Reverse lens macro anyone?

[chocolic]

I've been doing lots of reading the last week or so and came across the reverse lens macro technique. To sum it up your lenses are mounted backwards on your camera to achieve super macro capabilities. There are all kinds of tutorials out there, but since I've never tried it myself, I wasnt sure what exactly to link here. Has anyone tried it and willing to share their finds? I'd love to get a couple of old lenses on the cheap and try this out....

[calexp]

No, but i wouldn't try it on digital (maybe on film). It might work but it might also damage your digital camera.
If you want super-macro capability, i think you should try a super-macro conversion lens, like Raynox DCR-250 (8x), MSN-202 (25x), MSN-505 (32x) etc. or you may want to go to a cheep solution of macro close up lenses.

Chris

[mjs1973]

Yup, I have done it and it works very well on digital. It's an old trick that people have been doing for years. Here is a shot I took about a month ago.

Hitchhiker

This image was taken with a 50mm f/1.8 lens reversed onto the front of a 100mm macro lens. You can get a reversing ring from any of the major camera dealers, or make your own if you wish. A good tripod an manual focus are a must. You can also mount your lens backwards directly to the camera, but unless you have a manual aperture ring, it's too big of a hassle to adjust the aperture. By mounting a lens backwards onto another lens, you leave the reversed lens wide open, and use the lens that's mounted correctly to control your aperture.

If you check out this thread, you will see the setup of using a reversed 50mm lens.

[CaraRose]

How does the focusing work with one lens reversed on another? Do you need to focus both lenses, or just the primary one?

[WsW-WYATT-EARP]

Its fun playing with reversed macro. I usually use my 50mm reversed on any lens. You focus with your primary one. I found that the zoom will also focus. The DOF is very narrow and the focus distance is inches at most. Its fun and if you have a 50mm laying around you just need a couple of rings to attach it to a lens.

[CaraRose]

I played around a bit today, just handholding a 50mm to the front of my kit lens (18-55mm ef-s)

Is severe vignetting normal when you do this? Or is this to do with the ef-s lens? These were taken with my Minolta Rokkor 1.4 reversed on the front.

The last pic is a crop in on the second. I just dig that I can see a reflection of the lens' metal mount

[WsW-WYATT-EARP]

Its been a while since I did this .... If memory serves me right - yes the severe vignetting is normal - usually its cause your going from a 77mm Ø front element to a 58mmØ on the 50mm. I am trying to find the shots I took with my 70-200 and 1.7 TC and 50mm reversed on that... all I was able to get was Georges eye on the 1$ bill ......

[chocolic]

I think I may have gotten my hands on some lenses to try this... cant wait!!