Can someone talk to me about starting off with #photography?
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@guyjantic lots of great info in your replies!
Question: when you switched to mirrorless and later switched brands did you adapt your existing lenses? Why/why not?
From what I understand (albeit no experience) you can put practically any (d)slr lens on practically any mirrorless with an adapter but it becomes fully manual.
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@guyjantic I don’t think I quite comprehend the extension tube thing. I mean, in theory, I get that putting more space between a lens element and the sensor means that you’ll get less of the image but larger.
But how do you know or calculate if a tube is right and does it just nullify the calibration markers on the lens (? Is that the right term)?
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@NoRomBasic any pro/cons on the different mounts? I'm bewildered by the options and differences.
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@clolsonus yeah, I have a few initial things that I want to try but don't also want kit that's too hyper specific. Maybe I'll find some other aspect interesting or just forget about the whole hobby.
Any reason why you picked Sony as a system?
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@amd Thanks for the info on the focal distance. I think I somewhat understood that concept but it's helpful to see it written out.
So, it _sounds_ like the camera body with the smallest FFD is the most flexible? And practically all lens systems for (D)SLRs will work on a mirrorless because there is no flappy mirror that adds depth. Do I have that about right?
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Yup. That’s one of the advantages of the mirrorless options.
Nearly all of them will have a full complement of adapters for all sorts of lenses.
You still need to watch for AF compatibility and especially lenses that only have electronic apertures and making sure your converters support that.
But if you’re going with older full manual lenses you can get by with pretty cheap mechanical adapters.
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@amd wow, i hadn’t considered that some modern lenses wouldn’t have some kind of mechanical aperture control on the lens itself.
I was poking around on Marketplace and old, manual telephoto lens with macro capability were close to free. Mechanical adapters seem cheap too.
Can’t decide if I want to figure out lens plus an extension tube (with automatic features) or go full vintage. I feel like I might learn more with manual vs automatic, but hard to balance that with potential frustration.
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@linux_mclinuxface @amd FWIW, macro is overloaded: it can mean, 1) the minimum focus distance is short, 2) the lens is designed to have a very flat field of focus, 3) the lens can produce 1:1 images. Many telephotos marked macro are usually only 1. If you're making copies/scanning, 2 is essential, and 3 is nice for some very detailed images. I've never seen 2 and 3 in a telephoto. Also the use of extension tubes (or life size adapters as they're sometimes called) may disable most auto focus functionality.
But for really close macro work, manual focus is almost a given. The AF can drive you crazy. Then the focus throw of the lens will matter.
Fully manual exposure (no metering) is not recommended, it will slow you down. Even with metering and a manual lens, it may matter whether the body requires stop-down metering or whether it can focus/meter with the aperture wide open (bright image) and stop down [i.e. set exposure] automatically to your manual settings.
If you're using a lens like a 50mm macro, you'll need to get really close that you will require something like a ring flash to get enough light. A 100mm macro will provide a good working distance. -
@sree @amd Okay, so it sounds like vintage telephoto lens "macro" is not what I'm looking for then. Good to know.
How do I know if a lens has a flat field of focus? I've seen markings for magnification on lenses and minimum focus, but not flatness.
I've also stumbled upon people reversing the lenses of cameras for macro. Seems interesting but I'm not sure how it fits into your criteria.
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@linux_mclinuxface @amd This article might help if you're testing a lens:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/tips-and-solutions/flat-field-lenses-and-why-they-matter-when-shooting-close-ups
But otherwise I usually assume most prime (fixed focus) lenses marked Macro (or Micro for Nikon) are flat field. Reviews/Specs can help. The coin photography community has lots of info on macro lens setups.
Reversing lenses is popular enough that Nikon makes an adapter for that (the BR-2A). But the resulting lens is not flat field. More info:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/tips-and-solutions/macro-on-a-budget-reversing-rings -
@sree @amd okay, so if I understand this correctly non-flat field means the outer edges get blurry and dark.
How does this play into crop factor? Most of the mirrorless cameras I’m looking at aren’t full frame and have a much smaller sensor, which gives an effective magnification, giving only a portion of what the lens “sees”.
If I mount a full frame lens on a smaller sensor body, will the sensor not even “see” the edges that are dark & blurry?
