Camera Labs

I've been recently taking a lot of close-up pictures with my Minolta 50mm/2.8 macro lens. The lens is extremely sharp and reproduces 1:1 life size macro. On the overall I am very impressed by the overall performance of the lens and image quality (it probably outresolves my Sony A200). I am posting some of my favorites below. All of the shots are handheld and with autofocus enabled. ISO was typically around 400-800.
I hope Gordon does not mind a couple of images above 1000 resolution..









This is my only insect shot. The fly was constantly running over the flower and hence it is a little bit blurred.

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Sony A200
Sony A700
Tamron 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II
Minolta AF 50 F1.7
Minolta AF 50 F2.8
FLICKR

Nice pictures kost! I love the last one, even though the fly is a little blurred. Great work. I need to get myself a macrolens!

- Bjorn -

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Street and documentary photographer | Google+ | Twitter | Blog | Tumblr

Leica M9-P (my article on Camera Labs) | Leica D-Lux 5 | 50mm Summilux

Thanks Bjorn. Glad you liked the fly - I hope I'll be able to shoot something sharper in the future. Although this was a very small fly, not one of those fat bullies I sometimes find in my house. My favorite shot is a the leaf shown on the first picture.

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Sony A200
Sony A700
Tamron 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II
Minolta AF 50 F1.7
Minolta AF 50 F2.8
FLICKR

wow...i love this lens very nice...i wish i could use in my olympus

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Olympus E-30
Olympus E-1
12-60mm SWD F2.8-4
50-200mm SWD F2.8-3.5
50mm F2 Macro
FL-36R
SRF-11 Ring Flash Set
EX-25 Extension Tube
Dolica AX620B100 Tripod
and some mad Skillz

Awesome shots! You're easily a million times better than me.

I have no idea how you went so close up to the fly at 50mm with such a magnification without the bug buzzing off.

Even with the Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro 1:1 lens I use I can't get anywhere close enough to insects on plants without them flying away.

I guess it lies in the hands of the photographer, eh? ^^

SnS

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.: Sony DT 18-70mm :: Sony 75-300mm :: Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro 1:1 :: Minolta 24mm f/2.8 :: Sony 50mm f/1.8 :: Samyang 8mm f/3.5 fisheye :: SLIK Pro 330DX :: Manfrotto 496RC2 :.


my flickr

You can always use some poison spray so they won't be moving when you take your shot

Everything is illegal in Singapore

SnS

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.: Sony DT 18-70mm :: Sony 75-300mm :: Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Macro 1:1 :: Minolta 24mm f/2.8 :: Sony 50mm f/1.8 :: Samyang 8mm f/3.5 fisheye :: SLIK Pro 330DX :: Manfrotto 496RC2 :.


my flickr

I am not sure - the distance was about 3 cm but the fly was very busy on the flower and apprantly did not care about crazy photographer If I was using manual focus it would certainly run away. AF assist lamp occasionally flashing did not bother it as well. May be insects in Canada are not as shy as in Singapore?

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Sony A200
Sony A700
Tamron 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II
Minolta AF 50 F1.7
Minolta AF 50 F2.8
FLICKR

That's a reason why I'd be looking for the Sony 100mm macro instead of the 50mm macro, because insect tend to fly away (at least, here in Holland they do) whenever you get to close.
Don't have money for that lens though, there's others to be bought first .

- Bjorn -

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Street and documentary photographer | Google+ | Twitter | Blog | Tumblr

Leica M9-P (my article on Camera Labs) | Leica D-Lux 5 | 50mm Summilux

I was out in the wild today and shot this picture of a dragon fly with my Minolta macro lens



Just thought I'd share it with you as an additional picture.

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Sony A200
Sony A700
Tamron 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II
Minolta AF 50 F1.7
Minolta AF 50 F2.8
FLICKR

Nice picture, but I must say – I really feel that dragonflies are so ugly! I had one on my car windshield stuck while I was on the highway. You never think about how ugly they are until situations like that.

Was there anything special involved in getting that macro shot? It looks especially crisp and close.

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Sony ɑ200 + kit 18-70mm + Tamron 28-200mm + Minolta 28mm 2.8

If you think this looks ugly then you never seen close-up of spiders. I can tell you they look really really scary when magnified- something you don't want to meet living in a macro world. If you have good nerves - I can post my photo of a spider capturing a fly.
This shot turned out well - but it is only one crisp out of 10 blurry shots. I was handholding at ISO 800, aperture around 8, and if not the sun shining right at the subjet would not succeed very much. On the overall I am happy the gragonfly let me close around 5 cm and waited 2-3 minutes (enough to obtain 15-20 shots) to finally run away.

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Sony A200
Sony A700
Tamron 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II
Minolta AF 50 F1.7
Minolta AF 50 F2.8
FLICKR

Show us, show us . Don't like spiders at all but I love photos (also of spiders). Saw a great image last week taken with a 100mm lens with a reversed 50mm in front of it. You could actually count the eyes of the spider, beautiful.
The DoF of the dragonfly-shot is a little small, his eye is not quite sharp. That's what's holding me back from buying a macrolens, the fact that you have to use very small F-numbers to get sharp images. I like working wide-open, so...

- Bjorn -

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Street and documentary photographer | Google+ | Twitter | Blog | Tumblr

Leica M9-P (my article on Camera Labs) | Leica D-Lux 5 | 50mm Summilux

Hi Bjorn - you are right about the eyes and that's because I used F7.1 - anything higher would likely give a blur. If I had it on a tripod I'd defenetely used something like F22 but a tripod is a great impediment in terms of flexibility so I still prefer handholding most of the time.
I think I am going to make a new topic on spiders in the macro thread and post it there, as this one is already a little bit crowded according to Gordon's recommendations.

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Sony A200
Sony A700
Tamron 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II
Minolta AF 50 F1.7
Minolta AF 50 F2.8
FLICKR

I think I will put this lens on the high priority list, amazing pics,

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Sony A77, Sony A580, Sony18-55,Minolta AF28-85,Minolta AF 75-300,Minolta AF 50mm f2.8 Macro,Minolta MD 50mm f1.7,Minolta MD 135mm f2.8,Image MD 28mm f2.8,Minolta MD 50mm1.2
http://s1131.photobucket.com/home/bundy58/index
http://www.flickr.com/photos/67754225@N05/