Extreme macro photography on a budget

 Photography is fun. It's all about being creative. Or actually it is not, since half of it now seems to be having the most megapixels or the best MTF-curve. In my opinion these things don't make better pictures. You still got the same motive no matter if it is 2 or 12 megapixels or if your lens responds better to higher frequencies. It's not for nothing, lenses such as LensBaby have become popular (take that MTF!). If we are going to play the equipment game, more interesting to me are stuff that lets you take new kinds of pictures or of subjects that you couldn't take before.

How would a picture of a skateboard jump look if it wasn't taken with a fisheye? Or how big would that eagle be in you photo if it wasn't taken with with a telephoto. And don't forget all the amazing pictures of Lennart Nilsson.

But buying all this equipment would put a serious dent in most peoples pockets. It is much more interesting, and cheaper to make the stuff yourself. One of the most popular hacks seems to be to build your own macro-lens. With a macro-lens, what you really need is a long tube and a long focal length lens. What you pretty much do is attach the tube on the camera body and attach the lens front side back on the tube. Sounds strange? Well, draw up the path of the light or trust someone who has done it.

There are several design out there already. Maybe the most famous is the Pringlescan design (the bonus is that you have to eat up the chips) but there are also alternative with extension tubes or converter rings.

Not as macro as a scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) but I'd go for it anyway. If you ever get the chance to try STM by the way, do it. It is pretty amazing to be able to see individual atoms.

Tags: photography, macro