Macro

[Dal1970]

jachol wrote:

Well done Dal, those are excellent shots, pity there's no butterfly house near my location that I know of at least , else I'd be tempted to try my hand. I have a similar homebrew setup of my own, and I agree a ballhead makes things much more flexible. No doubt about it, off camera flash and macro go hand in hand. ... Roy has been advocating that for a long while. ... Jack.

It was Roy who really got me interested in macro, and I have been wanting to emulate his setup (and hopefully some of his pictures) for a couple of years now.

I could never justify the expense of the dedicated leads, so used manual flash and a sync cord, but the cheap one from Poland works a treat. I am going to cut it in half and put a couple of connectors on it so that I can extend it for studio style shots.

Once the flash is off camera, though, you wonder why the lead isn't in every camera box sold.





Dal

[jachol]

Dal1970 wrote:

I could never justify the expense of the dedicated leads, so used manual flash and a sync cord, but the cheap one from Poland works a treat. I am going to cut it in half and put a couple of connectors on it so that I can extend it for studio style shots.

Once the flash is off camera, though, you wonder why the lead isn't in every camera box sold.





Dal

I know what you mean re. the price of dedicated leads.I was fortunate on Ebay to win a mintPentax Af400FTZ + plus the lead and hotshoe adaptor. it doesn't workP-TTL of course, but it's great used manually.

Incidentally as in your initial setup with the Cosina 100mm/3.5 macro lens, I found I could use the onboard flash well diffused and reduced level and got excellent results with that.

I'm going to check out Blackpool zoo to see if they have a butterfly house or anything similar, I haven't been there for a long while, and it's a fairly short trip for me. ... Jack.

[Dal1970]

jachol wrote:

Dal1970 wrote:

I know what you mean re. the price of dedicated leads.I was fortunate on Ebay to win a mintPentax Af400FTZ + plus the lead and hotshoe adaptor. it doesn't workP-TTL of course, but it's great used manually.

Incidentally as in your initial setup with the Cosina 100mm/3.5 macro lens, I found I could use the onboard flash well diffused and reduced level and got excellent results with that.

I'm going to check out Blackpool zoo to see if they have a butterfly house or anything similar, I haven't been there for a long while, and it's a fairly short trip for me. ... Jack.

Yes, with the Vivitar 100mm/3.5 I could use the onboard flash, and the sigma on the hotshoe. However, I bought a 90mm/2.8 which goes 1:1 natively and even with the Sigma on the hotshoe, I got a shadow. Hence the need for leads.

I got lazy calculating the manual exposure with this lens as it is a k-mount, and prefer P-TTL flash as sometimes you only get one shot.



If you Google "butterfly house in blackpool" there seems to be a couple in that area.



Dal

[jachol]

If you Google "butterfly house in blackpool" there seems to be a couple in that area.



Dal

OK Dal, thanks for that, I did find one in Lancaster also, which is less than an hours drive up the M6, just need to find some time tha fits in with the family, and to clear a few other commitments first. ... Jack