usual uv/sky/etc. Placed my order and noticed that free delivery would be around the 1st May - fair enough, I thought, we'll be locked down for a while yet and essential supplies are more important. Obviously not - order delivered just before I finished work on Thursday so this is the result of the first two days tests.
So far, I've jumped in at the deep end and only used the +10 macro and have noticed that even at f11 the depth of field is still extremly small. Obviously the speedlite's had a good workout as well.
Dicentra/bleeding heart
Last year's buddleia flowers. Both of these images were taken with the 24-105 f4.
I'd chosen a filter size of 77mm as that would fit my three main lenses - 24-105 f4 walk around, 24-70 f2.8 and 70-200 f2.8. The 70-200 was rather a failure as expected, but I can see me using the 24-105 a lot more because it weighs a lot less than the 24-70.
In the final image I was focussing on the spider, so the centre is out but I still liked it.
Particularly when I use tubes and X1.4 converter.
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