Compared to Nikon’s only other Z series macro lens, the Nikkor Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S which I reviewed earlier this year, this 50mm Macro is a real bargain. But it’s also a compromise. Thus, we are left to ponder. To buy, or not to buy? That is the question.

Unlike Hamlet, I won’t soliloquize. Let’s get to the review.

Specification of the Nikon Nikkor Z MC 50mm F/2.8

• Mount : Nikon Z Mount

• Focal Length : 50mm

• Maximum Aperture : f/ 2.8

• Minimum Aperture : f/ 22

• Format : Full Frame (FX)

• Maximum Angle of View (DX crop-sensor cameras) : 31°30′

• Maximum Angle of View (FX full frame cameras) : 47°

• Maximum Reproduction Ratio : 1:1, Life Size

• Lens Formula : 10 Elements in 7 Groups; 1 ED Element, 1 Aspherical Element

• Diaphragm Blades : 9

• Fluorine Coat : Yes

• Focus Mode : Auto/Manual, user-selectable
  

• Minimum Focus Distance : 0.53ft (0.16m) from focal plane

• Filter Size : Screw-in 46mm

• Approx. Dimensions (Diameter x Length) : 3 in. (74.5 mm)  x  2.6 in. (66 mm)

• Approx. Weight : 9.2 oz. (260 g)

Build Quality, Ergonomics, Functions

Mounted to my Nikon Z5, the Nikon Nikkor Z MC 50mm F/2.8 feels balanced and easy to handle. There’s a super-sized focusing ring for manual focus, and two switches on the side of the barrel. The topmost switch toggles between Auto and Manual focus modes, and the bottom switch is a focus range limiter which allows the lens to focus either throughout its entire focus range or in close-focusing distances only (a useful mode when we’re shooting exclusively macro for any length of time).

The large focusing ring activates the focus-by-wire electronic manual focus when the focus switch is toggled to Manual mode. This is natural, but there’s also an additional bonus. When we have the lens set to Auto focus we can set the manual focus ring to control other camera parameters, such as exposure compensation or ISO, which is a nice touch.

The Z MC 50mm F/2.8 is not a part of Nikon’s high-end S series lens lineup for their Z series cameras. This means that it lacks some of the niceties which make the S series lenses so, well, nice. It’s made mostly out of plastic, not metal, and it doesn’t contain the special ARNEO and Nano coatings found on some of the lens elements of the S series lenses. Nor does it pack vibration reduction and internal focusing, nor such luxuries as OLED info displays and special function buttons.

But these omissions also bring benefit. A more restrained optical assembly, external focusing, and compromises in the areas of pure performance mean that the 50mm Nikkor is smaller and lighter than most of Nikon’s lens lineup. This lightness lends itself well to a lens which is supposed to fill the role of both a specialized macro lens and a standard everyday lens. The Z MC 50mm ostensibly replaces two lenses in our camera kit with one. If we substitute the Nikon Nikkor Z 50mm F/1.8 S and the Nikon Nikkor Z MC 105mm F/2.8 VR S for the Z MC 50mm, we’re saving 27.8 ounces (1.73 lbs) in weight and approximately $880.

Nikon NIKKOR Z MC 50mm f/2.8 Macro Lens

Buy Nikon NIKKOR Z MC 50mm f/2.8 Macro Lens featuring Z-Mount Lens/FX Format, Aperture Range: f/2.8 to f/22, One ED Element, One Aspherical Element, 1:1 Magnification, 6.3″ Minimum Focus, STM Autofocus System, Focus Range Limiter, Magnification and Focus Distance Indexes, Weather-Sealed Construction…

Image Quality and Performance

Savings in weight and money don’t mean much if we’re left with a poor lens that makes sub-par images. While the Nikon Nikkor Z MC 50mm F/2.8 doesn’t make images as nice as those made by some dedicated 50mm lenses nor Nikon’s macro 105mm, it more than holds its own.

Shot wide open at normal focusing distance, the lens is extremely sharp in the center of the frame. While there’s softness at the edges, this actually creates a pleasing effect in portraiture and everyday shooting. There’s also significant vignetting at maximum aperture, but both of these issues resolve significantly with the lens stopped down to f/4, and by f/5.6 the lens is uniformly sharp and bright at the edges. Peak sharpness is achieved at f/8, after which diffraction begins to creep.

Black peppercorns at 1:1.

Chromatic aberration is non-existent, distortion is so low as to be a non-issue (and it’s correctable in Lightroom), flares and ghosts don’t really occur, and images, generally speaking, are gorgeous.

When focusing close at 1:1 reproduction ratios, to make true macro photos, the lens’ aperture actually decreases to a maximum of f/5.6. This phenomenon has been typical of macro lenses through the decades. As we focus closer and closer, the aperture must close smaller and smaller. The only appreciable impact that this has on our image-making is that we must ensure we have ample light when shooting macro. This is far easier today than it was a decade ago, or certainly in the days of film, since digital sensors have become so sensitive in recent years. But it can still be an issue when we’re shooting low-light macro or photographing a moving subject.

When making true 1:1 macro photos, our working distance is about two inches. This means that the point of focus will be just two inches in front of the front element of the camera lens. Thus, it may be tricky to take photos of skittish flying insects or hairy spiders, but this is a trade we must make to have a standard 50mm walk-around lens contained within our dedicated macro. It should also be noted that we can achieve further working distances by decreasing the reproduction ratio (the ratios and their working distances are helpfully engraved on the extending macro lens barrel).

Where the lens most obviously stumbles is in auto-focusing at close working distances. While the lens snaps to focus very quickly and almost silently when shooting at normal, standard working distances (ie. taking photos of people, landscapes, snapshots, etc.), it does have a tendency to slide and hunt when shooting extreme close ups.

But we do have options. First, we can switch the lens to close focus mode via the toggle on the lens barrel. Flicking this switch from FULL to close focus mode will tell the lens to only attempt to achieve focus on close-up subjects (from 0.3 to 0.16m distant). Second, we can switch the lens to manual focus mode, set our distance manually via the focus ring, and hover the camera closer to or further from our subject in order to achieve focus. These two built-in solutions are instantly accessible via physical switches, which beats fumbling through menus, and the use of either or both mitigated any poor AF performance that I encountered throughout my time with the lens.

Nikon Nikkor Z MC 105mm F/2.8 VR S Macro Lens Review

Nikon offers two dedicated macro lenses in their Z Series lens range. Here we review the longer of the two, the Nikkor Z MC 105mm.

Compared to the Nikon Nikkor Z MC 105mm F/2.8 VR S

I’ve already touched upon the many ways that the Nikkor Z MC 50mm F/2.8 is different from the 105mm. Briefly, I’ll repeat.

The first and most obvious difference is that the 50mm lens is a 50mm lens. That means it’s smaller than the 105mm, shoots more “normal” photos, and will probably be more useful to everyday and casual photographers. It would be possible, and indeed possibly preferable for many people, to buy and mount the Z MC 50mm and use it as an all-around lens that can also take true 1:1 macro photos. People have been doing this since the original Nikon F and the pre-AI Nikon 50mm Micro Nikkor.

