Seeing small things part 2
Phacelia campanularia. I had seeds from last year stored in the frig so I thought I should use them before they died. I planted these in late August and the flowers are just starting to bloom. I hope the killing frost will hold off a little longer so these tender plants will be able to bloom more.
Some kind of Salvia I started from seed a couple of years ago. This tall plant was a good buy because it blooms all summer and readily self seeds. I haven't had to buy more seeds. For some reason this is a difficult plant to photograph. Almost all my pictures of the flowers are slightly blurred. I don't know if the camera focusing sensor has a hard time distinguishing features or if the color is somehow difficult for focusing mechanism.
Pink Begonia.
"Home Run (TM) Rose". I love the velvety look of the petals.
Two photos of millet seed that sprouted from seed spilled around the bird feeders. The first one is of a seedhead and the second, the flowering stage which is a bit strange because you can already see the seeds forming. Shouldn't it be the flower first then the seeds forming?
Unknown pink bush type rose.
I think this is a black-eyed Susan. I don't know why it is so tiny, about the size of a nickel but it looked colorful and interesting so I added it.
Here's the objective lens of the binoculars and how it is hand held in front of the normal camera lens. Notice the lens has two elements or pieces of glass glued together. It also has a color corrected coating for truer colors and less color fringing.
You can see why I would prefer to use the Panasonic since it's much, much, lighter in weight, smaller, thinner and definitely more portable than the Canon especially when the lens adapter tube is attached to Canon so it can accept macro lenses.
posted by Ki at
4:59 AM
6 Comments:
Oh, now I see (and understand) the technique.
The blue of the phacelia is so striking. I never got around to planting any this year.
Hi Entangled,
It's really a simple set up. I tried holding the lens out a bit to see if that gave more magnification (it didn't) but you started to see the edges of the binocular lens very quickly, probably not more than 1/2" away from the camera lens. Anyway handholding the lens without support is difficult especially if you have to keep the lens square to the camera. As you can see in the photo, even having the camera lens housing as a support, I still have the lens a bit askew.
I adjusted the levels in the photo of the Phacelia a bit because I thought it was too light but otherwise did not adjust the color of the flower. I usually add sharpening because almost all the photos I take with the digital cameras are too soft. And I adjust the photo to suit me realizing that I could never approximate the exact color in nature with the added filter of the camera software and the different monitors people use to see the images. I went the the library to see what the pictures looked like and their monitors were so crappy it made everything look indistinct and purply. After that experience I realized that I should just do what suits me. I don't think most people have even calibrated their monitors to view photos anyway. ;)
Interesting to see how your macro works. I've never seen a lens like that small one. My digi cam is big so I'm used to carrying around something big. It is nice to have a small cam though. Those macro pics really bring out the texture of the flowers.
Hi Vanilla Lotus.
The small Panasonic camera is very nice because I can pocket it very easily and it has an image stabilizer which is almost a necessity with very small cameras. The Canon is heavy enough and has a very nice handhold so it is pretty stable but with the tiny camera I can even see the camera shake with every beat of my heart with my arms extended! fortunately the image stabilizer compensates for the shake and most of the photos turn out ok. Indeed it is nice to see flower textures.
I like a small camera for portability too, but it was hard to get used to at first (almost TOO small and light). Nice pictures!
Hi Lisa,
When using the small camera my thumb seems to always be in the wrong place which usually means I've pressed one of the buttons and have to get out of the menu before I'm able to take the picture. The camera has a place for the thumb indicated by small raised bumps but my hand does not naturally fall into position with my thumb where they want it to be. As with other things in life, there's always a trade off.
Also with tiny, lightweight cameras an optical image stabilizer is a necessity. I had one that didn't have OIS and it was extremely frustrating to use. I usually ended up with many blurred pictures.
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