Just got back from Bonaire and had a chance to use the new Olympus Macro lens with my C-4040z setup. For starters, the lens magnifies much more than the INON lens, which I also own. In my opinion, the Olympus lens is a bit less fuzzy around the periphery of the image that the INON lens but it can be tough to tell what is an lens artifact and what is an artifact of very small depth of field. With the camera at full telephoto there is a very small focus range just a couple inches in front of the camera. What this means is that you have to be w/in an inch or so either way of the appropriate distance to make even a little sense of what is on the LCD screen. Next time, I will probably experiment with setting a manual focus distance into the camera and moving the whole setup back and forth to achieve focus. I will attempt to post an image when I get home this evening that I think is a decent example of what you can get with the lens. In other news, I flooded one of my DS-125s. It was actually a very impressive flood, as the strobe began acting erratically, got very warm, then popped the main O-ring separating the front of the strobe from the body from the inside out! After that, it filled up with sea water. My guess is that it leaked at the battery compartment interface then it shorted out causing something in the strobe to fry and create a pressure build up. I'll relate the post-mortem results when Ike's staff has had a chance to do an autopsy for me. The good news is that both DS-125's were giving consistent exposures before the little mishap and I could easily adjust output with the camera's internal strobe exposure compensation feature. My only problem is that the LCD on my camera seems to make the photos look brighter than my monitor at home does . . .
Mike
.... My only problem is that the LCD on my camera seems to make the photos look brighter than my monitor at home does . . .
Mike
So turn up the brightness of your monitor at home
Seriously.... the best way to check exposure is to use "levels" in photoshop or something equivalent. If you see a big spike on the right edge, you've over exposed it. If there's a gap on the right side, you're underexpose.
Bring along a laptop and check as soon as you can after the dive. Don't mess with the brightness setting of the LCD. After a few dives, you eyes will be dialed in on the LCD output.
Looking forward to your macro shots.
Didn't have room for the laptop as I took my film gear as well as the digital rig. Oh well. That was one of the things I liked about the D60 -- you could adjust the menu to have it show the histogram after every shot. Anyway, here's an example -- no cropping.
Mike, incredible close-up...........I returned 3 weeks ago from Bonaire, but came back with two functioning DS-125's..........I've had 2 flood this year on earlier trips, so you're due for better days
Are you shooting in TTL? manual mode?
How about some more shots?
Karl
Mike. Well done! Good exposure. Looks like you took this one before the stobe flooded.
The DOF on this shot look good to me. It looks like everything from the coral in the forground to the goby in the back is in focus.
Actually, I have two strobes so I was able to continue on after strobe number one flooded. Picture was done in TTL with a bit of positive flash compensation dialed in. With the amount of maginification and the shallow focus area, I found it extremely hard to get a shot framed and in focus and keep it there long enough to wait for the shutter lag, etc. In fact, the blenny one is really the only one I'm happy with. I thought I might have had some good crab shots from the night town pier dive but with the surge and all the people kicking me (it was just a bit crowded under there), I really didn't get good pictures of the tiny critters I saw. I did, however, get some of the bigger critters. I just love the sunburst patterns on the shell of this guy .
Mike
Great shot there Mike! I was wondering about the new Olympus macro lens. Looks like you're getting substantially less fuzzyness around the periphery than I'm getting with my Sea & Sea 3T lens.
Meister
Didn't have room for the laptop as I took my film gear as well as the digital rig. Oh well. That was one of the things I liked about the D60 -- you could adjust the menu to have it show the histogram after every shot. Anyway, here's an example -- no cropping.
Hi Mike,
Could you please post the exposure information for this shot? I'm curious to know what your aperture and shutter speed settings were. I believe the blurring you're seeing might be due to camera shake and not so much an imperfection in the lens. One thing that makes me believe this is my personal observation that any imperfection in the lens shows up as a motion blur in the photograph instead of a soft focus blur.
I have also noticed from shooting with many macro attachment lenses that there seems to be a range of distance where the camera can focus on the subject yet the difference in distance can affect the sharpness of the out of focus area quite profoundly. I have photos taken with the Sea & Sea 3T lens where the subject has been in focus yet the corner edges on some shots have been better focused than others.
You are on the right track though with regards to shooting macro. The best settings I have found for shooting macro have been in manual focus mode. In such cases I will move the camera back and forth to find the best focus plus you have the added benefit of a very short shutter lag.
Laz
Hi Laz,
Sorry for not responding sooner but I thought the thread was dead so I quit looking at it! Anyway, I don't think there is much blurring at all, but if there is any, I doubt it was from camera shake. f8, 1/125 ISO100. Camera was in manual mode, macro setting, with some flash compensation dialed in (can't tell how much from the EXIF data I'm seeing in ACDSee or Camedia).
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