The Z MC 50mm is smaller and lighter than the 105mm by a wide margin.

It costs about $400 less than the 105mm.

The macro photos it makes will be just as good for the vast majority of non-professional photo nerds.

The Z 50mm MC is not part of Nikon’s S lens series. Thus, the 50mm’s optical formula, coatings, and build are of a supposedly lower standard. Will the lack of Nano Crystals and ARNEO coatings be missed if we choose to buy the 50mm? Probably not. But maybe so. It depends on the pixel peeping habits of the user.

The Z 50mm MC’s focusing is external, which could allow dust and contaminants to enter the 50mm lens over time.

Finally, the 50mm lacks the OLED display screen of the 105mm.

Still, it’s hard not to choose the Z 50mm MC when we see what it can do and how much it costs compared to the 105mm. With those savings, we could buy the amazing ES-2 Film Digitizing Adapter, which fits to the front of the Z 50mm MC and allows us to digitally “scan” 35mm film negatives and mounted slide. For me, a film shooter, that’s a very attractive product, and one that cannot be used with the larger Z 105mm MC.

There exist a number of alternative, non-Nikon, macro lenses for Nikon’s Z Mount system from in numerous focal lengths from Venus Optics, Voigtlander, and TTArtisan, to name a few. These lenses, however, are all manual focus lenses. For this reason, I hesitate to dive too deeply in comparing these to Nikon’s AF lenses since the core functionality differences are so great.

Final Thoughts

The Nikon Nikkor Z MC 50mm F/2.8 is essentially two great lenses in one. It works beautifully as a standard 50mm lens and again as a dedicated 1:1 true macro lens. Additionally, it’s the smallest and lightest 50mm lens in the Z Series system. For users who are looking to minimize their weight and cost, it’s a wonderful prime lens to add to the collection.

However it’s also a compromise, and users who value pure performance over all else will likely find themselves wishing they’d spent the extra money on a dedicated 50mm and the 105mm macro from Nikon’s S line.

I think of the Nikon Nikkor Z MC 50mm F/2.8 as the perfect starting point in a photographer’s macro journey. It’s a lens that will pleasantly surprise its owner with years and years of amazing photos, both standard photos and macro photos. To be fair, it may be the only macro lens a person ever needs.

Get your own Nikon Nikkor Z MC 50mm F/2.8 from B&H Photo

Nikon NIKKOR Z MC 50mm f/2.8 Macro Lens

Buy Nikon NIKKOR Z MC 50mm f/2.8 Macro Lens featuring Z-Mount Lens/FX Format, Aperture Range: f/2.8 to f/22, One ED Element, One Aspherical Element, 1:1 Magnification, 6.3″ Minimum Focus, STM Autofocus System, Focus Range Limiter, Magnification and Focus Distance Indexes, Weather-Sealed Construction…

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Red capillaries wriggling through the sclera? Hideous. The fibrous stroma of the iris? Gag-inducing. And don’t get me started on tear ducts. But taking pictures of eyes is a strong test of any macro lens. And that’s where I found myself last week, holding my breath, the enormous front element of the Nikon Nikkor Z MC 105mm F/2.8 VR S quivering inches from my oldest daughter’s eye.

Turns out that the Nikon Nikkor Z MC 105mm F/2.8 VR S is a truly impressive lens, and a solid choice for Nikon Z Series photographers who are looking for either a telephoto lens for portraits or a dedicated 1:1 reproduction ratio macro lens, or both. It even makes eyeballs look nice!

Nikon Nikkor Z MC 105mm F/2.8 VR S Specifications (from Nikon)

• Mount: Nikon Z Mount
• Focal Length: 105mm Prime Lens
• Maximum Aperture: f/2.8
• Minimum Aperture: f/32
• Format: FX (Full Frame)
• Maximum Angle of View (DX crop-sensor cameras): 15°20′
• Maximum Angle of View (FX-format): 23°10′
• Maximum Reproduction Ratio: 1x
• Lens Elements: 16
• Lens Groups: 11
• VR (Vibration Reduction) Image Stabilization: Yes
• Lens shift using voice coil motors (VCMs)
• Diaphragm Blades: 9, rounded diaphragm opening
• ARNEO Coat: Yes
• Nano Crystal Coat: Yes
• ED Glass Elements: 3
• Aspherical Elements: 1
• Fluorine Coat: Yes
• Super Integrated Coating: Yes
• Autofocus: Yes
• AF Actuator: STM (stepping motor)
• Internal Focusing: Yes
• Minimum Focus Distance: 0.96 ft. ( 0.29m)
• Focus Mode: Auto/Manual
• Focus limit switch with two positions: FULL (∞ to 0.29m) and 0.5m to 0.29m
• Filter Size: 62mm, P = 0.75mm
• Approx. Dimensions (Diameter x Length): 3.4 in. (85 mm)  x  5.6 in. (140 mm), Distance to end of lens from camera lens mount flange
• Approx. Weight: 22.3 oz. (630 g)

Details, Quality, and Ergonomics

Experienced photo nerds will have read the spec sheet posted just above this paragraph and come to the same conclusion that I did when I first skimmed it – this lens has everything.

And it does! Weather sealing. Vibration reduction. Stepping motor auto-focus with no external moving parts. A lot of glass elements, some of which are aspherical. Nano Crystals. Fluorine. All of the coatings, in fact. Yeah, that’s a lot of stuff, alright.

But I expect it. I deserve it, no less. Because the lens costs $1,049, and that’s a lot of dollars.

The lens’ external design is elegant and its build quality is excellent. Moving from the mount to the filter threads we find a mix of materials and textures.

The mount and base of the barrel are made of metal. Upon this segment we find control switches to alternate between manual focus and auto focus modes, as well as a focus limiting switch. This switch tells the camera and lens to focus either through its entire range of focus, or to limit the available focus range to close focusing distances only (0.5m to 0.29m). This close focusing setting makes auto-focus macro photography a bit faster and easier.

Next we find a variable-use control ring with a fine double knurled texture, and from here to the end of the lens everything is made of plastic.

The next segment contains an OLED screen for displaying various information, a DISP button for activating and alternating the OLED, and an L-Fn button, which is able to be mapped by the user to one of a number of custom functions in-camera.

The next segment is the large, rubber, straight knurled manual focusing ring, after which we find a static rubber coated ring useful for gripping and mounting the lens. The actuation of this focus ring and the previously mentioned control ring is smooth and nicely damped. Both rings feel great to use.

Lastly we find the plastic lens bezel with integrated bayonet mount for the lens’ included lens hood, and plastic filter threads for mounting filters (62mm diameter).

While plastic components are typically scoffed at by camera nerds, this plastic feels dense and is finished nicely. And while plastic filter threads aren’t as resilient as metal, it’s true, it’s also worth remembering that plastic filter threads tend to save a lens from major damage in the event that the lens is dropped with a mounted flash ring or other accessory screwed in place.

Of course, not dropping the lens is best.

The lens feels nicely balanced on my smaller Nikon Z5 full frame mirror-less. All of the controls rest where they should, and after just a few moments of familiarization, use of the Nikkor 105mm is first nature. Easy.

