ANTSTORE World of Ants

[CapitalO]

As I'm getting a bit more serious about photography, I've decided to invest in a new camera (hopefully I'll be posting some nice macro ant pics soon ). One of my major interests is 'close-up' (macro) photography of insects; as I was doing some research, I found an excellent way to get really high quality macro shots with fairly inexpensive equipment (you can use the same method with video cameras as well).

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If anyone has any questions about the setup, feel free to ask me if you don't want the hassle of signing up to the linked forum.

If you were to buy all the equipment for a setup like this, I would estimate a total cost of about $100 or less. Although, most people have old photo equipment laying around that can be used to make this setup.

[Purifier]

100 bugs? Wow cool....that is really not much. When i think about a reflex camera (SLR? Dont know the english word ) plus objective plus tripod and and and.....altogether around 1000€ i believe....

[CapitalO]

Yea, the quality isn't quite the same as a digital SLR with a dedicated macro lens, but it comes surprisingly close I tried this with my little canon a75 and an old 35mm lens (just holding the lens in front of the camera with my hand), I was amazed at the picture quality at that magnification.

[mpir]

100 bugs? Wow cool....that is really not much. When i think about a reflex camera (SLR? Dont know the english word ) plus objective plus tripod and and and.....altogether around 1000€ i believe....

Are you kidding? Only a good macro lense will put you back 500 € at least.

[Purifier]

Sure, you become some digi SLR, lens and other stuff between 1000€ and 4000€. Depends on the brand, configuration and so on.
But i believe you become a good combination for around 1000€.....

[miszt]

good idea reversing the lens, i'll give it a go got an SLR I dont use anymore, n my digi is crap at macros!

[JimmyVe]

If you want to take great pictures you need good stuff and most of all it is expensive. (mine cost about € 1200, camera and lens)

Here you can find a older discussion about this topic;
http://www.antstore.net/viewtopic.php?t=4637

[CapitalO]

Just to clarify: The pictures in the link I posted were NOT taken with an SLR camera. They were taken with a Canon Powershot A70, which is an inexpensive compact digital camera. He is using an adapter to attach a reversed 35mm lens. More info on the setup here: Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar

[CapitalO]

Here are some shots that I just took, these are hand held shots that I took by holding up a reversed 35mm canon fd lens (over ten years old) in front of my canon a75.

This is a shot of an angel's face on a bird feeder (less than 1cm across)






These flowers are very small, about 3mm across

[mpir]

Great pictures, great makro. And as some photographers would say: very nice bokeh.

[ant dude]

yeah great camera/great pics, but im not/wont be getting one untill about next year hopefully i can get it then anyway. but i dont even know how to load pics up on-to the computer and that so...... when/if/know how to load up pics, i guarente i will post loads up with my ants and there set-up and that,but till then i will not be doing it. this makes me even more jelous lol,u lot all braging bout your classy cameras

[JimmyVe]

nice pictures you have got there CapitalO.

[CapitalO]

Thanks for the comments everybody!

ant dude: I didn't use a very classy camera The A75 is a cheap consumer compact digital camera and you can pick up a similar 35mm lens for practically nothing.

[ant dude]

@capitalo: really, and the pics look fine so..... any idea what the price range is for them sort of cameras? give or take i mean answer like this please from: 25£ to 75£...... thanks

[CapitalO]

The camera I'm using (Canon Powershot A75) retailed for about $200 (~£100) when it was released 3 or so years ago. The 35mm lens was off an oldschool pentax camera from the mid 80's. Check this link for a similar setup to the one I was using (I didn't use the adapter or a slave flash): Hyperlinks sind nur für registrierte Nutzer sichtbar