Sev ([info]tropism) wrote,
@ 2008-05-16 02:41:00
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I'm alive. Work's a drag, and I'd much rather be out living.

I decided to spend a little bit of my economic stimulus check on magnets and two ounces of ferrofluid. I'm also going to pick up some magnet wire. I've got a powerful desire to play with this stuff, and a few ideas I want to explore.

Blargh. I need to get out more.

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[info]coyotegoth
2008-05-17 02:22 am UTC (link)
Question: could you recommend a good digital camera/macro lens combo? I want to get back into taking nature photos this year.

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[info]tropism
2008-05-17 10:29 pm UTC (link)
Well, I like Canon, so I'll recommend Canon. ;) Any of the current series of DSLRs are great, but I've got the 40D and I abso-fucking-lutely love it, particularly for macro work. The live view with zoom makes it soooooooooooooo much easier to check focus and DoF and such. Some other manufacturers have come out with the same feature on their DSLRs -- I know Sony's one of them -- but I don't really keep up with other manufacturers since I don't care. ;)

For lenses, you have a few options. If you need to save some money, the Phoenix F3.5 (I think) 105mm macro lens is cheap as dirt, with about the same build quality as far as the mechanics are concerned. The optics are fabulous for the price, however, and it's what I've used to take most of my macro photos. It's also fantastically light. It does require a supplied, matched diopter to go to 1:1. The manual focus version retails for something like $110. Don't bother with the EF one, it sounds like a spoon caught in a garbage disposal and the EF works about as well.

I currently use the Canon 100mm f2.8 USM macro, and it's fantastic. On the 40D, the USM is quick and decisive and almost completely silent, and, of course, it takes great pictures. I think this retails for about $400.

I personally like the 100mm lenses; I feel that shorter ones jut don't give you enough headroom to work with. But, then, I take a lot of pictures of flighty bugs and such.

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