The lens is weather-sealed. It’s dust-resistant. Focus is internal, so there’s no air being drawn into the lens during focusing. And the fluorine lens coating helps keep things clean.

It’s clear that Nikon has made another pro-spec lens for real photographers. We can use this to shoot snails in a swamp or product shots in a desert without worry that the lens will fail or become contaminated. Non-adventurous photography amateurs (like me) can also use it.

Performance and Image Quality

This lens is very, very good. Like all of the other Z Series lenses that I’ve used in the past two years, it’s a better lens than I need. It’s not perfect, but nothing is.

Let’s start with auto-focus. AF speed and accuracy will very slightly differ depending on the camera to which the lens is mounted. But generally speaking, this lens is similar to many AF macro lenses in that its “normal” focus range AF is excellent (comparable to any good telephoto lens). When shooting portraits or subjects at distances from 0.5m to infinity, it snaps to focus quickly and accurately.

When we’re shooting closer subjects, things are a little trickier. When shooting macro subjects there is a tendency for the focus to hunt or focus in the wrong spot. Macro photographers will probably be used to this. I am. And my solution is the same as it’s ever been. I let the lens focus as best it can and then adjust by pulling the camera further away or inching it closer to the subject until my point of focus is exactly where I want it to be.

Alternately we can switch to manual focus. This works well. The focus-by-wire electronic manual focus is responsive and well-calibrated. It doesn’t feel as nice as the older manual focus lenses and their mechanical helicoids, but it’s just as accurate and just as fast.

Sharpness is beyond complaint. Nikon has prioritized wide open shooting, and at f/2.8 this lens is among the sharpest macro lenses in the world. As expected for the 105mm focal length (a focal length which doesn’t tend to naturally show much edge softness) sharpness in the corners is excellent, diminishing only slightly even when shot wide open.

If we stop down to f/4 we see the expected extension of center sharpness even further to the edges, creating virtually perfect sharp-across-the-frame images.

At macro focusing distances the lens tends to lose a bit of sharpness compared to itself at normal working distances. This is likely a result of the depth of field becoming very shallow. At these macro distances, then, it’s very useful to stop the aperture down to f/8 to achieve excellent sharpness and adequate DOF. Of course, this necessitates bright light to maintain fast shutter speeds, but that’s been true of macro photography since the dawn of the craft.

The lens does help to mitigate any motion blur that may be incurred by shooting lower light macro shots, since it utilizes Nikon’s VR (vibration reduction) tech. This, combined with the sensor-shift stabilization found in most Nikon Z Series mirror-less cameras, helps to keep things clean and crisp. It works well.

Nikon Nikkor Z 20mm f/1.8 S Lens Review

James reviews the Nikon Nikkor Z 20mm F/1.8 S, the newest ultra-wide prime lens for Nikon Z series cameras.

The Nikon Z5 is the Best Value Full Frame Mirror-less Camera Available Today

Here's why the Nikon Z5 is the best value full frame mirror-less camera you can buy today.

Compared to the F Mount Version, and Optical Aberrations

Nikon has made considerable effort to ensure that each of the new Z Mount lenses for their mirror-less cameras improves upon the earlier equivalent lenses for their aging F Mount DSLRs. The new Z 105mm is no exception to this trend.

The optics of the new lens have been bolstered from the F Mount version‘s 14 elements in 12 groups with 1 ED (extra-low dispersion) element to a new formula made of 16 elements in 11 groups with 1 aspherical element and 3 ED elements.

In addition to these physical optical changes, the new lens adds everything that Nikon has carried their best tech from the F Mount version, and added new technologies that they’ve refined since. These include Nano Crystal coating, ARNEO coating, and fluorine coating.

The first of these technologies, Nano Crystal coating, is an anti-reflective coating developed by Nikon to eliminate internal lens element reflections across a wide range of wavelengths. This effectively solves ghosting effects caused by red light, and reduces ghost and flare effects caused by light entering the lens diagonally.

ARNEO coating uses another anti-reflective coating to further reduce ghost and flare effects from incidental light entering the lens vertically. This helps the lens make clear images when shooting with a bright light source located within the frame.

Fluorine coating is applied to the external lens element. This coating withstands dust, water droplets, dirt, and oils, and facilitates easier cleaning in the event that the lens comes into contact with these contaminants. The fluorine coating is additionally anti-reflective, which adds to optical clarity.

The result of all this technological nonsense is that the new Z Mount 105mm makes sharper, better images than the older F Mount 105mm. I detest MTF charts, though whenever I write lens reviews I double check the eyeball test with a glance at the MTFs, and it’s apparent that the eyes have it.

In addition to improved sharpness across the frame at all equivalent aperture values, the new lens is better than the old one at mitigating chromatic aberration (color fringing at high contrast areas of an image). It’s also better at mitigating spherochromatism (color fringing in the out of focus foreground and background areas of an image). Both of these aberrations are, in fact, so close to perfectly eliminated that I haven’t been able to see a single noticeable example of color fringing in any of my sample shots. Nikon has solved that problem, at least with this lens, at this focal length.

All of that said, let us not oversell it. The older F Mount 105mm is very much a modern, excellent, almost perfect lens. The new Z Mount version is not enough of an upgrade to push anyone out of the F Mount ecosystem and into the Z Mount models, if that hasn’t yet happened. It’s nice that the latest lenses from Nikon happen to be incrementally better than the last range (not always a given, in the photography world), but this new lens won’t change any F Mount 105mm owner’s life.

A few final notes on new versus old.

The new lens adds some ergonomic flourishes over the old. It has an Auto and Manual Focus switch, like the older model, but the newer model also adds a Focus Limiter mode, which constrains the focus down from the full range to a close focusing range of 0.5m to 0.29m (the lens’ minimum focus distance).

The new lens has a user-configurable function button and a nice, thin function ring. These controls can be set in-camera to control things like ISO, exposure compensation, or aperture. A very nice tactile addition that will help those of us who enjoy older, manual-focus lenses find our comfort zone.

It also adds an OLED on the top of the lens which displays a myriad of user-selectable information (focus distance, f/stop, reproduction ratio, and more). The old lens doesn’t have that. And, truth be told, the new lens doesn’t really have it either. Because it auto-offs after an outrageously short period of time, requiring that we keep pressing the DISP button on the lens barrel to reactivate it. It’s nice when it works, but it’s usually just a black, dead screen.

Lastly, the new lens is slightly larger (25mm / 1 inch longer) than the F Mount version, which is expected, given the additional lens elements. However, and this is less expected for the very same reason, the new lens weighs slightly less than the F Mount predecessor (by 130 g). That’s a nice bonus.

Compared to the Nikon Nikkor Z 50mm F/2.8 MC

Nikon offers another dedicated macro lens in their Z Series. This, the Nikkor Z MC 50mm F/2.8, is different from the 105mm in a few key ways.

The first and most obvious difference is that the 50mm lens is a 50mm lens. That means it’s smaller than the 105mm, shoots more “normal” photos, and will probably be more useful to most everyday and casual photographers. It would be possible, and indeed possibly preferable for many people, to buy and mount the Z MC 50mm and use it as an all-around lens that can also take true 1:1 macro photos. People have been doing this since the original Nikon F.

