A tiny damsel, larger than life

 

I took a brief stroll around the work campus this afternoon, between showers. As is almost always the case, I had my camera in tow. The lenses vary, but this time the mega-macro Canon MP-E 65 lens was bolted to the Canon 5D Mark III. I wrote in some detail about this awesome niche lens HERE. The MP-E is not normally my default lens for traipsing about, as it does limit one's options. I like to have it in the pack and close at hand, but have some other more versatile lens attached to the camera.

However, time was tight, and I had decided to just seek macro material on this brief foray. I struck Odonate gold when I spotted a tiny Fragile Forktail, Ischnura posita, resting on a leaf just off the path. This damselfly is truly Lilliputian; perhaps only the Eastern Red Damselfly, Amphiagrion saucium, can lay claim to such minuteness among our damsel fauna. One might pass off a Fragile Forktail as a strange small fly or some other inconsequential bug without a good look.

The forktail gave me one chance for a shot, and it appears above. The flashes spooked it further into the foliage, and that was that. But this image is not bad, and may help allay some criticism of the difficulty of using the MP-E 65 lens in the field, and without a tripod. As small as this damselfly is, it can barely be squeezed into the MP's field of view, even at its lowest magnification. This shot is slightly cropped; on the original, much of the abdomen was visible, but not the terminal end - it was out of the field of view. Had I had more time to compose, I could have got it all in the image (barely), but I wanted the head shot and was focused on that. You can even make out tiny orangish mites - one between the eyes, one on the lateral black stripe, and a few on the underside of the thorax. With some slight tweaks in Photo Shop, which I have yet to do, the exposure will be picture-perfect.

The MP-E 65 lens has no focus ring - the photographer just moves the camera until the subject comes into focus. Turning the ring on the lens increases magnification, all the way to an amazing 5x power. It is like looking through a microscope. I find I can handhold the rig without undue difficulty at 1x or even 2x; anything beyond that requires some sort of stabilization. An issue with shooting unrestrained live animals such as this damselfly is the very close working distance required with this lens. The front of the lens was probably six inches or less from the damsel when I made the image, and a lot of critters won't put up with that sort of intrusion. If they will, the photographer can bag some incredible images, far beyond what even an extremely capable macro lens such as Canon's 100 mm L-series can produce.

I've only had a few weeks practice with this lens, but am honing in on its sweet spots. The best setting I've found thus far is: ISO - 100; aperture of f/16; 1/200 shutter speed. Flash is essential and the rig to have is Canon's twin lite flash setup, where the flashes are mounted on a ring at the end of the lens. The flash commander mounted on the hotshoe is set to ETTL mode, and communication between flash and camera is generally excellent. The twinlite flashes also have small pre-lights mounted on them, which can be activated with a quick double-tap of the camera's shutter release button. Those lights allow the photographer to easily see the subject and compose the image before firing the shot. Pre-lighting is often helpful, even essential, as the tiny aperture of the MP-E 65 lens lets very little light in and thus one's view through the view finder is often very dim.

If you are a serious macro photographer, I would highly recommend this lens. Of course (and I have no relationship with Canon!), you must shoot a Canon body. No other manufacturer, insofar as I know, makes a comparable lens.

Canon EOS 5D Mark III

The world of cameras and photography can be a vortex that can suck a victim in deep. Their wallet, too. My addiction has been a steady progression, but with this latest acquisition, my disease will hopefully be arrested. For some time, anyway.

I suppose my experience isn't that atypical for someone who really gets into photography. It all started with point and shoots - many of which are amazingly competent these days. I've still got two really nice ones. But there's only so far a P & S can take one. So then come the DSLR cameras and their multitude of interchangeable lens and considerably greater processing power and adjustment capabilities. I began with a couple of really nice DSLR's, but towards the lower to middle end of the range. And all was good for a while.

Then I ran into someone with something better. A Canon EOS 5D Mark III, to be exact.

After handling their 5D Mark III and seeing its capabilities firsthand, I was totally impressed. So much so that I immediately began plotting to get one. And I did, just a few days ago. This is an amazing camera with a 22 MP full frame sensor and all manner of other high tech goodies. One of the things that wowed me was the laser beam focusing. No hunting and pecking with this thing - aim the focal point through a bunch of leaves and it'll lock right in on a partially obscured warbler or other target. Another capability that pushed me to get the new 5D is its incredible ISO functioning. It'll shoot up to a level of 25,600 standard ISO and still produce photos with amazingly minimal noise. This means that the photographer can manage very fast shutter speeds, and/or smaller apertures even in poor light. Such functionality is especially good for shooting bird images.

I've barely had a chance to try the new Canon out; just a short 30 minutes or so wandering the grounds outside my office. When I got the camera, I also picked up Canon's L-series 17-40 wide angle lens, which is a topnotch piece of glass that can produce professional grade landscapes and all manner of other images. I turned it on this giant specimen of a Shale-barren Aster, Symphyotrichum oblongifolium, but can't wait to get this lens into a largescale landscape setting full of interesting features.

After a few snaps with the 17-40 lens, I unclipped it and snapped on the Canon 100 mm macro lens, which I already had in the arsenal. I'd used this lens a lot, with my Canon Rebel T3i, and was already thoroughly impressed with it. I figured it would function even better when bolted to the 5D and it looks like it will. The individual pollen grains that dust this hardworking Honeybee can be easily discerned, in spite of a bit of operator error - I forgot to turn on the lens' image stabilizer. That little switch makes a big difference when shooting little things while hand-holding the camera.

Same deal with this Chinese Mantid - forgot to activate the image stabilizer, but it still came out pretty well.

A trip to Shawnee State Forest is in store later today, and I'll finally get the chance to really work with the 5D. Hopefully I'll return with some decent captures, and hopefully this camera will lead to a steady improvement in the quality of images posted to this blog.
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