Tim Randles wrote:
> if I am understanding this right, if I use my 45-150 evolt kit lens,
> and a 100mm tube, I could photograph the fractal -like patterns on
> flower petals? microscopic kind of photography?
You've got the right idea but as far as I know Olympus doesn't make a
tube longer than 25mm which is made for the 50mm macro to get to 1:1.
You can also stack extension tubes together to get more reach but I
think I'd check with Olympus about whether there might be a practical
usage restriction in stacking 4 long tubes together. Even if there
aren't any usage limitations you might find the $500 cost of such a
construction to be an obstacle as well.
The normal way of reaching very long extensions is to use a bellows.
But as far as I know Oly has yet to produce a 4/3 mount bellows.
However, you could use an OM bellows with an OM to 4/3 adapter to attach
the bellows to the camera. But that means you'd have to use an OM or
other compatible mount lens as there's no means of adapting the 4/3
mount lens to the OM front mount on the bellows. All automation would
be gone as well.
In any case I'd advise starting out with a short tube for practice. The
difficulty of macro photography goes up exponentially as the
magnification increases. Using your 45-150 with 100mm of extension
would be a technical challenge on many fronts. You will encounter
severe problems in positioning the camera and lens in all directions,
holding it steady even with a heavy tripod, difficulty in focusing and
determining exposure, interference from the wind and, in addition, your
arthritis will start acting up as you're trying to hold everything in
place. What? You say you don't have arthritis? Don't worry, you'll
develop it along the way.
>
> Another thing I was interested in understanding is taking pictures
> through a telescope, was thinking of Saturns rings.. photographing
> Mars would give me a bit of a rush...
Hah! I'll bet you thought macro photography was tough from my response
to the above. Anybody who can do planetary photography has my sincerest
admiration. The rush you get when trying to photograph Mars might be
the blood flowing to your head as you cuss out the @$#%$$*^% nature of
all this !@#*^*$&@$ telescope and camera equipment which doesn't want to
coopereate with you in any way. You'll understand the difficulty when
you realize that even with your longest lens/telescope you have that
Mars is just about big enough to cover about one pixel on the sensor.
Tough stuff.
Try the moon first with your 45-150 at 150mm and mounted on a tripod.
The moon is a sunlit surface and can be exposed as though you were
shooting a daylight scene. The speed should be fast enough to stop the
motion. That won't be the case for stellar and planetary stuff. You'll
need a clock drive for planetary stuff but the exposures will be quick
enought that you won't need any corrective guiding. But that won't be
the case for deep sky stuff.
Cameras are normally adapted to telescopes (either prime focus or
projection) with what's called a T or T-2 (same thing) adapter. For
using the camera at prime focus the adapter simply attaches a short
piece of 1-1/4" tube to the lens mount so the camera can take the place
of the eyepiece. This doesn't necessarily work on a Newtonian though
since the focal plane of the camera is likely further back than the
focal plane of the telescope. You may not be able to get the camera in
close enough to focus. If you have a Newtonian it may require
modification of the positon and size of the secondary mirror for
photographic use. For a Newtonian it may be necessary to use eyepiece
projection where the eyepice actually projects a magnified image onto
the focal plane of the camera. Such an arrangement will be required of
any telescope used for planetary photography in order to get enough
magnification. Refractors and catadioptric designs are generally easier
to adapt. Any issue of Sky & Telescope will show you myriads of ways to
do it as long as you're willing to part with a suitable amount of currency.
Chuck Norcutt
>
> apparantly with the right telescope and an adaptor of sorts, I could
> do that.. but for now, I'll just stick to making pictures of
> landscapes and trying to get the hang of all this photo
> gobble-de-gouk, I'll have to spend more time with my good wife's cats
> I guess.. they dont like the camera much..
>
> Cheers.. Tim
==============================================
List usage info: http://www.zuikoholic.com
List nannies: olympusadmin@xxxxxxxxxx
==============================================
|