The Z MC 50mm is also smaller and lighter than the 105mm, by a wide margin. It costs about $400 less than the 105mm. And the macro photos it makes will be just as good for the vast majority of non-professional photo nerds.

Where the Z MC 50mm falls short compared to the 105mm is in the finer points.

The 105mm is a part of Nikon’s higher spec S Line. The Z 50mm MC is not. Thus, the 50mm’s optical formula, coatings, and build are of a supposedly lower standard. Will the lack of Nano Crystals and ARNEO coatings be missed if we choose to buy the 50mm? Probably not. But maybe so. It depends on the pixel peeping habits of the user.

Additionally, the Z 50mm MC’s focusing method is not internal as in the 105mm. Thus, dust and contaminants may enter the 50mm lens over time. It’s possible, however unlikely.

In use, the Z 50mm MC has a shorter working distance than the 105mm. This means that we’ll need to be outrageously close to our subject to achieve true 1:1 reproduction with the 50mm. This limits our subject matter a bit, and makes photographing spiders somewhat unnerving (or, for me, downright terrifying).

Finally, the 50mm lacks the OLED screen of the 105mm. How awful.

Still, it’s hard not to choose the Z 50mm MC when we see how much less it costs. And with those savings, we could buy the amazing ES-2 Film Digitizing Adapter, which fits to the front of the Z 50mm MC and allows us to digitally “scan” 35mm film negatives and mounted slide. For me, a film shooter, that’s a very attractive product, and one that cannot be used with the larger Z 105mm MC.

Compared to Other Z Mount Macro Lenses

There exist a number of alternative macro lenses for Nikon’s Z Mount system from a number of manufacturers in numerous focal lengths. Lenses from Venus Optics, Voigtlander, and TTArtisan, to anme a few. These lenses, however, are all manual focus lenses. For this reason, I hesitate to dive too deeply into comparing these to Nikon’s AF lenses since the core functionality differences are so great.

That said, readers who are interested in a manual-focus macro alternative to Nikon’s 105mm should investigate the Venus Optics Laowa 100mm f/2.8 APO. This is the lens that comes closest to the core specs of the Nikon lens reviewed in today’s article.

While the Laowa 100mm lacks a lot of the high tech stuff found in the Nikon lets, it actually reaches a greater magnification ratio of 2:1. Whether or not the image quality matches Nikon’s is another story, a story that I’ll expand upon in an upcoming article.

Final Thoughts

The Nikon Nikkor Z MC 105mm F/2.8 VR S is essentially two great lenses in one. It’s works beautifully as a portrait lens and standard telephoto lens. Additionally, it’s Nikon’s preeminent macro lens in the Z Series lens system. It gives a longer working distance than the shorter Z 50mm MC lens offered by the brand, and utilizes all of Nikon’s highest technology to create incredibly sharp, stunning images.

This lens is a unique and interesting addition to my camera bag. It does things that no other lens in my kit can do. While it’s somewhat expensive, it’s worth noting that the cost is lower than the comparable offerings from Canon and Sony. Further, it’s a lens that will still make stunning photos a decade or more from now, and it’s a lens that I can transfer to my next Z Series camera should I ever find a reason to upgrade from the Z5.

For Nikon Z shooters, the Nikkor Z 105mm F/2.8 MC is one of the standouts of the lineup. It’s a good one.

Buy Your Own Nikon Nikkor Z MC 105mm F/2.8 VR S Macro Lens

Shop for the Nikon Nikkor Z MC 105mm F/2.8 VR S macro lens from B&H Photo. Your purchase will help support Casual Photophile's efforts to create informative and entertaining articles for photo nerds at no additional cost to you!

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But you need not descend this hole-within-a-hole! At least, not the financial hole.

As was recently covered by Hemant here at Casual Photophile, getting into macro photography can be as simple and inexpensive as flipping around a favorite lens, or even fitting a lens with close-up filters, as James showed in this long-ago-written article. Extension tubes that mount between the lens and camera body are another affordable option—though these can be a touch more expensive than the mentioned methods, especially for vintage lens shooters seeking discontinued products. But that’s because extension tubes allow us to approach life size reproduction without introducing more glass to our kit.

Yes, there are plenty of ways to shoot macro on the cheap. But once you pick your weapon and you’ve managed to get close to your subject, you notice another roadblock – things have gotten dark. That’s because your lens is obscuring a good deal of available light. If you had spent a few hundred dollars on your tripod rig, it would be no problem at all to dial in your framing with total precision and simply increase your exposure time with no fear of tiny perturbations in your setup ruining the image. But if your tripod isn’t up to the task, this can be a downright annoying process.

What if you could bypass the need for a tripod altogether? What if you had enough light to shoot handheld?

Pew-pew: the Canon T90 with 50mm f3.5 macro, 25mm extension tube, and Bolt VM-160 ring light with amber diffuser.

Traveling Light

While expensive hardware will ultimately be necessary for clinically sharp macro captures, one can still capture the beautifully small without carrying around the bulk of a tripod. In any situation other than the brightest days, you will need to generate your own light. Your standard flash unit can be up to the job, and the internet has resources for modifying a standard flash to create a more gentle and diffuse glow, but a small purchase can get you a dedicated light that will raise your macro game at the next level. While lighting units specifically built for macro photography can easily cost far more than many very nice tripods, the Bolt VM-160 LED Ring Light is among the least expensive and compact options for getting you started.

Two common form factors of macro light exist: those with light sources suspended by flexible arms, and those that mount onto the lens’ filter threads. The former allows for fine control over how the light falls onto your subject, and has the benefit of not interfering with the installation/removal of any filters and lenses. Ring lights have the upper hand as far as compactness and efficiency is concerned, as most modern units have an array of LEDs housed within the ring itself instead of the older style, where two flash units protrude from either side of the ring like elephant ears.

The obvious benefit of using one of these lights is that you drastically reduce the shutter time necessary for a good exposure, thus permitting a much sharper image. But in addition to sharper focus, having such direct light allows for the colors of your subject to pop with a vibrancy that longer exposures can’t guarantee.

Already, the Bolt unit shows a lot of promise as a device that lets you be creative in the field, allowing you to approach macro photography with spontaneity and—perhaps—let you turn your brain off and better enjoy taking pictures. One of my first outings with this kit was in my parent’s garden, where I was able to capture subjects that had minds of their own, and might not have waited for me to get my tripod situated.

Another less obvious benefit of using artificial light is how well foreground subjects are isolated when night falls. I was delighted to find that the Bolt VM-160 LED Ring Light allows you to illuminate your subject to the exclusion of background elements, giving the impression that it is emerging from nothing—anti-bokeh?

Here the catch light of the Bolt VM-160’s individual LEDs can be seen in the frog’s eye; caught on Kodak Ektachrome E100 and processed at home in Cinestill’s D9 kit.

Sony a7III with Canon FD Macro 50mm f/3.5.

