At 09:24 AM 12/14/00 -0800, you wrote:
[snip]
Nobody has yet told me what "Macrophotography is" which is what I
assume the reason I need a macro lens for....
Albert:
Macrophotography, roughly speaking, is the photography of objects
close-up. For example, your 50/1.8 is a lens which can probably only focus
down to about a metre or so, whereas the Oly OM 50/2.0 macro lens can focus
down to about .15 of a metre (if memory serves, which it frequently
doesn't). Thus, it's possible to get close enough to an object (flower,
bug, whatever) to photograph it at 500f life-size (that is, the image on
your 35mm negative or slide will be half the size of the actual object).
Macro photography is fun, but requires special lenses (best quality) or
lens adapters (like filters, they screw in to the front of an existing lens
and allow for some close focusing). You can also use extension tubes
behind a standard lens (between the lens and the camera body) to shorten
the focussing distance, but again, quality is somewhat impaired. Lens
adapters or extension tubes are the best bet if you're just a bit curious
and don't intend to do a lot of work.
On the other hand, a lens like Olympus' 90/2.0 macro is a double-threat
lens -- useful both for macro work and as an excellent portrait lens and
"moderate" telephoto (the biggest complaint from people who use this lens
for portraiture is that it's *too* sharp and contrasty; but it's also got
lovely "bokeh". It's one of my favourite lenses, and you can always
degrade image quality [make it less sharp], but you can't typically improve
on the image quality of a poor lens.)
Garth
"Q: What's long and hard on a Canadian?
A: Winter."
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