Pics of my setup below... Tried to keep it as compact and lightweight as possible.
For the diffuser, I simply used a sqaure cut from a cardboard box, folded it around the flash to make a tube and taped it up firmly. It now just slides on an off the flash without any hassles. (Handy when changing to the 100mm with which I tend to use one of Brian\'s coke can diffusers, which I also have attached to a cardboard tube) I came across a plastic food container with a perfect half sphere frosted lid ($3.. bargain!), which has a very narrow lip around the edge. I cut the end off a soft drink can and the dome slips perfectly inside, with the narrow lip resting on the edge of the can. I cut about 6 slits along half the length of the can and bent them out over the outside of the cardboard tube and taped them in place. It all fitted together a little too easily . Over the hollow, cancave end of the diffuser is a thin piece of cotton wadding.
For the tent, I used a 58mm cokin P adapter which obvisouly takes about a second to screw on or off the lens for when you do or dont want the tent attached. I use three layers of thinner, but slightly more opaque tracing paper rather than vellum as I couldn\'t find vellum at the time I first made the tent. Each sheet is kept seperate using a small velco dot. I have since made another tent using two sheets of vellum, but it didn\'t diffuse as well as the original one, which I\'m still using.
One thing I have noticed is that the older and tattier the tent has gotten, the better the results with it! I guess all the crinkled sections of paper are now helping to throw the light around under the tent more. The only caviet with this though is that when shooting at 1x, I\'ve found on rare occassions that there can be a real lack of contrast. When that happens, I usually just run my fingers along the tent to smooth it out a bit and it seems to fix the problem. Perhaps the crinkled tent is throwing some light back into the lens?
I have the flash mounted on a dodgied up bracket... the base attaches to the tripod hole on the camera and was bought as is for about $10. I then use a spigot and small ballhead from a studio lighting setup on that base. The base swings around to move the flash further out when extending the MP-E. It\'s not elegant, but it is very light weight and works!
Pics of my setup below... Tried to keep it as compact and lightweight as possible.
For the diffuser, I simply used a sqaure cut from a cardboard box, folded it around the flash to make a tube and taped it up firmly. It now just slides on an off the flash without any hassles. (Handy when changing to the 100mm with which I tend to use one of Brian\'s coke can diffusers, which I also have attached to a cardboard tube) I came across a plastic food container with a perfect half sphere frosted lid ($3.. bargain!), which has a very narrow lip around the edge. I cut the end off a soft drink can and the dome slips perfectly inside, with the narrow lip resting on the edge of the can. I cut about 6 slits along half the length of the can and bent them out over the outside of the cardboard tube and taped them in place. It all fitted together a little too easily . Over the hollow, cancave end of the diffuser is a thin piece of cotton wadding. The first shot above was taken with this diffuser as is.
For the tent, I used a 58mm cokin P adapter which obvisouly takes about a second to screw on or off the lens for when you do or dont want the tent attached. I use three layers of thinner, but slightly more opaque tracing paper rather than vellum as I couldn\'t find vellum at the time I first made the tent. Each sheet is kept seperate using a small velco dot. I have since made another tent using two sheets of vellum, but it didn\'t diffuse as well as the original one, which I\'m still using.
One thing I have noticed is that the older and tattier the tent has gotten, the better the results with it! I guess all the crinkled sections of paper are now helping to throw the light around under the tent more. The only caviet with this though is that when shooting at 1x, I\'ve found on rare occassions that there can be a real lack of contrast. When that happens, I usually just run my fingers along the tent to smooth it out a bit and it seems to fix the problem. Perhaps the crinkled tent is throwing some light back into the lens?
I have the flash mounted on a dodgied up bracket... the base attaches to the tripod hole on the camera and was bought as is for about $10. I then use a spigot and small ballhead from a studio lighting setup on that base. The base swings around to move the flash further out when extending the MP-E. It\'s not elegant, but it is very light weight and works!
Pics of my setup below... Tried to keep it as compact and lightweight as possible.
For the diffuser, I simply used a sqaure cut from a cardboard box, folded it around the flash to make a tube and taped it up firmly. It now just slides on an off the flash without any hassles. (Handy when changing to the 100mm with which I tend to use one of Brian\'s coke can diffusers, which I also have attached to a cardboard tube) I came across a plastic food container with a perfect half sphere frosted lid ($3.. bargain!), which has a very narrow lip around the edge. I cut the end off a soft drink can and the dome slips perfectly inside, with the narrow lip resting on the edge of the can. I cut about 6 slits along half the length of the can and bent them out over the outside of the cardboard tube and taped them in place. It all fitted together a little too easily . Over the hollow, cancave end of the diffuser is a thin piece of cotton wadding. The first shot above was taken with this diffuser as is.
For the tent, I used a 58mm cokin P adapter which obvisouly takes about a second to screw on or off the lens for when you do or dont want the tent attached. I use three layers of thinner, but slightly more opaque tracing paper rather than vellum as I couldn\'t find vellum at the time I first made the tent. Each sheet is kept seperate using a small velco dot. I have since made another tent using two sheets of vellum, but it didn\'t diffuse as well as the original one, which I\'m still using.
One thing I have noticed is that the older and tattier the tent has gotten, the better the results with it! I guess all the crinkled sections of paper are now helping to throw the light around under the tent more. The only caviet with this though is that when shooting at 1x, I\'ve found on rare occassions that there can be a real lack of contrast. When that happens, I usually just run my fingers along the tent to smooth it out a bit and it seems to fix the problem. Perhaps the crinkled tent is throwing some light back into the lens?
I have the flash mounted on a dodgied up bracket... the base attaches to the tripod hole on the camera and was bought as is for about $10. I then use a spigot and small ballhead from a studio lighting setup on that base. The base swings around to move the flash further out when extending the MP-E. It\'s not elegant, but it is very light weight and works!
Examples:
Jun 26, 2010 at 08:52 PM
Previous versions of Bandi's message #8606576 « Post Your Set Up! »
. Over the hollow, cancave end of the diffuser is a thin piece of cotton wadding. 