Additional Uses

If you have not explored macro lights until the year 2020, Bolt’s unit might remind you of the USB powered ring lights that folks have been adding to their home offices in order to look their best during the now ubiquitous video conference. While the Bolt VM-160 LED Ring Light kit includes a plastic bit serving as a cold-shoe that allows you to mount the ring to a separate tripod (using ¼”-20 screw mount), the light is not a reliable candidate for frequent Zoom calls, as it can only be powered by four AA batteries. But it is these other accessories that make Bolt’s light useful for other sorts of still photography.

The box includes four flavors of diffuser: clear, frosted, amber, and blue. I believe the clear diffuser is to provide some level of protection for the light itself, as it does nothing to change the quality of the light. The frosted diffuser, however, will soften the ring’s many point light sources into a more uniform glow that lends itself to portrait use, catch light and all.

I’m hardly a portrait photographer, and am pathologically introverted to boot, so the past few months with the Bolt were spent agonizing over how I was going to source folks willing to let me test the device on them in the middle of a pandemic after moving to a strange town. That said, I can not speak to how the Bolt might be useful in a studio situation or not. It is, however, the light that I am more likely to have on me at any given time, so it is good that it can be used as a shutter-synchronized flash as well as a constant light source. It should be noted that using a ring light on certain lenses with very fast apertures can result in an awkward anti-vignette, where the light of the unit bleeds into the corners of the image frame unless you are stopping down significantly (in the case of the Canon 85mm f1.2L, all the way to f5.6).

The blue and amber diffusers struck me as odd initially. After all, the effect of washing out a scene with unnatural blue light is pretty dubious if you’re not producing a Smurf documentary. But thanks to an infographic that was widely circulating around Halloween time, which revealed that the original Addam’s Family set was awash in cheery pinks and yellows, I recalled the impact that color has on different types of black and white films. Just as the pink set resulted in a paradoxically drab exposure on motion picture stock, Ilford HP5 has decreased sensitivity toward the red-end of the spectrum of visible light, causing red objects to appear darker; this also permits a radically altered contrast in landscape photography when shooting with a red filter. By that same token, using a light source of a skewed temperature allows for starkly different exposures with black and white. To try this out, I tested how a few different subjects would render on certain emulsions when illuminated with the Bolt light’s blue and amber diffusers. While the effect is subtle, the ability to experiment with this non-linear response to certain colors does allow for a bit more creativity when shooting in night-time landscape, low-light interior, and macro situations, where the use of a colored filter would require even longer exposure times.

Earlier stages of the orchid plant caught on Film Ferrania’s P30 – Left: amber light, Right: blue light. One temperature certainly renders hotter than the other.

Flavor comparisons on HP5

Concluding Thoughts

While the Bolt VM-160 LED Ring Light kit is highly versatile—having allowed me to take photographs I would never have imagined before—the execution of the product leaves a little to be desired. While the LED ring itself is robust, I was somewhat dissatisfied that all of the diffusers fit very loosely onto the ring and are prone to falling off mid-shoot. The unit attaches itself using a proprietary, plastic adapter that screws onto the lens’s filter threads, meaning that you have to keep track of eight different size adapters (49, 52, 55, 58, 62, 67, 72, and 77mm) if you’re adamant about using this light on many different lenses (which, I’ll admit, is a weird choice).

Battery life seems fairly reasonable, and I’ve only changed them out once in the past few months. Most of the time that I’m shooting, I keep the light on continuously, and often favor turning the brightness up all the way. If I were to use this more as a traditional flash, I am sure the original batteries could support shooting through all of next year—gotta love LED technology. But of course, the plasticky build quality of this light makes this point about battery life sometimes moot, as the door securing the AAs in place doesn’t always seal tight enough to keep the electrical contacts stable. This hasn’t been a deal breaker in the field yet, but I think it will be down the line.

Despite these gripes, with its gentle pricing and compatibility with lenses of various sizes, the Bolt VM-160 LED Ring Light is an excellent tool for anyone casually interested in macro photography and hoping to make better pictures without too much investment. I am not always the most gentle with my gear, but I feel confident enough to keep it packed up in my kit along with the adapters for my macro and portrait lenses, as it is the quickest and simplest way for me to spontaneously capture tiny things.

You can get your own Bolt VM-160 LED Ring Light at B&H Photo here

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[Some of the links in this article will direct users to our affiliates at B&H Photo, Amazon, and eBay. By purchasing anything using these links, Casual Photophile may receive a small commission at no additional charge to you. This helps Casual Photophile produce the content we produce. Many thanks for your support.]

The post Handheld Macro Photography with the Bolt VM-160 Ring Light appeared first on Casual Photophile.

At the very beginning of every photographer’s journey there’s a phase, a time where we are trying everything possible with our new toys. From awkward poses, to light trail long exposures, to pestering our family members for that “just one more” picture. 

I did all of this. And next on my list was understanding exploring the world of tiny things (something which was easier said than done). Experimenting with a dorky magnifying glass did result in a very marginal increase in magnification, but it was accompanied by a drastic loss of image quality. It was then that a dear friend of mine mentioned and introduced me to reverse lens macro photography. 

What is reverse lens macro photography, and how does it work?

A lens, when attached correctly to a camera, projects a small image of a distant large body onto the sensor or sheet of film. This is how cameras fit life size objects with immense detail, onto a tiny 36 x 24mm image area (as is the case with 35mm or full frame digitals). By reversing the lens (literally attaching the lens to our camera with it facing wrong way round) we flip the equation. With the front of the lens close to the sensor and the back of the lens far away we are projecting a large image of a tiny object onto the sensor. 

Wider focal lengths having the maximum magnification abilities (as compared to a standard 50mm focal length). Focal lengths from 18-35mm can help in bringing out details from small subjects like flora and fauna, whereas 50mm and upwards are ideal for something like product photography and creating some distance between your subject. Though higher magnification is always desirable, when on wider focal lengths it is advisable to be cautious as more often than not, you will find yourself bumping into the subject. 

Reversing the lens can be done in two ways – either by hand holding it (very similar to free lensing) or with the help of an inexpensive reverse coupling ring. Both achieve the same results, albeit with varying levels of clarity and frustration. 

While hand holding a newer lens (ones without an aperture ring) is entirely possible, results are far more consistent with older lenses with a dedicated aperture control ring. With a set it and forget it approach, vintage lenses provide a good starting point for anyone trying reverse lens macro photography for the very first time. On newer lenses with a physical aperture control (some lenses have electronically controlled apertures, which makes this technique very difficult), taping the aperture tab on the mount will help you open up the lens to its maximum and fix it at that. While you will lose depth of field, you gain a lot of light-gathering ability at the same time.  

Stability is also very much an essential need when doing reverse lens macro photography. With razor-thin focusing planes and very shallow depth of field, a tripod can be very beneficial. When hand-holding my advice would be to sit down and use your elbows as a support mechanism, restricting your motion to only one axis.    

Lighting is another factor that plays an essential role in the final quality of your results. Table lamps are a great way to start with, where wrapping a white cloth bag will diffuse the light and spread it evenly across your frame. Get your light source as close to your subject as possible. This will give your sensor enough light to bring out details in the shadows. Macro photography is all about details. 

