Ice Dendrites

[AdeKing]

I've recently had a moment of madness and purchased myself a Canon MP-E65 lens and Speedlite MT-24EX. I didn't intend to do this, but my local camera shop had both items for sale secondhand, and when I walked past the other day, they had a further 15% off used equipment meaning that I got both items for less than the cost of a new MP-E65 lens, so I figured that I'd be a fool not to get them.

My significant other on the other hand thinks that I was a fool to get them, but thats another story!

I'm currently having more fun with this lens than any of my other lenses, but its a very steep learning curve.

Anyway, this morning, I awoke to find our windows covered in dendritic pattens of ice, so thought I'd have a go at capturing these with the new toy.

As the ice was on the outside of glass, I decided against using the MT-24EX, but this meant a slow shutter speed, so I put the camera on a monopod, as there wasn't room for the tripod.

This is the best attempt this morning, I'm quite pleased with it, though its not quite as sharp as I'd have liked.



I'm now wondering whether I should have tried to use the flash, but can't help thinking that I'd have had a devil of a time with reflections.

Is anyone else out there using this combination, if you are, I'd appreciate any helpful hints and tips.

Thanks for looking.

Ade

[DianaS]

Re: Ice Dendrites

That's amazing - looks pretty sharp to me. I am no expert, but feel you probably would have had reflections probs. with flash

[colin C]

Re: Ice Dendrites

Looks fun to me and I suspect you are the first of us to be using this combination ............... but I could be wrong!

Colin

[Pinkeez]

Re: Ice Dendrites

beautiful shot Ade. I like shots of ice and frost, some of the patterns are quite amazing, especially at the macro level.

[AdeKing]

Re: Ice Dendrites

Thanks DianaS, Colin C and Pinkeez, I'm having so much fun with this combination at the moment.
Even the most mundane of objects can look quite interesting at 3x magnification.

DianaS, I'm glad that it looks pretty sharp to you. I've re-checked the original, which is sharper, but I think I made the mistake of sharpening the full sized image and then scaling it down to 800 px width, a schoolboy error :)

Colin, I'm doing a lot of learning with this combination, so if anyone else takes the plunge then I'll try my best to help them out.

The Speedlite MT-24EX is a fantastic unit, but the light that comes out is very harsh, even at the working distances with the MP-E65 1-5x Macro lens, so I've added an ebay copy of the Gary Fong Puffer diffuser to each flash head as recommended by John Kimbler of NoCroppingZone to increase the effective size of the light source and this really has helped.

I lose about 1 stop of light, but the cheap diffusers that I purchased seem to warm the light up, not quite as much as a 1/4 CTO gel, but its noticeably warmer and the increased size has made it much softer too.

I look forward to posting some more of my efforts and experiments as I get them.

Thanks for taking the time to look and comment all, its much appreciated.

AK

[DeeGee]

Re: Ice Dendrites

Looking forward to seeing them.

[pinxos]

Re: Ice Dendrites

Ade,
I've used the same combination for about 12 months now. I tend to use the flash on manual setting and reduce the flash time to match the nearness(?) of the subject. This seems to work OK without diffusers. The biggest problem I find is the weight of the lens when used at near maximum magnification (4x to 5x), it tends to unbalance my tripod!!