We\u2019re entering the winter months in New England (also known as frozen hell) and at that point shooting outside is not only less interesting but also much less comfortable.\u00a0 Luckily, macrophotography is something you can do from the comfort of your nicely heated home.\u00a0 I like to do macro indoors in the winter.\u00a0 To accommodate this, I look around during the year for interesting subject matter that I can bring inside for the winter and also try to improve on the set-ups I use to make indoor macrophotography more convenient and effective.<\/p>\n
For instance, real macrophotography (which involves at least 1X magnification) requires extreme stability because even a tiny vibration will be noticed when apertures are small and magnification is high and exposures can be long.\u00a0 One of the things I have lacked in my equipment is a table top tripod.\u00a0 Up to now, I\u2019ve compensated by setting up my full-sized tripod near a table and stood up while working.\u00a0 I will be the first to admit that this isn\u2019t a comfortable arrangement but I was always preoccupied with lens and camera buying priorities.\u00a0 But now that I\u2019ve got the A7 III I\u2019m where I need to be for camera and even my Minolta 200mm f\\4 macro becomes convenient enough for indoor macro work.\u00a0 So, it\u2019s time to look at the table top tripod.\u00a0 The other thing that I wanted to add to my set up was a macro bellows.\u00a0 It\u2019s a bellows with a camera connection on one side and a lens connection on the other.\u00a0 This allows you to increase the magnification with even non-macro lenses.\u00a0 I\u2019ve just purchased the Fotodiox Macro Bellows for the Sony E-Mount.\u00a0 This adds 150mm of extension when completely extended.\u00a0 And just in case I want to go completely macro crazy I can add my Kenko Extension tubes.\u00a0 That adds another 68mm of extension.\u00a0 Between the two extenders I can reach a little more than 2X magnification with my Minolta 200mm macro lens.\u00a0 And with shorter focal lengths I can probably do even better. \u00a0\u00a0If I add a lens reverse mount then I can take a wide-angle lens like my 10mm and get some really ridiculously high magnification but that may be a bridge too far right now.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve got to mount all this paraphernalia on the table top tripod with my 200mm macro and camera to really test its stability.\u00a0 I\u2019ve selected the JOBY GorillaPod 5K Stand. \u00a0The sales literature says it can hold eleven pounds.\u00a0 Between the camera, lens and macro thingamajigs it won\u2019t add up to eleven pounds but it will be four or five I\u2019ll bet.\u00a0 If it turns out that this is not stable enough, I may have to add a rail to stiffen up the set-up but at that point I might as well paint it with purple polka dots and donate it to the circus with the other clown props.\u00a0 Stay tuned and I\u2019ll follow up with some photos of the rig and macro shots that I take. It may be interesting or ridiculous but I\u2019m sure to learn something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We\u2019re entering the winter months in New England (also known as frozen hell) and at that point shooting outside is not only less interesting but<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,659],"tags":[1460,1461,1462,23,1457,1458,296,1106,1459],"class_list":["post-5043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photography","category-photography-reviews","tag-fotodiox-macro-bellows","tag-joby-gorillapod-5k-stand","tag-kenko-extension-tubes","tag-macro","tag-macro-bellows","tag-macro-extension-tubes","tag-macro-photography","tag-minolta-200mm-f4-macro-lens","tag-table-top-tripod"],"yoast_head":"\n