Advice please

magicaxeman

magicaxeman

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I am seeking advice on a suitable lens for taking photographs of the moth's and other critters that come into my bedroom.

Now in days past I wouldn't have needed to ask and would have just got another Tamron SP90 macro but my circumstances mean I can't move around the room to get up close to them,I am in fact bed bound 24 hours a day.
So I need to be able to reach them via focal length alone.

Of course this is not helped by not only the fact that its always going to be shooting in relatively low light but also that I cant hand hold more than about 1-1.5 KG meaning I have to keep lens weight down.
Sadly this rules out a 70-200 2.8 or 4L IS as they would have to be tripod mounted at all times.

Current gear is:
canon 500D
canon 50mm 1.8
canon 85mm 1.8
tamron 55-200mm 4-5.6
and a tamron 17-50 2.8 on its way (for self portraits)

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Is there no way you could have something rigged up to use a table top tripod to take some of the weight or a monopod?

How much reach do you need- Sigma have a 150mm macro lens- weighs just under 1kg- about 900g maybe.

They also have the 105. Both are f2.8 but no IS I don't think

Canon have the 100mm macro in IS and non iS- might be a bit short?

Depends if you are really after macro or just want to get close?
70-300 IS and bump the ISO up?

Tricky one!
 
I think the macro's wont be long enough, I definitely need to go longer.

I had three rough idea's.

1- get at least a 70-300mm preferably with macro and either get an IS version or use flash.
2 - get a tamron SP90 and use a 2X teleconvertor
3 - bite the bullet and get a fast telephoto and use it on a tripod all the time.
 
iancandler said:
I think the macro's wont be long enough, I definitely need to go longer.

I had three rough idea's.

1- get at least a 70-300mm preferably with macro and either get an IS version or use flash.
2 - get a tamron SP90 and use a 2X teleconvertor
3 - bite the bullet and get a fast telephoto and use it on a tripod all the time.
Click to expand...

The Sigma and Tamron 70-300 are labelled 'macro' but they aren't true macro and also don't have IS. The Canon 70-300 is a better lens for image quality and comes with IS - it also doesn't pretend to be a macro lens.

Flash is an option although this would add to the weight- unless you were thinking off camera?

Don't think I would bother with the 2x teleconverter on the Tamron SP90- you'll lose two stops of light for a start and I'm sure the image quality would suffer.

You could use extension tubes with the Canon 70-300- Canon's II series tubes work with EF-S lenses. Some Kenko may work but I'm not an expert on EF-S lenses and compatibility so someone else would need to point you in the right direction there.

Buying a 70-200 f2.8 would definately sort out the low light issue and extension and teleconverters could also be used. Significant weight penalty but a cracking lens.

It's probably the best option if you can get by with using a tripod or monopod but if that is too inconvenient then it doesn't matter how good a lens it is as you'll end up not using it much.

I would definately have a think about how a 70-200 could be used - monopod/ tripod/ some kind of pulley device/ ratchet that you could use to take the weight - what we need is an engineer- there's always a solution!:lol:

Alternatively, maybe a used Canon 70-300, see how it goes- if it works great, if not sell it on- probably wouldn't lose much if at all. Certainly less outlay just to see.
 
Thinking 'outside the box' and all that stuff . . .

Get the critters to come to you.
Try flowers on the bedside table, or a lamp for the moths, even a plate with jam to attract wasps.

A macro lens will be better (I use a 150mm to give me some working distance), but your 80mm or 50mm with extension tubes would be cheap and effective if you can entice the things to get near to you.
 
I would have a go with a Raynox DCR-150 (maybe better than the DCR-250 for moths) on your 55-200. For £40, it will give you a good idea of what's possible - from Amazon. Zap 'em with flash.

You may be surprised at how good the Raynox is, but you might also like to consider a set of tubes on a better quality lens, or also think about the Canon 250D supplementary close-up lens (similar to the Raynox, but loads more money). If you use a few tubes, you'll probably lose AF as the f/number will rise above f/5.6, but manual focus is usually favourite for macro anyway.

First off I'd give that Raynox a punt :thumbs:
 
Thanks to all for their input.

I've been trying out flash with the 55-200mm and will post some results at the bottom.

This has led me to thinking along the lines of the tamron 70-300 as it offers 1:2 macro and fairly good IQ, more importantly for me it has an MFD of 0.95m which means I can shoot critters that land on the flowers placed on a bedside table without falling out of bed on the otherside lol. Sadly the Canon IS model has a too long MFD for this and a lower macro ratio (approx 1:3.29)
So all round I think its going to have to be a two fold attack to solve the issue, the tamron for now and the critters on the far wall of my room and ceiling, then a tamron SP90 for closer stuff at a later date.

Here's whats been picked up so far, though not great or true macro shots I'm relatively happy all things considered.

I've thumbnailed them to save server space, so please click the images for a larger size.

A silver Y moth


A rather persistent bush cricket.


A small (4mm) spider
 
What about a swivel-arm mounted to the wall by the headboard, and any tripod head mounted to that ... plus all the other advice about lenses and flash and stuff ?
I mean : instead of a tripod. Bit like those arms for mounting tellys.
 
Ulfric M Douglas said:
What about a swivel-arm mounted to the wall by the headboard, and any tripod head mounted to that ... plus all the other advice about lenses and flash and stuff ?
I mean : instead of a tripod. Bit like those arms for mounting tellys.
Click to expand...

Thats an idea thats in the pipeline for a large lens (400-500mm) for shooting outside.

At present I have an opticron hide clamp, tripod centre column, pan and tilt head attached to the bed on that side.
 
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