My Fly is Open

He he, so actually its "open" for all to see.

Got home today and I just had to walk around the garden to see if any insects would like their photos taken and you will not believe how many nice pics I got. Sure, at such magnification, shooting without a flash and handheld, meant I had a lot of out of focus photos to delete. But, the keepers were worth it. Oh and the three sandfly bits I've collected during my 45 minutes outside, will also be worth it. (Why those little buggers like my blood so much I would not know!)

With that said I must say that I have pretty much found the area of photography I enjoy the most. Yes, landscape photography etc. is also a lot of fun, but nothing compares to the detail and colors you can capture at high magnification. Also, this is an area the naked eye have very little insight into.

So, let me introduce you to my fly. :-) I have absolutely no clue whatsoever what species this is, but let's not allow that from distracting us from enjoying the pics. Images are crops, with mostly noise reduction performed to get rid of noise artifacts due to shooting at ISO800. (Please will someone sponsor me a DSLR that can handle higher ISOs with less noise!)

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 270mm, Exposure 1/80sec at f10 +2/3EV, ISO 800, Focus manual, VC off, Flash none, Filter UV and +2 diopter.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 270mm, Exposure 1/80sec at f10 +2/3EV, ISO 800, Focus manual, VC off, Flash none, Filter UV and +2 diopter.

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Spiders Spiders Everywhere

Wow, I've had a lot of fun the past two days. Any insect that ventures into my house by implication is eligible to pose for my photos :-)

Here are some images of spiders snapped using my Tamron VC PZD with a +4 diopter on. Note multiple photos where taken at varying focal depths and combined using image stacking software to produce a single image with good depth of field. Also, I am still getting used to the image stacking software, so the resulting images are not yet to my liking, especially the background on the last one. All images are crops.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 270mm, Exposure 1/10sec at f13 +2/3EV, ISO 200, Focus manual, VC off, Flash none, Filter UV and +4 diopter.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 270mm, Exposure 1/10sec at f14 +2/3EV, ISO 200, Focus manual, VC off, Flash none, Filter UV and +4 diopter.

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 270mm, Exposure 0.3sec at f14 +2/3EV, ISO 200, Focus manual, VC off, Flash none, Filter UV and +4 diopter.

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Dahlia Diopter +4

Today was a good day, the local camera shop had some Marumi diopters (close-up filters) in stock. So I could not let a set stay in the shop, no, I just had to adopt them :-)

The image below is a quick snap of the Tamron 18-270mm VC PZD with a +4 diopter fitted. The shot was taken without a tripod. Note that the center part of the dahlia is less than 2cm in diameter. I cannot wait to see what this lens can achieve at +7 (+1, +2 and +4 stacked). Although I am pretty sure I will need a tripod at that "magnification".

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 200mm, Exposure 1/100sec at f14, ISO 100, Focus manual, VC on, Flash none, Filter UV and +4 diopter stacked.

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Tamron 18-270mm VC PZD vs Canon 50mm F1.8 MkII

Right, this is a quick test of the Tamron PZD and Canon 50mm f1.8 Mk II. The aim of the test is to show how surprisingly well the Tamron compares at close-up photography.

Everybody knows that the Tamron is not the sharpest lens in the bunch especially at full zoom, but, I am of the opinion that in a real life situation the Tamron fares good enough. In any case to a level that it produces respectable enough images and coupled with its excellent vibration control, you will end up with more "keepers".

Now, the Canon is not a close up lens, but it is legendary for its sharpness (keep in mind its price). So, it would have been an unfair comparison because the Canon cannot focus as close as the Tamron. This is easily solved with a set of diopters (close-up filters). Sure, this may drop the sharpness slightly, but I still think this offers an interesting comparison. At least one worthy of a blog entry :-)

One observation I need to enforce, even though the results obtained with the Canon were very pleasing indeed, I had far more images out of focus using this lens today, do to camera movement and tiny depth of field, than compared to the Tamron.

Below the original, full sized images. Both taken hand held. Oh, and no PP done at all.

Tamron full size:

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 270mm, Exposure 1/250sec at f11, ISO 400, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter UV.

Canon full size:

Canon 600D, Canon 50mm f1.8 Mk II. Focal length 50mm, Exposure 1/200sec at f16, ISO 400, Focus auto, Flash none, Filter UV.

Tamron 100% crop:

Canon 600D, Tamron 18-270mm f3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD. Focal length 270mm, Exposure 1/250sec at f11, ISO 400, Focus auto, VC on, Flash none, Filter UV.

Canon 100% crop:

Canon 600D, Canon 50mm f1.8 Mk II. Focal length 50mm, Exposure 1/200sec at f16, ISO 400, Focus auto, Flash none, Filter UV.

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