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| I have a digital SLR (Fuji S2) with a lens that goes from wide angle to zoom and has a little switch to convert to macro. I have used it to take a lot of photos (mostly woodland wildflowers), but I realize I can do better on the extreme close-ups. The advice I'm getting is that I need a real macro lens and a tripod. I've also seen recommendations for a close-up filter/attachment, cheaper than a macro lens.
What equipment do you folks use to take close-up nature photos? While I'm here, I might as well ask another question: what lenses do you use to take photos of birds? I have a 300 mm zoom, but if there's a bird sitting in the tree in my small backyard, it comes out as an ant-sized creature at the center of a photo taken at full zoom from my window. How much zoom do I need to get photos of warblers in the trees at a distance where they won't fly away? Thanks, wd |
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| FWIW, I've been taking a lot of flower pictures with a Canon Digital Rebel and Sigma 105mm f2.8 EX macro lens. I usually don't use a tripod, though that depends on lighting and personal preference. Most of my SW plant pictures at www.polyploid.net were taken with the Digital Rebel and Sigma 105mm. For greater magnifications I sometimes use extension tubes, which are hollow tubes mounted between the lens and the camera body that decrease the minimum focus distance of the lens, apart from that the only thing I use often on plant pictures is a flash on a hotshoe cord. Close-up filters are lenses that screw onto the end of another lens, basically just a magnifying glass that screws on. They will give you greater magnification, but usually with poor image quality. I don't take pictures of birds, so can't help on that one. What I do know is that any lens longer than 300mm is going to be either very expensive, or give crappy pictures. Patrick Alexander |
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- Posted by Mark_in_Vancouver (My Page) on Mon, Jun 27, 05 at 12:43
| I have a little Canon Powershot 75 that has reasonably good macro settings without getting the optional macro lens (which costs as much as the camera!!)...
I also recently bought a spotting scope for shooting birds. It's a quite inexpensive Chinese knockoff of the Bushnell scopes, and with a decent tripod, I can literally just point my digital into the view finder for pretty good quality shots...
Anyway, try shooting your macro shots on a high speed setting and experiment with lighting/flash settings too. The best digital shots, in my experience, are the one excellent shot you get after taking 10 pictures. |
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