El-Cheapo Lenses

Cheap lens, scary results:



35mm Spiratone Macrotar. I just cranked up the magnification and let it fly. No technique refinements whatsoever, the very first time I've used the lens. That's the whole image, not a crop and forced to 1000px in width.

Heh. That's the wreath of the 1921 Morgan being discussed here:

http://www.coincommunity.com/forum/...IC_ID=105744

Magnification is approximately 4.5x, and the working distance was right about 1". I'm going to need a ring light to use that much mag with this lens. I set the aperture to f/8 at the lens, and still didn't have enough depth of field to do this shot correctly without a stack; that's why the relief is out of focus - I was concentrating on the polishing lines.

We had some discussion here regarding the Tominon lenses, which are not really El-Cheapos unless you can get a really good deal on one. Well, I got lucky with a purchase of a 35mm f4.5 Tominon for the Polaroid MP4 system, and threw it on the bellows. Here is the first image from that lens. Simple 2-image stack, reduced to 800px for display. this is about the max magnification I can get from this lens on the bellows without adding more extension on camera side. It's approx 4:1 magnification, which would make the effective aperture around f22 (infinity aperture * (M+1)). This was small enough that I only needed 2 images to get a reasonable DOF. I'd prefer if it was a bit bigger aperture so I could get better sharpness as f22 is fairly diffraction-limited, and with the lens wide open it suffers from some aberrations. But the result is not too bad.

Because I am shooting Nikon, I had to play games to avoid the shutter vibration problem I've seen so often at these magnifications. What I did for this shot is reduce the lighting and lower the ISO, so the shutter speed is like 1.3sec. I compared with shorter speeds and this gives me better vibration reduction. Let me know what you all think...Ray

PS the image is a 1949-D Lincoln Cent RPM #5. I took a pic of it since I am trading it to an LCR forum member for some other RPMs I need.

SuperDave...I noticed in your pictures of Santoku that the lens standard is just "hanging" there, supported only by the bellows posts. If you wedge something like a chunk of wood or rubber between the lens standard and the mount, it will reduce the tendency to vibrate...Ray

Here is an excellent deal on a Tominon 75mm Macro Lens ($40):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/19061943510....m1438.l2649

And from the same seller (can you say combined shipping?) an even better deal for the matching Tominon 105mm Macro Lens (also $40, a total steal)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/20069262557....m1438.l2649

Can someone point me to how I would go about setting up one of these enlarger lenses to work on my Canon 50D? I have been looking at the $600 Canon 2.8 100mm Macro lenses, and I don't want to drop that kind of money if I don't have to. I'm confused by what adapters are needed to get the various lenses to work with the Canon 50D. If possible, the complete gory details about what I need. I already have lights (Jansjos and Otts), a copy stand, remote release cable, and the Canon 50D body.

Do I need bellows to use these lenses?

What do the different M42, MS39, etc mean?

I'm looking at a "Spiratone 75mm 3 1/2" ENLARGING LENS", is this usable with my setup?

THANKS so much in advance,
-Brandon

Hi SuperDave, thanks for the note. I purchased this lens: http://www.ebay.com/itm/26032925838....m1439.l2649

Where do I find what kind of adaptors I need to get this connected to my setup? I have some extension tubes already (3 different lengths) that I may play with before investing in a bellows. I am at a loss to be able to tell once I get the lense what gadgetry I need to connect it all together.

Thanks!