While hand-holding to free-lens with reverse lens macro photography is fun and can create unpredictable and exceedingly artistic results, the purest results come by using a dedicated reversal ring. These rings are cheap and made for nearly any camera and lens combination. They are simple devices – one side of the adapter is threaded to screw into the filter threads of your lens (buy the one which matches your lens’ filter thread diameter), and the other end of the adapter has a bayonet lens mount which attaches to your camera body like any other lens. Screw the adapter to the front of the lens, reverse the lens and attach it to the body. Simple. Using these adapters will make the sharpest, brightest images, allow you the most control, and nullify most of the potential drawbacks outlined below.

What are the potential drawbacks?

As mentioned, reversal ring adapters are great and the free-lensing method demands the most compromise. As such, the drawbacks noted here will apply mostly to the hand-held method. 

When we detach the lens from the body, we lose all of its technical capability. Things like autofocus and EXIF data recording are lost. Focusing is achieved by moving the entire setup back and forth linearly and slowly. You also lose things like automatic diaphragm (where you can focus and compose at f/2 but take the photo at f/8), leaving you to deal with a darker viewfinder. This is where strong lighting becomes essential. Using live view alongside focus peaking will help in composing the image properly in such a scenario. 

As an added note, exposing your lens outwards does come with an increased risk of damaging the contact pins. An extra bit of caution never hurts, so be careful with those exposed bits. Lastly, we also lose infinity focus capabilities. This is hardly a problem with macro photography. And of course there’s also a slight chance of getting dust inside your camera. This is a negligible risk, really. I have had it much worse trying to change lenses on a seashore compared with doing reverse lens macro for extended periods of time.   

Patience is paramount with reverse lens macro. It can be slightly intimidating when getting started, with things going wrong all the time. Achieving focus is particularly challenging as even the slightest changes in the environment can cause disturbances. Working in a space with minimal disturbance can be of great help. 

Why bother? 

Reverse lens macro does come with its fair share of drawbacks and challenges. But it’s got plenty of advantages as well. Firstly, there’s a higher magnification effect than we can achieve with conventional close-up lens filters (which James covered here). A conventional macro lens goes to about 10 diopters, whereas a reversed lens can be anywhere from 20 to 40 diopters in comparison. 

There is also a variety that can be had when using the  reverse lens macro technique. As this technique does not depend on the lens mount, you can experiment with countless other lenses with varying focal lengths, apertures, and specs. You can even mix it up and try various optics not conventionally used for photography (such as projector lenses). 

You could even combine the effects of reverse lens macro by stacking it. Twin lens reverse macro is a powerful tool that can help you get even closer while giving some degree of control back to the user. It allows you to use two lenses, one of which will be mounted correctly to the camera and the other mounted in reverse to the filter thread of the first one. This way, with native lenses, you can even control the aperture and use the focus ring up to a certain degree.  

Lastly, it’s the infinite possibilities that open up when doing macro. Everything from paintbrushes to flowers to dewdrops, everything becomes a fresh new subject. Stuck as we are in times of uncertainty, macro photography helps us explore new worlds right within the comfort of our homes. A tiny drop of water takes on an exciting shape and form when viewed through the lens of a macro photographer. Day to day objects give rise to new creative outlooks and ideas. The shopaholic within us can take a break. 

For those of us, like me, who have convinced ourselves that photography is an expensive hobby, try this technique out. You’ll spend nearly no money, and open up a whole new world of photographic possibility. And if you try it, let us know. I would love to see the photographs you make, and to know about your experience in the comments below.

Get your reversal ring from B&H Photo here

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[Some of the links in this article will direct users to our affiliates at B&H Photo, Amazon, and eBay. By purchasing anything using these links, Casual Photophile may receive a small commission at no additional charge to you. This helps Casual Photophile produce the content we produce. Many thanks for your support.]

The post Reverse Lens Macro Photography – Intro and How To Guide appeared first on Casual Photophile.

Four years and hundreds if not thousands of shots later, I’m still not sure of what I’ve gotten myself into. This particular Nikon Micro Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 was supposed to be a stopgap until I got a better macro lens, but it’s still here. It’s taken nearly every single product shot I’ve ever made for my article on this site and it remains perpetually mounted to one of my cameras, forever ready to shoot. It’s practically a fact of life for me at this point, but one that baffles me every day.

The only explanation is that the Micro Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 is it’s own kind of paradox. The lens is old, yet the images look startlingly new. It’s slow, yet more capable than most of my other lenses. It’s made to specialize in one sort of photo, but it’s useful for so much more than that.

Brief History

The story of the Micro Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 starts right at the beginning of Nikon’s SLR journey. Being that the SLR format was practically made for macro shooting owing to its through-the-lens viewing and ability to preview depth-of-field, the Nikon F became the perfect platform to showcase Nikon’s macro lens-making chops. Early efforts were shaky, involving an adapted 5cm f/3.5 Micro Nikkor from the Nikon rangefinder lens roster and another rather arcane preset aperture lens developed specifically for the F.

Quickly these were refined and simplified into 1963’s Micro Nikkor-P 55mm f/3.5. The lens featured a five elements in three groups design, and boasted a native reproduction ratio of 1:2, which could be improved to a true macro ratio of 1:1 through the use of the matching M1 extension ring. The lens was a hit with the Nikon F faithful and became an essential piece of gear for any Nikon SLR user in the 1960s.

The 1970s ushered in a new era for Nikon with the Nikon F2, and with it came a litany of small improvements to the Nikkor lens lineup. The 55mm f/3.5 underwent a particularly significant shift – the optical design was revamped, now being comprised of five elements in four groups. Further enhancement came by way of an improved optical coating and an ergonomically improved knurled focusing ring. It was to be the last hurrah of the classic 55mm f/3.5, but it turned out to be a pretty loud hurrah.

Functionally this lens was impressive for its day. It boasted an extended aperture range of f/3.5 to f/32, and a double-helicoid focusing system that took you straight from infinity to 1:2 through a couple twists of its sizable focusing ring (and further to 1:1 with the mentioned extension ring). Versatility and ease-of-use was the name of the game for this lens, as well as portability, owing to the light weight of its miniscule lens elements.

Today, the lens holds up beautifully. The all-metal construction of a pre-AI lens like this one is really something to behold. It protects its innards well owing to its deep, recessed focusing helicoid. It also weighs a refreshingly small amount, especially when compared to old school pre-AI behemoths like the Nikkor-S 50mm f/1.4 or Nikkor-P 135mm f/2.8. Like with most Nikon Pre-AI lenses, one gets the feeling that this lens could last forever.

But all of this makes sense. Of course the Micro Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 is simple, robust, and unassuming – it’s a pre-AI Nikon lens. This should surprise no one. What’s really surprising (and on occasion, frightening) is just how good this lens is, not just at its job, but at absolutely everything.

As a Macro Lens

On paper, this lens should not have aged well. Lenses were quite good in the ’60s and ’70s, but today we often forgive these lenses’ technical shortcomings by labeling them “vintage” and “characterful.” Pre-Ai lenses are notorious for this. My beloved Nikkor-S 50mm f/1.4 softens up considerably wide-open, and my Sonnar-pattern Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 often makes me work around its long minimum focusing distance. The Micro Nikkor 55mm f/3.5, however, shows almost none of these instances of “character.” It’s an astonishingly simple lens, and yet the images it makes are, technically, nearly flawless.

