Attracted a dung fly onto a sugar/honey mix sprayed camelia bush. Not seen too many of these about so far.

Brian v.





Crop from above shot

It's a beauty. Your crops with the 5D amaze me, the detail, is that just pixel numbers and size?

Mark

MarkB1 wrote:
It's a beauty. Your crops with the 5D amaze me, the detail, is that just pixel numbers and size?

Mark

Thanks mark for the comments.
Re the crops - combination of shooting at fairly open apertures to avoid diffraction softening and the amazing detail the 5Dmk2 sensor captures- a mix of FF and high pixel number I think. I'm pretty certain that doing a portrait crop from a landscape photo on the 5Dmk2 (which gives approx the same pixel size image as my 40D camera) gives a higher IQ than the 40D.
I'm still trying to work out if I'm better off shooting at higher mags to get the same "print magnification" as a 1.6 crop camera or just cropping the image

Brian v.

The math is not something I have time enough to work out in this life. Learning curve looks like a interstellar trajectory to an old brain.

It would be interesting to see the detail of such high mag on the 5D as the MPE gives on the 40D. But if crop works, the eye can't see the difference, why not.

Mark

nice shots,with your gear, the crop is a useful tool,would be a pity not to make use of it

Handsome devil, isn't it now?

Kenny

Super images! What lens/light source are you using?

I like that sweet stuff trick! Gonna try it!

Phil

Thanks for the comments Michael, Kenny and Phil - appreciated

Kenny - not sure handsome is the right word for these- they are certainly different to other flies with rather nice colour. Seeing one demolishing another fly kinda puts you off

Phil - MPE-65 lens/5Dmk2 body and bracket mounted 430Ex flash gun with a coke-can diffuser.

Brian v.

LordV wrote:

Phil - MPE-65 lens/5Dmk2 body and bracket mounted 430Ex flash gun with a coke-can diffuser.

Brian v.

Hi Brian,
Really lovely work mate. I'm almost convinced that it would be worthwhile buying a s/h Canon body and one of those MPE macro-marvels. . . . I'm very tempted.
Anyway, you have mentioned your "coke can diffuser" a few times before, any chance of a look at one?
Bruce...

TheBat wrote:
LordV wrote:

Phil - MPE-65 lens/5Dmk2 body and bracket mounted 430Ex flash gun with a coke-can diffuser.

Brian v.

Hi Brian,
Really lovely work mate. I'm almost convinced that it would be worthwhile buying a s/h Canon body and one of those MPE macro-marvels. . . . I'm very tempted.
Anyway, you have mentioned your "coke can diffuser" a few times before, any chance of a look at one?
Bruce...


Thanks Bruce

You can get to the magnification ranges of an MPE-65 with ext tubes and a reversed 50mm lens on the front of a macro lens around 100mm focal length but the MPE is a lot more conveniant to use

Coke-can diffuser details here http://www.flickr.com/groups/macroviewers/discuss/72157594312315664/

Brian V.

Thanks Brian. I've known Tom Hicks for years. He's been very helpful to me. Also Ronnie Gaubert from my area (hope you've heard of him).

I'm trying hard to get some REALLY good macro work going. But using flash has been tough. It tends to mix with the ambient light when in the field. Hope that makes sense.

Phil Orgeron

PhilO wrote:
Thanks Brian. I've known Tom Hicks for years. He's been very helpful to me. Also Ronnie Gaubert from my area (hope you've heard of him).

I'm trying hard to get some REALLY good macro work going. But using flash has been tough. It tends to mix with the ambient light when in the field. Hope that makes sense.

Phil Orgeron

Phil, mixed flash and natural light can be great but if the sunlight is harsh it can be a pain. For the shots above i was actually shading the fly from strong sun with my body. Not something you normally do with bugs as it would often spook them, but if they are feeding you can often get away with it. I tend to test them first by momentarily shading them to see how they will react. If they stay put I close in.
Brian v.

Excellent set Brian -lots of texture detail in the fly

Dalantech wrote:
Excellent set Brian -lots of texture detail in the fly

Thanks John
Brian v.

Amazing detail on the crap...I mean crop! Sorry, got caught up with the whole 'dung' thing

Matt_3D wrote:
Amazing detail on the crap...I mean crop! Sorry, got caught up with the whole 'dung' thing

Thanks Matt
Brian V.