topic Re: Reverse Lens Macro Photography in EF & RF Lenses

Reverse Lens Mount Recommendations for Macro Photography

Italian4215 — Tue, 28 Jan 2025 17:17:16 GMT

In terms of build quality and performance, what type of reverse lens mount should I be looking at? I'm looking to use this method in place of buying a Macro lens at the moment, just to test the waters and explore the world of Macro photography. Any tips, tricks or buying advice would be great. Thanks

Re: Reverse Lens Macro Photography

ebiggs1 — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 15:57:14 GMT

You won't like my answer but don't do it. It sorta works but not very well and it works better with prime lenses than zooms.

Save your money for a real macro.

Re: Reverse Lens Macro Photography

Italian4215 — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 14:51:28 GMT

I've read that using this method you have to be fairly close to the subject to be in focus approx. 4in opposed to say 6in? Now for argument sake, a good Macro lens will cost $400+ were as a reverse lens mount somewhere in the range of $10+ So although some of the negitives (focusing, closeness to subject, quality of photo, etc.) out weigh the positives, I think for the price, it is a good starting ground to get my foot in the door and learn some of the basics of Macro photography. But perhaps I'm wrong, you (based on previous posts I've read) seem very knowledgable. Again any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Reverse Lens Macro Photography

ebiggs1 — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 15:53:50 GMT

At this point, than, I would say "go for it!" Experience is the best teacher.

Re: Reverse Lens Macro Photography

Skirball — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 16:03:01 GMT

If you can find one for $10 then go for it, what do you have to lose? Ok, $10, but that's nothing. You won't get near the detail as you would with a macro lens, and detail is a major element of macro, part of what makes it so interesting. It also requires much more fiddling than using a lens normally. I've never done it with a single lens, but I've reversed a lens onto another, and I'd guess it's a pretty similar experience. Although your minimum focus distance is more like 2 inches, not 4... it's really **bleep** close. Hard to get light in.

Biggs is right about the primes too, you're going to get much better results. If you have any intent of ever getting a fast prime like the nifty fifty, it'll do ok reversed, pretty **bleep** good normal in low light, and is fairly inexpensive. Of course, if you really want to get into macro, that's $100 you could have put towards a macro lens.

Re: Reverse Lens Macro Photography

Italian4215 — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 16:52:25 GMT

I've read that I can back a lens reversed to another. What is the benifits/cons of doing it that way instead of using a reverse mounting ring? Is one way better than the other?

Re: Reverse Lens Macro Photography

Skirball — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 18:41:53 GMT

Lens stacking is done to get really close, past 1:1 sizing. You're stacking up a lot of glass, so you need decent lenses, primes really. It's not without a lot of drawbacks. Your depth of field is teeny tiny, so you kind of need to stack photos to get something recognizable; so there's a lot of post processing that is time consuming. You also need a focus rail because of the size of the DoF. The focus distance is under 2 inches, so lighting these tiny subjects takes a bit of work too.

The results are a lot of fun, but resemble a microscope more than a camera. I wouldn't do it all the time, but I enjoyed playing around with the technique. I did this one with a 100mm macro stacked with a reversed 50mm, so it's 2:1. I think I used around 20 images stacked together to get the final, and you can still see slices where it's fuzzy inbetween sharp slices.

Re: Reverse Lens Macro Photography

Italian4215 — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 18:46:57 GMT

Thanks for that bit of info. Nice photo by the way.

Re: Reverse Lens Macro Photography

majestros — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 20:24:28 GMT

The issues you will have with a reversing adapter on the main body is lack of apeture control. This will make your depth of field VERY shallow. However, if you do do a straight reversing adapter, use it with a lens ~25-75mm focal length, this will give you ~3x to .5x magnification. Consider buying a used Canon FD 50mm lens super cheap (~$30) on ebay or the like and you should be able to keep apeture control.

When stacking lenses, you would put your 18-55 on stacked on your 55-250 (which is mounted directly to the body), this could potentially give you very good magnification, but probably not the best sharpness with those lenses.

If you are looking for a medium cost alternative, I would suggest extension tubes (~$30-100 if you want autofocus) or close-up lenses/filters (~$15-80). I got my start in macrophotography with a 58mm Canon 500D close-up filter (~$80) and enjoyed it with my 55-250mm lens (same as yours). With both options you lose infinity focus but keep apeture control and (potentially) autofocus.

The cheap close-up filters ($15) will likely have chromatic abberation but the 250D and 500D have pretty good image quality and you don't lose any light.

Re: Reverse Lens Macro Photography

Temma — Mon, 18 Nov 2013 16:24:52 GMT

Consider buying a used Canon FD 50mm lens super cheap (~$30) on ebay or the like and you should be able to keep apeture control.

This is excellent advice.

