new macro pics

surfn · May 10, 2007

haven't had time to mess with this new lense. its a sigma 150mm. i'm still concerned about it being able to focus at the extremes min focus distance. as i cant get any closer than 1.5feet or things are too blurry. not sure if its a defect or not. but it should go up to 1.25feet.....i need more time to experiment.

here are my first decent pics...not photoshop or cropping.

surfn · May 10, 2007

surfn · May 10, 2007

revhtree · May 10, 2007

Dang! Looking good man!!

surfn · May 10, 2007

revhtree said:
Dang! Looking good man!!

i'm still not convinced yet. way too many of them are slightly blurry. i just can't seem to figure out why, other than 1.25feet b/w 1.5feet is just too blurry, and i cannot get good shots. something has gota be wrong with the lense.

Acro76 · May 10, 2007

I'll bet nikonguy would have some good tips....

I agree, some of the shots of your SPS have some noticeable blur. Good to see the great color and healthy corals though! What do you call the purple with green polyp montipora? I have one like it.

twon8 · May 10, 2007

are you using a remote?
i assume tripod in use?

what settings are you using?

toddman74 · May 10, 2007

nice shots surfn... maybe the last 2 are a little blurry.

what is the name of that zoa in the pic with the goniopora? I have the same ones..

surfn · May 10, 2007

here is a setosa frag i got from patedship recently. its about the size of my pinky fingernail.

its cropped obviously, but i think it came out really good.

surfn · May 10, 2007

Acro76 said:
I'll bet nikonguy would have some good tips....

I agree, some of the shots of your SPS have some noticeable blur. Good to see the great color and healthy corals though! What do you call the purple with green polyp montipora? I have one like it.

yup, been talking to nikon guy and some other people. they do have good advice.

the purple w/ green polyps is new, lost a bit of color due to shipping. kinda like a bonsai acro but with alot thinner branches.

twon8 said:
are you using a remote?
i assume tripod in use?

what settings are you using?

no remote, just a timer and tripod. i'm also using something called mirror lock to min vibration from the shutter.

i'm using aperature priority at F20-F22, ISO is b/w 400-800 on most shots.

i'm gonna get a eye piece magnifier, b/c the polyps on sps are so tiny i can't tell if they are in focus or not until i get them on the computer and zoom in. i hope that will help.

toddman74 said:
nice shots surfn... maybe the last 2 are a little blurry.

what is the name of that zoa in the pic with the goniopora? I have the same ones..

dont have a goni, but if you are referring to the ones with a green skirt and red circle on the inside. they dont have a name that i'm aware of.

sloooooooow growers though.

MarvinsReef · May 11, 2007

good stuff Al...

revhtree · May 11, 2007

Well of course you need practice, but for a brand new lens you are rocking along IMO.

surfn · May 11, 2007

here is the above picture for a better reference in size. its on a standard sized frag plug. no cropping, this is the original picture.

twon8 · May 11, 2007

i would set iso to 100, that will give you the sharpest pic without noise, ala the graininess which i can see in the setosa shot,

i usually get my best shots somewhere in the middle f8-12, having it as high as 20 give you great depth of field but with a macro that is not what you are looking for.

assuming you have your pumps shut off, you can set your shutter speed to something really slow, like 1/4 or slower, you'll have to play around with it

JGoslee · May 11, 2007

Those pics came out good Al. I'm really liking that M. setosa.
I tend to get my best pics with iso 100, somewhere around f9 with the cam set on AV mode. I usually take a pic at each fstop between 6-12 and then in processing I decide which one looks the best.