E-520 and 70-300 Macro

[cshanaberger]

John, the macro term has become loosely used to describe a wide range of "close-up photography", to suit product advertising, & also well regarded pro photographers using the term out of context. You are right, common present usage of the word macro covers a wide range of magnifications, I was just saying the classic definition was "life size".

http://photography.about.com/od/gloss3/g/Macro.htm


Charles

[jelow1966]

Originally Posted by cshanaberger

John, the macro term has become loosely used to describe a wide range of "close-up photography", to suit product advertising, & also well regarded pro photographers using the term out of context. You are right, common present usage of the word macro covers a wide range of magnifications, I was just saying the classic definition was "life size".

http://photography.about.com/od/gloss3/g/Macro.htm


Charles

Interesting link. I have never seen macro described in such a narrow way. Even the books I have from the 70's describe it as 1:1 to 10:1 (or 20:1) so obviously it's technical definition didn't really stick. You're right about how loosely macro is used- I have 3 (soon to be 4) 'macro' zooms and not one of them does life size. Most don't do better than 1:3 or 4 though the tamron 60-300 comes closest at 1:1.5. Close focus would be the proper term but i guess that wouldn't be quite the selling point calling it a macro is.

John

[FredS]

A Sparrow about 8 m Away. Croped 50 %
The Sparrow is much sharper on my home computer screen ???
A Fly about 1 m away Croped 100 %