Cheapest way to get Macro photos using GH1

E

evilgeenius

New member
Hi

What is the cheapest lens I can get for my GH1 that will allow me to take macro photos? My budget is very very small for this so I can't buy the latest and greatest macro lens. I was wondering if there exists a really old and cheap lens that I could use. Any ideas?

Thanks
 
Well, you have several options. 1 is to just get a macro reverse thread and put it on a 50mm cheap prime lens which will give you an extreme macro capability and coupled with the ETC mode you'll get amazingly close. the pro is that it'll cost you 5$, the downside is you can't control the focus. so you either have to move the camera back and forth or your subject if you have any moving stuff. option 2 is to get a good macro filter which is what I've done and put it on a good 50mm lens or whatever. I got a marumi achromat macro filter that cost about 50$ I think and I use it either on my 20mm 1.7 or my nikkor 50mm 1.2 and you can get extremely close without any loss of quality. the pro is that it's high quality/small/convenient/cheaper than option 3 and that you can control focus for 95% of macro shots you need. the con is that it's more expensive than option 1 and that you can only control focus up to an extent since your infinity focus becomes a very close distance which means that if you're shooting a ladybug crawling at very tight macro and then you want to shoot the horizon like you would on a normal lens, you would have to take the filter off first since you lose your normal infinity. Option 3 is you get a relatively cheap and awesome lens like the tokina 100mm 2.8 macro which has an aperture ring, is sharp, cheap and proper macro lens. the pro is that you get a proper macro lens but also you can use it as a normal 100mm lens so you can focus all the way from infinity to a tight macro. the con is that it's the most expensive out of the cheapo options, and that it's slower than most non-macro lenses. And don't forget that the filter solution and the reverse macro can work in different configurations, so even if you have the 100mm you can still add a macro filter and get even closer, or you can add the macro filter to a normal 100mm lens, or a 85mm fast lens or a wide lens, and you can still reverse macro your 100mm macro lens if you want to get ridiculous. Now a few more exotic and spicy options:

2 lens reverse configuration where you put for instance your 50mm lens normally as you would and then you put a second lens in reverse in front of the first lens with a simple step up ring, this kind of stuff is probably way too much macro for your needs, like looking through a microscope. the downsides is again your focus plane will always be the same, you can't control the focusing. and if your second lens is electronic, you can't control the aperture of the second lens. So if I put my 20mm in front of my 50mm the 20mm lens aperture will always be 1.7. Another note that the wider the second lens, the more macro it will be. it works backwards. so if you put a 85mm lens as your second lens you will have a lot less maginification than if you put a 14mm lens .
another exotic option would be to get one of the cheap c mount lenses, the ones that people modify so that they can achieve infinity focus, and just use it without modifying it. for instance I used a 6mm 1.2 lens on my GH2 which before I modified it to focus at infinity, would focus extremely extremely close giving a very cool effect for such a wide lens.

anyway, I hope this gives you some food for thought.

note: I just realised I mentioned the etc crop mode of the GH2 which can give you a ridiculous extra amount of magnification on top of whatever your macro configuration will be. but everything else aplies for the GH1 too.

and also, I didn't bother mentioning all the other more expensive options as I don't think you're in the market for any of that stuff like the panasonic 45mm 2.8 macro which are much more expensive than the options i mentioned
 
Here, I just snapped some pics just for the heck of it, if it helps any. All taken at f2.8, as close as I could get to "Liberty". (Actually, the Lumix 45mm f2.8 could probably have got closer, but I had auto-focus on, and was trying to push my cat back with my elbow while shooting. :D ) :

Olympus OM 50mm lens at f2.8 with B+W 49ES NL 3 Close-Up Lens:



Olympus OM 50mm lens at f2.8 without Close-Up Lens:



Panasonic 45mm f2.8 Macro Lens at f2.8, with UV filter attached:

 
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