Sharpness and resolution of the Micro Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 are its signature strong suits. At f/3.5 it’s quite sharp with a hint of some chromatic aberration and coma, but becomes blindingly sharp when closed down anywhere past that aperture. When combined with the exceptional resolving power of this lens, which is optimized for macro shooting, it makes for some of the sharpest images one can expose on 35mm film. The extremely close minimum focusing distance also reveals something quite remarkable for a macro lens – this sharpness and resolution remains remarkably consistent throughout the focusing range, peaking out at the 1:10 reproduction range.

Owing to the simplicity and compactness of its lens elements, this lens also exhibits high contrast and an unbelievable color rendition. Colors are rich and vivid, yet contain none of the hyper-real colors we often receive from more modern multi-coated lenses. Colors all look natural, and the heavier contrast ensures that these colors pop off the image as they should. I rarely, if ever, have to do any kind of color correction on any image made with this lens because the colors are naturally great.

But if there’s one attribute that macro lenses strive for, it’s flat-field performance. I won’t get into the sordid details of the subject, but in a nutshell, lenses optimized for flat-field performance feature less field curvature, and therefore render a flatter (and more accurate) plane of focus than other general purpose photographic lenses. This is important especially at extremely short focusing distances as we want the subject we focus on to, well, be in focus. The Micro Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 excels precisely in this category. It’s extremely well-corrected for field curvature at extremely short distances, which makes the lens perfect for its intended use, macro photography. Shuffling through the aperture range reveals accurate, but beautiful representations of the lens’ depth-of-field characteristics, and the lens remains wonderfully controllable at every f-stop, again important for discerning macro shooters.

As a Standard Lens

The big trick with the 55mm Micro Nikkor, and indeed all macro lenses of a standard focal length, is its ability to function effectively as both a macro lens and a standard lens. The 55mm macro is a lens type that’s made for people who want to make macro photos occasionally (or often) but who don’t want to spend big bucks on a dedicated lens for macro-only shooting, or for users who need to be able to shoot macro shots and then quickly shift to standard photos without removing and replacing a lens. In this way, the 55mm Micro Nikkor excels.

Correction for flat-field performance at closer focusing ranges can hinder corner performance at normal focusing ranges. We’ve already mentioned that this lens has excellent flat-field performance close up, but does it maintain this quality when shot as a standard 55mm lens?

This aspect of the lens’ performance is usually touted as one of the main drawbacks of the Micro Nikkor 55mm f/3.5. And this makes sense. After all, it’s an old speciality lens and should exhibit some kind of weakness. But in my experience, I never felt that the lens let me down at standard focusing ranges. In fact, I love using it as a standard lens. If the scene requires absolute sharpness and resolution with deep depth-of-field then you better believe I’m busting the Micro Nikkor out. It technically outperforms all of my other Nikkor lenses (and most other lenses I’ve tested for this site), and I can trust it to render a scene accurately.

If there is a weakness of the Micro Nikkor 55mm f/3.5, it would have to be its slower maximum aperture which, if we’re being honest, is a moot point. f/3.5 sounds slow, but I’ve found that its maximum aperture is more than capable for general photography, and hits exactly the right amount of depth-of-field for my taste. The slight chromatic aberration of the lens wide-open at close range might also irk some shooters, but the lens retains its high contrast, resolution, and great color rendition even at its maximum aperture. Still other macro shooters may cry foul because this lens needs an extension ring to reach true 1:1 reproduction, which is a valid concern, but I can’t think of a time where I didn’t have time to simply switch it out. Maybe I’m just not that hardcore, but then again, I do write for a site with the word “Casual” in the name.

If you really need an improvement on the Micro Nikkor 55mm f/3.5, there’s always the later and even more legendary Micro Nikkor 55mm f/2.8 AI lens. It’s faster, features an updated lens formula and coatings, and even corrected the (slight) flat-field correction problem at standard focusing distances. It’s a fantastic lens, and definitely an improvement on the older model. That said, it also costs two to three times more than the one I’m reviewing.

Final Thoughts

Much of the benefit of the Micro Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 lies in the fact that it’s so cheap. With a going price of around $50, it’s the most bang-for-my-buck lens I’ve ever purchased. Again, it’s taken nearly every single product photo I’ve ever made for the site, and will probably take even more of them.  In terms of raw performance, it reminds me of the ungodly expensive Leica Summicron V3 I tested a while ago, and yet it’s cheaper than even the cheapo Nikon Series E 50mm f/1.8, and more capable than either of those lenses in every category except lens speed. It should be touted as a truly classic Nikon lens, but it often doesn’t even figure in the conversation. It’s an unglamorous, old, slow specialty lens and will likely always be perceived that way, even though it’s capable of so much more.

I kind of like it that way. It means that the humble Micro Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 will forever be the most enigmatic lens in my bag. After years of shooting with it I know what it does, how to use it, and how it works, yet it still manages to surprise and confound me at every turn. Oh well. Some things will always remain a mystery. In this case, maybe it’s better that way.

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[Some of the links in this article will direct users to our affiliates at B&H Photo, Amazon, and eBay. By purchasing anything using these links, Casual Photophile may receive a small commission at no additional charge to you. This helps Casual Photophile produce the content we produce. Many thanks for your support.]

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I love macro photography, even if the most common subject that I seem to shoot in this way happens to be something I’m not too keen on getting close to – spiders and bees and other insects that sting. Still, what’s life without a little bit of mild terror? Some of my favorite photos I’ve ever made, in fact, involve insects. But don’t think that macro photos are limited to the world of bugs.

One of the the best things about a monthly photo challenge is that these suggestive prompts can force us to look at the world around us differently. Like many of the best types of photography, macro photos are often made to show us something we can’t see with the naked eye, or to help us see something ordinary in a way that we couldn’t with our plain old eyeballs. Flowers, animals, nature, food, manmade items, objects we use every day – these are all things that benefit from clever use of macro photography.

Once you’ve made your best macro photo, please share it with us here in our comments section via a link, or across social media. On Instagram, use the hashtag #CasualPhotophileMonthlyPhotoChallengeand tag us in your photos. We’d love to see them and we’ll share our favorites in our Instagram stories throughout the month. Interested readers can also share them on the Casual Photophile Facebook page, or our Film of the Month Club Facebook Group (if you’re a Film of the Month Club subscriber).

What is a Macro Photo?

Macro photography is the art of making a photograph in which the size of the subject in the photograph is recorded on the original recording media at life size or greater than life size. Therefore to make a true macro photo the subject recorded on an image sensor or negative must be equal in size, or larger than, the subject. Macro lenses therefore are traditionally and technically any lens that can reproduce a subject on the negative or image sensor at a true 1:1 ratio (this is called the reproduction ratio).

However it’s also acceptable to call a photo print or enlargement in which the subject appears larger than life size due to the process of enlarging the print, a macro photograph. In addition, it’s also generally accepted that lenses which can closely approach but not reach a true 1:1 ratio can be called macro lenses if they at least possess a large reproduction ratio. Again, this is because when enlarged, the final image does present the subject at life size or larger.

