My macro shooting on budget setup

[oceanpriest]

Want to share my DIY experiment, this is my first macro shooting. Feel free to give comments.

I used these ingredients to create a soft box (saw this idea somewhere on the internet)

before

after

I covered the inner part with aluminium foil

testing part

with normal diffuser

with DIY toothpaste box

 

[oceanpriest]

My gears

Pentax K-x + Vivitar 2x Macro Focusing Teleconverter (bought it for 40 USD from ebay) + Pentax SMC M 50mm f1.7 (around 100 SGD) + DIY soft box/diffuser (10 to 20 SGD)

SMC M 50mm f.7

Vivitar 2x Macro Focusing Teleconverter

Some shots taken using this setup

 

[oceanpriest]

More shots

 

[oceanpriest]

Some close up ones

Thanks for viewing

 

[detritus]

nice works well, cheap :thumbsup:

not sure how you constructed the soft box but if its just black paper and aluminum foil, it might not last?

can share if u used anything to hold the shape in place?

 

[evolutioner]

is the other box for built-in flash?

 

[otc]

Interesting.

marcus

 

[oceanpriest]

nice works well, cheap :thumbsup:

not sure how you constructed the soft box but if its just black paper and aluminum foil, it might not last?

can share if u used anything to hold the shape in place?

I use the same semi-transparent board as the front part, I dunno what's the name. So it's strong enough. Black paper just to make it match my black k-x body.

is the other box for built-in flash?

the toothpaste box? yes it's for the built-in flash. still have some left over materials, maybe will make some reflector or diffuser.

Interesting.

thanks.

 

[xboy360]

nice!!

 

[detritus]

I use the same semi-transparent board as the front part, I dunno what's the name. So it's strong enough. Black paper just to make it match my black k-x body.

its corrugated board i'ved used them before for lots of other DIY projects. very versatile.

i thought about making something similar before but one factor stopped me: its not collapsible so its hard to transport bound to get squashed in my small kata bag.

 

[heiyu0314]

great DIY,man!

 

[seefei]

Some close up ones

Thanks for viewing

the diffuser seems to work well. btw, how did you mount the flash? the light direction is on the high side as observed from the shadow at the lower portion of the eyes of the dragon in the photo. :think:

 

[evolutioner]

mine showing a bit more angle on the box diffuser for popup flash?
i'm planning on making one myself..

thanks~

 

[pessimisticcynic]

hi! very nice post! maybe you could make an informal seminar of sort - to have an actual example
i'm sure there would be a lot of people joining

 

[otc]

Agreed with seefei, the lower part of the diffuser is too high up. Try to do the lower part to touch the front elements of the lens. You will have better result. ie the angle of the diffuser should be wider.

marcus

 

[otc]

its corrugated board i'ved used them before for lots of other DIY projects. very versatile.

i thought about making something similar before but one factor stopped me: its not collapsible so its hard to transport bound to get squashed in my small kata bag.

You got 10 fingers, allocate 2 fingers to carry mah.:bsmilie::bsmilie:

marcus

 

[Nikkornos]

I like this!

Most of the 50m F2 designs by Japanese aimed to achieve flat field. Most of them are good for copying documents in the old days. The 50mm F1.7 is either the double gauss or Tessar copy which is great for this purpose. Using a macro extension tube allows close focusing. From the pictures, since it is using on cropped factor, the edge fall offs are absent. The 50mm F1.4 in the old days were not recommended for close focusing/copying. Perhaps in cropped factor we should try and see if that rule no longer applies.

Great work! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[oceanpriest]

the diffuser seems to work well. btw, how did you mount the flash? the light direction is on the high side as observed from the shadow at the lower portion of the eyes of the dragon in the photo. :think:

Agreed with seefei, the lower part of the diffuser is too high up. Try to do the lower part to touch the front elements of the lens. You will have better result. ie the angle of the diffuser should be wider.

I used an external flash mounted on the hotshoe. Actually when I was making the softbox, I did not know what macro lens I would use and how far from the object, so I tried to make the lower part as wide as possible. I think I need to modify it later :bsmilie:

 

[oceanpriest]

I like this!

Most of the 50m F2 designs by Japanese aimed to achieve flat field. Most of them are good for copying documents in the old days. The 50mm F1.7 is either the double gauss or Tessar copy which is great for this purpose. Using a macro extension tube allows close focusing. From the pictures, since it is using on cropped factor, the edge fall offs are absent. The 50mm F1.4 in the old days were not recommended for close focusing/copying. Perhaps in cropped factor we should try and see if that rule no longer applies.

Great work! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

I read from pentaxforum that vivitar and 50 1.7 are perfect couple, haven't tried their recommendation until today. Should I solder them together :bsmilie:

Nice information, I really like to hear more about pentax lenses history.

 

[poseur]

I read from pentaxforum that vivitar and 50 1.7 are perfect couple, haven't tried their recommendation until today. Should I solder them together :bsmilie:

Nice information, I really like to hear more about pentax lenses history.

good affordable setup, witness this setup today and I was wow.....