I have a Canon G5 and I want to get into extreme closeup photography of bugs. After some online research I've made some decisions, and I thought I'd run them by the experts here before I buy anything.

Instead of getting the Canon 250D close up lens (only has a diopter rating of 4?) I think I'll go with a full set of filters (eg. Hoya 4, 2 and 1, totalling 7) which I believe is cheaper and will give more flexibility and magnification. Then if I decide I want even more, I might look into a 10 diopter filter sometime in the future.

Hopefully with a 52mm adapter (instead of 58) then it will interfere less with the internal flash.

I'm also assuming that in extremely close macro photography, there is no need for a flash whatsoever if in bright daylight, so I can have fun in the mean time during the day, until I buy an external flash in the future to use at night time as well.


Does all that sound like a good idea, and are all my assumptions correct?

Have you read Mark Plonky's tutorial yet?

http://www.mplonsky.com/photo/article.htm

I have a G2 with 49mm Lensmate adapter and went with the Hoya filter set also. If you decide to get the close-up filter set, you can find it for a lot cheaper on eBay. I got mine for $6 + $5 shipping and it was brand new ($36 on lensmate.com).

The adapter blocks some of the flash at wide angle but none at full zoom. With all 3 filters stacked, the problem gets a little bit worse at wide angle but youre suppose to zoom all the way out anyway for greater magnification. This is for the 49mm adapter so YMMV.

You may still want to get an external flash to use with filling.

I've decided to go with the 58mm adapter, because I found the Canon 250D close up lens on sale for AUD$75 instead of it's usual price range of AUD$150-200, and I'm getting a set of Marumi lenses which I think are the same as the Hoya ones on Mark Plonky's tutorial.

As far as the flash goes, I'll have a play around with my lenses for a while to see how they go, then decide whether or not to invest in a nice Canon flash.

Try reversing a lens. I bought a Olympus Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 and held it in reverse in front of my Powershot A40. But I want to use the lens with the Powershot G3 I'm going to buy. You also need a lensadapter and 2 filteradapters (right size) glued together.

I already experimented with the lens to see the amount of magnification.

To avoid vignetting and increase magnification you need to zoom in (need at least 3x zoom). The photo's are only resized from 1600x1200 to 800x600. This is the magnification you get.




This site has tips and great photo's of bugs taken with a Powershot G3 and a Pentax 50mm f/1.4 lens. The magnification is insane.
http://www.mplonsky.com/photo/article.htm

Here is another thread
http://www.stevesforums.com/phpBB2/v...ic.php?t=21723