Vantage Point

Karen tagged me but I won’t be answering the question on this post, some other time, promise, cross my heart. :p

Medyo overwhelmed lang ako sa bago kong discovery, macro has been my frustration for so long, well not anymore.

Hmm… So what the heck is macro photography? Maybe some of you are wondering, let me just explain this in a non technical manner as a could. Macro photography is achieving the 1:1 magnification ratio, may mga special lens for macro & it costs so much! Let me give you an example, a Nikkor 105mm micro lens costs around 36,000 Pesos sa grey market¹ & all it does is to shoot close up & no zoom at all. Well not really limited to macro shots, these lens works good portraits.

Unfortunately, I can’t afford a macro/micro² lens, I’m left with 4 options, 1. a set of extension tubes, 2. a bellow, 3. reverse lens technique & 4. close-up lens a.k.a close-up filters. I picked the latter, the first costs more, the second is quite jurassic, costly & hard to find & the third might damage either my lens or my camera. I bought 2 Cokin screw-in close-up filter +2D for 67mm lens.

To dramatize my claim, I have sample photos taken with the close-up filter & without it. The first one was taken without the filter & the second with the filter attached.

According to specs, my Nikkor 18-135mm lens can focus as close as 18 inches, that’s quite far, even if I zoom at 135mm focal lenght I can’t capture the detail. With a maximum magnification ratio of 1:3.5, mahirap talagang makuha ang detail.

The best thing I can do is to make the lens focus as close as it can. This pen was taken without the filter.

And this one with the filter.

Like what I said, I am overwhelmed with the result, shooting as close as this had opened another avenue for me.

I can’t wait to shoot some insects soon!

Popularity: 14% [?]

1. no warranty [↩]
2. Nikon likes to call it as micro rather than macro [↩]