Lens Question

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Runner

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Martin
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I am visiting a butterfly house in a couple of weeks and wondered if anyone could advise which lens to use. I have a Nikon 70-300 VR and was thinking would i need a macro lens which I would have to hire for the day. Or would the 70-300 be ok.
 
I dont think the 70-300vr would be much use, as its not very close focusing, so you wont really be able to see any of the butterflys. You'd have to stand pretty far away from them to even focus.

I think you will be best off with a good macro, maybe a 60mm or 105mm.
 
How about buying a set of extension tubes? They will cost a little more than rental, but then they're yours for always. Pop them between the camera and lens and presto, not a macro lens, but will get you nice a frame filling butterfly shot.

I assume that this will work as well for a Nikon lens as a Canon one.
 
swag72 said:
How about buying a set of extension tubes? They will cost a little more than rental, but then they're yours for always. Pop them between the camera and lens and presto, not a macro lens, but will get you nice a frame filling butterfly shot.

I assume that this will work as well for a Nikon lens as a Canon one.
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Agree with Sara. TBH I think you have to be pretty serious about macro to need a pukka macro lens when you can get very good results with extension tubes at low cost, and also benefit from the flexibility of a zoom.

I've done just that in a butterfly house and would have got only half the number of shots with a fixed focal length macro. These little critters don't just sit right in front of you while you mess about, you have to take them as you find them and the zoom is a real boon.

Even cheaper than tubes and so easy to use is a supplementary close up lens. A +3 diopters should be about right for butterflies with that lens, only £30 from Hoya, B+W etc.

The other thing you'll benefit from is a ring-flash. There are lots of shady corners in these places and you need to keep the shutter speed up to avoid shake. Marumi make a cheap one for £100 that gets good rep. I use a RingFlash Adapter which hooks up to a regular hot shoe gun. Either way, take a flash gun.
 
Surely it will be cheaper and more productive to hire a quality macro lens for this one occasion rather than playing around with tubes?

The 70-300 is a big lens as it is, sticking tubes on the front will make it massive.
 
Not really, and considering tubes go on the back, I'm not too sure where that idea came from...
 
TCR4x4 said:
Surely it will be cheaper and more productive to hire a quality macro lens for this one occasion rather than playing around with tubes?

The 70-300 is a big lens as it is, sticking tubes on the front will make it massive.
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But you don't need to use all of the tubes. Using the small 12mm one can make quite a difference, hardly adding any length or weight to the lens. Of course it can become cumbersome if you stack all three between the camera and lens, along with lighting issues as well, but certainly the 2 smallest ones 12mm and 25mm, you'd hardly notice they're there.
 
trencheel303 said:
Not really, and considering tubes go on the back, I'm not too sure where that idea came from...
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So sticking something on the back rather than the front doesnt make it longer??? :thinking:
 
markseventphotos said:
a bit left of centre,are these places sometimes quite Humid,
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Tell me about it!

I ended up in a butterfly house at the weekend (Tropical Wings in Essex) and it took about 10-15 mins for my camera to "warm up" as it was a bit of a chilly day and I'd been outside for most of it.

I'll try and post up some of my shots later. I used my Sigma 18mm-200mm which didn't do a bad job but I was let down by the f6.5 when at 200mm as it was quite dark and I felt seeing as bouncing the flash would have been a little tricky/impossible, direct flash might just oblitorate the naturally vibrant colours.

But you lot can be the judge of that later :lol:
 
was hoping not to outlay too much a macro lens will cost approx £35 for a 3 day hire. So the general feel is a 70-300 would not be a good choice, what size macro would be the best to hire?
 
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Runner said:
So without sounding thick you would say my 70-300 would be ok?
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I don't see why not a close up filter is your cheapest option why not try a few shots at home?
I'm sure you could find something or even draw a butterfly on a piece of paper to practice on before hand :)
 
If you do hire a macro lens, you need to be looking at 100mm minimum really. I say that as then you can get a little working distance between you and the subject. Even with that, you will need to practice your creeping up on things in stealth mode. Also, without flash on a macro lens, you need to make sure that there's a lot of light about if you've not got a flash.
 
Runner said:
So without sounding thick you would say my 70-300 would be ok?
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Yes. Either get some tubes or just stick a +3 close-up lens on it for £30, as I suggested above. Get a good quality coated one, eg Hoya or B+W. Amazon, Warehouse Excpress, Fotosense, Camera King, Bristol Cameras, Morris Photo... And some kind of flash.
 
TCR4x4 said:
So sticking something on the back rather than the front doesnt make it longer??? :thinking:
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It was a slightly sarcy (and on hindsight, cheeky) comment to suggest that you weren't very knowledgeable in what extension tubes actually were.

12mm and 25mm tubes certainly aren't exactly that long - I use a 12mm tube on the back of my 85 quite a lot to overcome the lousy MFD of the lens (this is where crop factor would be good) and it is hardly noticeable - and the 85 is NOT a big lens.

Dedicated macro lenses are quite large anyway as they need all that extra glass and space to allow the range from macro to infinity. Look at the 100 macro for instance - much longer physically than the 100/2 or 85.
 
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If you contact the butterfly house you can sometimes get a early entry into the glass house before the heaters are turned up.
This is ideal as they are less active before the temp increases oh and don't change lenses once your in there they have a tendency to steam up on the rear element as well as the front:(
 
Runner said:
So without sounding thick you would say my 70-300 would be ok?
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What camera have you got? Most butterfly places I have been to aren't all that well lit. So with the 70-300mm you will need high ISO unless you can use a flash.

Last time I went I got the best results using my 50mm F1.8. I tried it with a DCR250, but when using that you couldn't get the whole butterfly in frame. Good for close up headshots, but thats about it (not to mention needing to shoot at F10+ with it to increase DOF). No problem with an external flash, but wasn't sure if I could use one or not.

Seeing as your local, where are you going? I went to the one at Stratford-upon-avon. Was really humid and hot when first got in there, and couldn't get any pictures, after a while though they turned the A/C on cooled the place right down.
 
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trencheel303 said:
It was a slightly sarcy (and on hindsight, cheeky) comment to suggest that you weren't very knowledgeable in what extension tubes actually were.

12mm and 25mm tubes certainly aren't exactly that long - I use a 12mm tube on the back of my 85 quite a lot to overcome the lousy MFD of the lens (this is where crop factor would be good) and it is hardly noticeable - and the 85 is NOT a big lens.

Dedicated macro lenses are quite large anyway as they need all that extra glass and space to allow the range from macro to infinity. Look at the 100 macro for instance - much longer physically than the 100/2 or 85.
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My 100mm F/2.8L macro is no where near as long as the Nikon 70-300VR is though, and Im pretty sure the Nikon 105 isnt that long either.

I know exactly what extension tubes are thanks, and they will cost a damn sight more than the £35 to hire a macro lens.
 
TCR4x4 said:
I know exactly what extension tubes are thanks, and they will cost a damn sight more than the £35 to hire a macro lens.
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They do cost more than £35, but you only need to use them 3 times and you're quids in. Well worth it and at least not money down the drain like rentals.
 
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