Macro Help Please

[sschafer]

I used to do a lot of Macro photography with my old Nikon SLR and Ring Flash. I bought Canon G3 a number of months ago since I needed a digital camera and wanted to wait to see what next year will bring with Digital SLR technology (a Nikon Foveon???). Anyway, I've been trying to do some macro shots in my 120 and have been getting pretty poor results. I'm not getting the clarity I see in most other's images. I'm using the macro setting, manual focus, and a tripod. Below are some of the best shots I was able to get and they by no means measure up to any I have seen on here. Any tips, techniques, sugeestions??? I think canon has a macro lense for the G3. Do I need this to get nice macro pics?

Thanks,

Steve

Yellow Montipora sp. with Blue Polyps @ 4x Optical Zoom

Yellow Montipora sp. with Blue Polyps @ 4x Optical and 3x Digital Zoom

Yellow Montipora sp. with Blue Polyps @ 4x Optical and 3.5x Digital Zoom

Blue Montipora sp. with Beige Polyps @ 4x Optical and 3x Digital Zoom

 

[Len]

Hey Mike,

How far into the aquarium are these. I have a tough time shooting macros that are more then a half foot into the tank as well. Between the glass and water, the clarity is severely compromised.

Also, shoot with the lens parrellel to the glass. At any angle, the glass plays funny things with the angle of light that hits the ccd, as well as introduces defraction/deflection of ambient lighting which washes out some contrast, color, and clarity.

Hmmmm, what else can I suggest? Oh, turn off actinics if you shoot with them on. They have a way of confusing many digital cameras and makes images a lot less sharp sometimes. Even if you have the white balance properly calibrated, blue light still can act screwy with digital cams.

Like my "stream of consciousness" style of writing? I'll see if I can think of anything else tonight.

 

[azcaddman]

turn off the digital zoom, only use the optical.

if you want to zoom in further, use photoshop etc to crop/resize the image, it does a MUCH better job than the 'digital' zoom in the camera

 

[sschafer]

Thanks, I'll try these suggestions and report back. Hopefully one of these days I'll get something nice enough to enter into one of the contests.

Thanks again,

Steve

 

[wade1]

FYI: digital zoom is sorta meaningless. Its just a magnification, at the same pixelation, as the closest optical zoom. Its just a blown up center portion of the image. Try going with optical zoom and cropping back the pics in a program if you can't fill the frame with them.

Wade

 

[Anonymous]

Check the book for your cam and see if there is a Macro Focal length. Mine is 2-5 inches. If it's out of the range, It's out of focus, unless I switch to normal.

HTH

B

 

[monkeyboy]

Forget the pictures, that's a really incredible piece of encrusting monti!!! Yellow w/ blue polyps?! I've never seen anything like that before! 8O