There are many ways to achieve reproducing a subject at such close-to-life-size or greater reproduction ratios. Macro bellows, dedicated macro lenses, reversal adapters, and close-up lens filters are all excellent tools specifically made to create close-up and macro photos. These all operate differently and come at varying costs – some very expensive, some dirt cheap.

Necessary Gear for Making Macro Photos

To make a macro photo you’ll need a camera, digital or film, the bigger the sensor or image area the better. That said, basically any film SLR camera from the 1960s to the 2000s will be capable of shooting macro photos. And any modern digital camera with interchangeable lenses will be capable of making macro photos these days. All of the major systems have macro lenses or accept accessories for creating macro shots.

Making macro photos with a film camera is a little harder than with digital. Macro photography requires a lot of light, and the low sensitivity of film compared with high ISO digital sensors can be limiting (don’t misunderstand me; making macro photos with film isn’t too hard and it’s extremely gratifying – just not as easy as with digital).

Next you’ll need one of the items we’ve just mentioned – a macro lens, close-up filters, a lens reversal adapter, or a set of macro bellows. We can break these items down by their pros and cons, and we’ve listed them in the table below from cheapest to most expensive. Choose your budget and then pick which option seems to offer the best value dependent on your needs.

Close Up Filters

The cheapest and easiest way to make macro photos, close-up filters are magnifying lens filters that screw onto the front of the ordinary lens you already own (the lead shot of this article was made with a 50mm Minolta lens and a +10 filter). Typical close-up filter sets come in +1, +2, +3 or +4 sets of three filters, and cost almost nothing. There also exist a number of “Professional” grade magnifying filters typically labeled +10. We sell close-up filter kits in our shop for about $10, and they work phenomenally (all of the macro shots of cameras and lenses that you see on this website are made with a basic close-up filter kit).

Another benefit to close-up filters is that they don’t diminish light entering the camera, like extension tubes and bellows do, which means it’s easy to shoot macro photos without a dedicated light source. And by stacking filters we’re able to continually increase magnification as we like. The downside to these is that they don’t produce the highest quality images, as they tend to increase chromatic aberration and decrease sharpness (and image quality degrades incrementally with each filter that we stack). Close-up filters are also sometimes called “macro filters,” and we’ve written an entire article dedicated to the use and value of these. Read it here.

Reversal Ring Adapters 

Another way of using your ordinary lens as a macro lens is to use a reversal ring. Like close-up filters, reversal rings are inexpensive and screw onto the front of your normal lens. Once screwed on, the reversal ring allows the lens to be mounted onto the camera backwards (front element closest to the image sensor or film). This essentially reverses the reproduction ratio of the lens, creating a unit that can make images at sometimes 4:1 macro ratios (very, very large).

Extension Tubes and Bellows

Extension tubes and bellows are essentially devices used to hold the lens further away from the image plane (film or sensor) which decreases the minimum focus distance and allows the lens to get closer to the subject. Extension tubes come in various sizes to push the lens further and further away, which increases the effective magnification. The sizes are usually marked on the extension tube in millimeters.

Macro bellows do the same thing as extension tubes, but they allow the user to adjust the distance and control focus through knobs on the focus rail, which move the lens closer or further from the sensor or film. They’re more fragile than extension tubes, but allow for greater magnification.

Both extension tubes and bellows are fairly inexpensive. The major downside to both of these macro devices is that they significantly decrease the amount of light that reaches the film or sensor. Therefore it’s necessary to adjust exposure times and use longer exposures compared with filters, reversal rings, and dedicated macro lenses, or use additionally light sources to increase available light. Since macro photos tend to require fast shutter speeds to eliminate shake and blur, this loss of light poses a serious problem.

Dedicated Macro Lens

Dedicated macro lenses are lenses made specifically for macro photography. They are sophisticated optical devices that are purpose-built to create true macro photographs with the least amount of effort. They provide the cleanest images of any of the gear listed here, and are made to seamlessly work with macro lights and flashes. Most of them also allow infinity focusing, meaning that dedicated macro lenses can also be used as normal lenses, something none of the other methodologies allow without removing the macro components (filters, reversal rings, tubes and bellows).

Manufacturers over the years have made some truly legendary macro lenses. Minolta had the AF 100mm f/2.8, which was so good that Sony continued to make it for their DSLR users more than a decade after they purchased Minolta. There’s the Canon MP-E 65mm F/2.8 1-5X Macro, a legendary manual focus EOS lens that allows reproduction of a subject up to five times life size on a full-frame sensor. There’s the similarly impressive Minolta AF 3x-1x 1.7-2.8 Macro, a stunning assemblage of glass that shows just how nerdy Minolta engineers could be.

The downside to dedicated macro lenses, as you may have guessed, is that they’re far and away the most expensive option listed. The legendary lenses I just mentioned cost between $800-1,400 on the used market. And current mass-produced macro lenses are pricey too. The APS-C compatible 60mm macro lens from Canon (to pick one brand randomly) costs $350, while their 100mm L macro lens costs $700. Other brands’ macro lenses land in this same price point. For those who are looking for a dedicated macro lens at the lowest cost possible, try using legacy lenses. Nikon’s old, F-mount manual focus Micro-Nikkor’s are cheap and effective, and the same can be said for Minolta’s Macro Rokkors (if you’ve got a mirrorless camera to mount them to via adapters).

Tips for Great Macro Photography

Whichever gear you decide to use, general tips for making good macro photos remain consistent. Pick a subject that’s interesting to you, one that you’ll think will look interesting up close. After that, it’s all about light, settings, and timing.

The first thing you’ll notice when shooting macro photos is that the plane of focus is extremely small. As magnification increases the depth of field diminishes, meaning that we’ll need to stop our lens down significantly to achieve focus on extremely close subjects. F/8 is my maximum aperture when shooting macro, and I find myself often needing to stop down to F/16 just to get most of my tiny subject in focus. This, of course, means we need lots of light or a high-sensitivity sensor. It’s a tough balancing act, but one that we can win if we employ macro lights or flash units (any flash will work, though there are dedicated macro ring flashes that mount to the front of your lens and provide a nice, balanced light). It’s also advisable to use a diffuser to blend the harsh light of the flash into the existing natural light. Try to shoot outdoors on overcast days, as this also helps to mitigate harsh shadows.

If you’re shooting bugs, you’ll want to go out at a time when bugs are out but not yet active. Cool, summer mornings have proven to be very good times for me to catch insects out, but resting. Places with lots of foliage tend to be good for those looking to shoot butterflies or bees and other winged insects. Search for local botanical gardens or parks with lots of foliage and water features.

Next, get creative with it. Shoot from different angles, try balancing foreground and background elements to make good use of that shallow depth of field, and have fun. Macro photos already do well to show the world around us in a way that we don’t normally get to see it. So experiment a lot, and see what you can make.

Remember that we want to see your macro photos and that we’d love to highlight them in our Instagram stories throughout the month. Please share them with us here in our comments section via a link, or on Instagram using the hashtag #CasualPhotophileMonthlyPhotoChallenge. Interested readers can also share them on the Casual Photophile Facebook page, or our Film of the Month Club Facebook Group (if you’re a Film of the Month Club subscriber).

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