Skip to main content

Reversing Ring (Macro Photography)

Thanks to David at my local camera shop Camera Craft for giving me a M42 reversing ring + M42 to K-mount Adapter. This is a fun little gadget that’s a nice cheap way to get into extreme macro photography.


This is what the reversing adapter looks like.



The black ring is the one that you connect a lens to backwards. The silver ring is the adapter that converts the M42 screw mount to Pentax K-mount.


This is what the adapter looks like when it is mounted to the camera with a lens.



In the photo I’m using a Pentax FA 50mm f1.4 lens and a K10D camera body. When choosing a lens to reverse, it’s best to find one that has an aperture ring, otherwise you will need to get creative by somehow moving and locking the aperture lever to stop-down the lens when necessary.


Here is a very quick test:

First off I took a photo at f1.4 of a 40mm LTD lens hood.


A nice tiny-tiny slice of focus is available to work with.

My second test was at f5.6 of a USD quarter dollar.


You can see a larger area of perceived sharpness.

With the reversing ring and FA 50mm f1.4 I’m already to get the same level of magnification as the 100mm WR Macro and 1.5x teleconverter, which is quite nice!

Where to go from here?

  • I plan on looking for some extension tubes to extend the range of my macro setups.
  • I’m also going to look for some screw-mount or other older lenses that have a longer focal length that I can attach in reverse. I tried two thrift shops today without any luck, so I’ll probably check the used stores online after I check a few more places locally.
  • Look into mounting an extra flash to my flash-bracket to help light the scene (I have two manual flashes in addition to the Sigma DG530 Super). Although so far the one flash has been fine. I’ll just have to see if the extreme macro setup will be more difficult for it.
  • Do more research on focus bracketing, which is the processing of taking multiple photos with the focus shifted. In post processing the images are stacked together to create a sharp image over the whole scene.




Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

First look at the Sigma 18-50mm F/2.8 for Sony E-mount bought from KEH

I've use a Sony Alpha A6000 and the PZ 16–50mm F/3.5–5.6 OSS kit lens with my computer as a webcam for a long time now. It's a lower cost option that has been very consistent outputting 1080p at 30 FPS to a USB based HDMI capture device. The kit lens is generally fine, but it has a few quirks. The biggest issue is that throughout the zoom range the maximum aperture value is not fixed. This introduces technical challenges when I want to show detailed views of product or similar use cases. There are also other considerations I'll talk about later in this article. So I decided to buy the Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN | C lens in E-mount as a replacement.  Links in this article are a mix of paid and through my affiliates. I earn from each in different ways. One is a flat fee and the others I earn from qualifying purchases. Considering them for your purchasing needs helps make the creation of this information viable!   I made a video unboxing the lens and trying it out with Open ...
Read more

Camera Gear Reviews and Marketing Issues Exposed

A great overview by Gerald Undone on his experiences in the field of camera gear related videos! It is an important topic. The more open the better, I’d say. After over 13 years making photography and videography gear videos, I’ve not had a huge amount of success comparatively, but I’ve also never been especially brand safe to begin with for these companies to consider me. 🤣 I think his mentions toward the end of the video are especially important. The unwritten pressure, or worse with companies like Insta360 , shouldn’t be acceptable and should be publicly called out more often. That’s probably the only way things will actually change for the better. I created a video detailing my opinion on the topic further: More of my comments on the video… His YouTube channel. 4:30 I understand that’s what Gerald does, but are there situations where companies are paying for flights and hotel costs of other reviewers with the expectation of a video/article being produced? (EDIT: I’ve seen confirm...
Read more

Canon M6 Mark II HDMI & 10-bit Output?

I’m writing all of this down as in case sources disappear and I want to reference M6ii HDMI-out information in the future.  So this is not by any means a definitive source but rather a jumble of information I’m putting together in the moment. The “HDMI info disp” setting to select clean output mode. There is one webpage I know about that mentioned the Canon EOS M6 Mark II supports clean HDMI output in 10-bit 4:2:2. I don’t think the page exists any longer on Canon USA’s website because the old link no longer works after a redesign. https://youtu.be/_UT9u0XVn5U However it does currently exist on the Internet Archive . Here’s the important quote from that webpage:  HDMI recording: Menu-selected user choices for HDMI output with info (images recorded to the SD card); Clean 4K output, or Clean Full HD output. With clean output, compatible HDMI recorders can be connected with appropriate HDMI cords. During Clean HDMI out, video is not recorded to an in-camera SD card. With compatib...
Read more