I have two 35mm film SLRs. I don't use them anymore, but the 50mm primes that came with them are perfect for reversing. The manual aperture adjustment allows me to get reasonable depth of field.

Pretty much any manual 35mm film SLR lens will do. I have both Minolta and Vivitar. The only consideration is the filter size. Just make sure you order the right size reverse ring.

Re: Reverse Lens Macro Photography

amfoto1 — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 03:11:51 GMT

My advice would be to simply get a set of Macro Extension Tubes that support AF and aperture control and use those with the lenses you have.... The 18-55mm set to 55mm or the 55-250 set to between 55 and 100mm or so.

There are inexpensive macro tubes selling for around $75 for a set, not fancy, plastic bodied but with metal bayonet mounts. Zeikos (also sell as Bower, Vivitar, ProOptic and a bunch of other brand names) that have sort of odd sizes in the set: 13mm, 21mm and 31mm. Opteka just stared offering a set too, for around the same price, but with more traditional sizes: 12mm, 20mm and 36mm.

Canon sells 12mm and 25mm tubes individually. So does Kenko, who also offer a set that included 12mm, 20mm and 35mm. All these are more expensive than the plastic bodied tubes, but are definitely better quality, too.

Do not waste your money on the really cheap Macro Extension Tubes... Under $25... Sometimes under $15. They lack the electronic contacts, which means no AF and no aperture control. No AF isn't all that big a deal, it's often easier to use manual focus techniques for macro, anyway. But no control of the aperture is a pain in the arse (there is a work-around, but it's really slow, involved and fussy).

There are two ways to reverse lenses.... One is to reverse the lens right on the camera. The other is to reverse stack a lens on top of another lens on the camera.

Reversing the lens right on the camera means no AF and no control over aperture control if using modern AF lenses. Vintage manual focus lenses, which have an aperture control dial right on the lens, can be used. BUT, CANON FD IS NOT USABLE. All FD lenses stop down to f5.6 when removed from the camera and remain there. In other words you cannot change the aperture by changing the setting on the dial on the lens, without a special, hard to find device that installs like a rear lens cap.

Even so, a reversed lens makes for very high and difficult to work with magnifications. It will almost always mean using a tripod and often you will need auxiliary lighting (at a minimum, a portable flash and an off-camera shoe cord).

A reversed and stacked lens is a little different and more practical. This is usually done with two prime lenses, is difficult or impossible with zooms. Often a 28mm or 35mm lens is reversed on the front of a 135mm, for example. Ideally the two lenses should the same filter thread size. That makes it easier to get a stacking ring to join them together. The lens on the front act like a high quality diopter of sorts. You'll be somewhat limited to a range of fairly high magnification. The rear lens still provides control over the aperture, though AF probably won't work.

By the time you set up either type of reversing rig, you'll most likely have more than $75 in it. So it would likely be easier and cheaper to just get a set of Macro Extension Tubes to experiment with. That would be my recommendation. They are very versatile and come in handy for many things... I always have a set with me (sometimes even use them on macro lenses).

***********
Alan Myers

San Jose, Calif., USA
"Walk softly and carry a big lens."
GEAR: 5DII, 7D(x2), 50D(x3), some other cameras, various lenses & accessories
FLICKR & PRINTROOM

Re: Reverse Lens Macro Photography

trulandphoto — Thu, 21 Nov 2013 19:32:43 GMT

@majestros wrote:
The issues you will have with a reversing adapter on the main body is lack of apeture control. This will make your depth of field VERY shallow. [...]

I have used a reverse adapter with a 50mm f/1.4 and you can control aperture by setting the aperture connected normally and then removing the lens with the camera still powered up. The lens will retain the aperture when disconnected and then can be reversed.

Extension tubes are easier, but more expensive. Closeup lenses are another option. There are many ways to get close to a subject. One of my favorite things to play around with.

Re: Reverse Lens Macro Photography

skasmith — Tue, 28 Jan 2025 17:11:09 GMT

I am curious why no one mentioned using a bellows, or extension tubes. Those were my primnary tolls when I did macro on film. It seems (from a quick search) the gear is out there, so why not use it?

Re: Reverse Lens Macro Photography

kvbarkley — Tue, 28 Jan 2025 17:56:02 GMT

You did not read very carefully.

From amphoto1:

"My advice would be to simply get a set of Macro Extension Tubes that support AF and aperture control and use those with the lenses you have...."

Re: Reverse Lens Mount Recommendations for Macro Photography

Ron888 — Sat, 01 Feb 2025 04:45:33 GMT

There are adapters that will let you uses modern lenses reversed but it's cheaper and almost as easy using a fully manual lens. Buy a simple adapter that fits your camera ,and at the other end is a screw-thread that fits into the lenses filter thread (49mm,52mm,etc).
Focus manually then stop down the aperture,then take picture.It's pretty quick