A less than flash solution.

Logical Fallacy

Logical Fallacy

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Mark
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Decided to clear out some old unused togging bits and bobs taking up space recently.

One was a Coco ringflash adapter, abandoned a while back for it's limitations. It had the issue of being too harsh in it's lighting, and left images looking a bit flat. Main issue was that it was very big an bulky, and wouldn't let you get low enough as the botoom of the 'ring' extended a few inches below the lens.

As it was damaged, and subsequently held together with duct tape, I was going to chuck it away, but had a brief thought about maybe extending it's use a bit. So I chopped off the bottom half of the ring with a hacksaw, covered the ends up, and stuck it on the camera to see what it could do with the MP-E65

... by markhortonphotography, on Flickr

This was effectively at a little over 1:1. My MP-E has the 12mm tube on it, pretty much at all times. Sadly the ring flash won't reach the subject when extended very far, so this 'experiment' is really only a frivolous exercise. :) I quite like the semi circular highlights in the eyes though

It does work with the Raynox202 on the lens which ups the magnification to acceptable levels, but it's not the most flexible of options.

peekaboo ii by markhortonphotography, on Flickr

peekaboo i by markhortonphotography, on Flickr

Fun experiment which has probably extended the Coco's usefulness a little bit, but I still need a solution to easily keep the flash over the end of the MP-E65 as you extend and retract it through it's full length, which I don't see being possible without a 270ex type flash, which is not a possibility at the moment. :(
 
Think that lighting has really worked put a pic up of the setup and maybe we can assist with giving you ideas how to mount etc... :)
 
Couple of good shots Mark, with some nice detail.(y)

Although I feel the lighting has worked quite well and seems to be pretty even, for me it does appear to look a little flat and lacks a bit of sparkle, more so in the first shot. With macro work it always seems difficult to get a really good lighting balance between nice even lighting and lighting that still produces some good contrast without burn out.

I've been playing around with my own setup over the past few weeks with some success but still feel there is room for improvement. If I could get mine as good as Kurt and one or two of his buddys then I'd be well happy.;)

George.
 
Yes George, that's why I stopped using it with the 100mm, I preferred the contrast and depth from a single source.

The ideal would obviously be the MT24 and the ability to have different power flash from each side.

Maybe If i tape up the top of the remaining semi-circle and have different strength diffusers on each side?

TBH, I'm not sure if it's worth spending too much time on this, it would be very hard to get this attached to a FMMB of any sort and have it extend with the lens, so not a long term solution anyway.

If I had an FMMB, it would make more sense to have the flash up that end anyway, rather than on the hotshoe.
 
I'm not familiar with the Canon gear Mark, but have just been looking at the MT24 on their website. It seems to be a nice bit of kit and similar to the Nikon unit.

The Canon one though appears to me to be more versatile in as much as it's fired by attached lead from the control unit mounted on the hotshoe which as far as I can see could be used on other cameras in manual mode. In contrast to the Nikon unit that is fired by wireless either from a control unit attached to the hotshoe or from the cameras inbuilt flash (if it has one) in commander mode. Not as versatile as the Canon unit as the control unit cannot be activated on other makes of camera which rules it out for me as I use Fuji as well as Nikon.

A FMMB shouldn't be too difficult to knock up for yourself. I have recently made one out of a coupling support bracket from an old drive shaft that clamps around the front end of a lens or a lens filter ring. I then got an old straight flash bracket and bent it at right angles and bolted it to the bracket and then the flash is mounted on the right angled bracket.

I needed to do it this way as it allows me to alter the height and how far back from the front of the lens the flash is. By having the coupling support bracket either mounted on the front of the lens or a lens filter ring it obviously enables me to have the flash move with the lens focus. The flash is then angled down and activated through various diffusers.

I will of course post some pictures of it in the "Show us your macro rig" section, but at the moment I'm back in the States for a few more weeks yet, and most of my macro bits are in the UK.

George.
 
G.K.Jnr. said:
I will of course post some pictures of it in the "Show us your macro rig" section, but at the moment I'm back in the States for a few more weeks yet, and most of my macro bits are in the UK.
Click to expand...

Please do! I've just assembled all the components I need to build my FMMB mark II. Although the first one works great, there is a weak point where the bracket attaches to the filter ring (UV one with the glass removed). I've discovered they do 58-28mm step down ring which gives me a good 3mm to attach a bracket to and still doesn't obscure the lens on the MP-E.

Nice work Mark, looks like the flash was worth saving.
 
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