Do I get a macro lens asap?

I've got a photo shootout coming up in just over a week. I've been shooting with my G7 without a macro lens for the last year (do have WA though). Sometimes my macro shots come out well, other times they don't. I do, however, want to get some decent shots in this comp, obviously.

I'm not going to have a chance to get in the water before the competition, so will have not chance to try the lens out. Is there much, if any, of a learning curve with a macro?

And finally, is it worth getting one? Does anyone have any shots using a macro lens on a G7 or G9 that they can put up? Or can I get pretty much the same results from sticking the G7 in macro mode and zooming in a touch, as needed?

Some of my macros without a wet lens. None of them are 'super macro' shots, which is something I'd really like to get into...

Thanks,

Ry.

Hi,

What I am doing is I purchased a lens for my up and coming trip in May that I plan on selling when I get back. I'll lose about 15% in the deal but its a pretty good exchange for a months usage.

Gary

Hey RY

a friend of mine has the G9 in Ike housing . he thought the Quoted 1cm macro would be enough . when he came diving with me recently i got him to try my 2 inon ucl165 m67 lenses stacked and he loves them with the canon and is now set on getting a set of them .

the ad on wet lenses will allow you to get back a bit from your subjects and light them better and also shoot much smaller subjects ,also shoot subjects you would not even think , eg polops on corals, seastar closeups .

i would say definetly get the close up lenses i would recomend getting 2 , try shooting with 1 for the shootout . just remember you should zoom in 1/4 for one lense and 1/2 for 2 lenses .

do a search on flickr on G9 or G7 underwater there are some very impresive underwater macro shots using the macro lenses.

Regards

Matt

Hey RY

a friend of mine has the G9 in Ike housing . he thought the Quoted 1cm macro would be enough . when he came diving with me recently i got him to try my 2 inon ucl165 m67 lenses stacked and he loves them with the canon and is now set on getting a set of them .

 

the ad on wet lenses will allow you to get back a bit from your subjects and light them better and also shoot much smaller subjects ,also shoot subjects you would not even think , eg polops on corals, seastar closeups .

 

i would say definetly get the close up lenses i would recomend getting 2 , try shooting with 1 for the shootout . just remember you should zoom in 1/4 for one lense and 1/2 for 2 lenses .

 

do a search on flickr on G9 or G7 underwater there are some very impresive underwater macro shots using the macro lenses.

 

Regards

Matt

Hi!

Just got the Inon close up lense myself a couple of weeks ago. So far I had only one dive with it, which was not very successful to be honest. After talking to my dealer he told me that this lense is a "fixed focus" lense. He recommended to zoom in a bit (otherwise I will have vignetting with my camera), switch of the AF and then move in on the subject until the picture gets focused and the shoot. Distance with one lense should be about 15cm/6inch form the lense.

How do you shoot with your gear?

Wolfgang

Thanks for the replys everyone.

How do I shoot with my gear? Auto focus, AV mode, although generally I use f8 for macro, strobe on eTTL. When shooting macro, macro mode on get in as close as I can, zoom a little if need be. Play with strobe position to experiment with the lighting.

Not sure if I like the idea of a 'fix focus' lens. sounds like a bit of a pain in the butt.

Ryan.

Not sure if I like the idea of a 'fix focus' lens. sounds like a bit of a pain in the butt.

Yes. Most of those addon lenses are made to change the focal range of the camera to allow closer focusing while magnifying the subject. So the best way to use them is to find the focal point and move the camera in, or out, to achieve a good focus. The good news is you can remove it once you're done with macro and take other photos on the dive. Just be careful about screwing lenses on when your parked in the sand. A couple of grains of sand inbetween the threads and you'll destroy the port threads.

Yehah, I've had issues before with my WA lens, just fumbling around trying to get it on without cross threading it.

That's another question... How do people go carrying both a macro and a WA lens underwater? I'm thinking of maybe a little pocket somewhere to store one.

Yehah, I've had issues before with my WA lens, just fumbling around trying to get it on without cross threading it.

 

That's another question... How do people go carrying both a macro and a WA lens underwater? I'm thinking of maybe a little pocket somewhere to store one.

Hi! There are lens holders which you attach to the arm. For Inon you get to kinds: single and double lens holder. This way you can store away 2 lenses, and change them underwater as you like. For the Inon lenses this is a very flat cup with the correct threads to screw the lense into.

I would not use pockets for the lenses, as you may scratch the surface of the lens.

Wolfgang

Do the inon lens holders work on Ikelite arms though?

Do the inon lens holders work on Ikelite arms though?

Do not know, you need to ask a dealer.

Cheers, Wolfgang

the inon lense holders fit on to the Ultralight arms or the inon arms . waht i did is made a baseplate up from aluminium flat bar and fitted the lense holder to it . works really well and weight seems better balanced.

re using wide and macro lenses on one dive , i usually go for a dive with either wideangle or macro attached before the dive , and look for wide or macro subjects , i find changing lenses underwater is hard work.

Than that brings me back to my original question. If it's too hard to take both lenses on the one dive, why would I bother. I know most of my diving locally I'll take WA and macro shots, and the ease of using wet lenses on a P&S makes this posible.

I can take macro without a macro lens to some extent, and I do love WA and portrait shots, so is it really worth it when I cary a WA lens on 90% of my dives?