xl2 filming an ants head
 

For you professional wildlifers out there... what lens would you suggest getting for shooting (with clarity) say... and ants head, or the pours on human skin?

any links?

Spank U!

Cassidy
www.motivitypictures.com

The stock 20x lens is fine for this purpose if you remove the lens hood. Zoom out to full wide. Leave it there (don't zoom in). Add plenty of light. You now have full macro capability. Do a search on "macro" in this board as we've covered these steps before several times. The hardest part for you will be maneuvering a big camera like the XL2 around such tiny objects. Hope this helps,

thanx
 

Ok Chris, thanks a lot, i will try this and search for macro's..

cass

Filming an ant's head and other ultra macro shots
 

What I understood from the original post is that Cass wants to be able to go really tight on his subjects - an ant's head and pores on human skin. The way to achieve this would be to use a 35mm still camera macro lens such as the Canon or Nikon 100mm macro lens on the XL-2 with the appropriate adapter (both available from ZGC or other dealers). This will provide stupendous magnification. If even more is required, an extension tube in between the adapter and the lens will provide it. Needless to say, shooting such ultra macro shots requires plenty of light (for depth of field, which gets shallower with greater magnification), a rock solid tripod and a subject that doesn't move too much (at least for the duration of the shot).

If it needs to be really close up then you could also add a diopter ring on the front of the lens. I have +7 and +10 diopter rings for my digital still camera. However, as Chris stated, the 20x has macro capability if you follow the steps he outlined.

=gb=

Cassidy, as a former entomologist I still do a lot of macro. I use a set of diopters and the 1.6 converter. Lots of light. Ants are really fast and hard to pin down. A good trick is to stick them in a cooler. NOT long enought to kill them, just to slow them down. Have your shot set up. After a couple of minutes the insect is usually cold enought that you can put it "on-stage" and video. I also have the Camcorder hooked up to a monitor and focus and frame on the monitor. Also, I have several small glass (2 - 4 gal fish tanks) that I set up to simulate the environment. I can take the top off, tilt forward and video through the top. A little vasoline around the top 1/2 inch of glass keeps the ants from making an escape while you are videoing. And please release them after you are finished. This past winter I did macro of praying mantis laying her egg pods and then the little darlings emerging. Facinating. What kind of ants are you videoing? Bob

with my little optura 20d with tiffen +7 and +10 i can focus on the dust on the lens i've used that for some extreme macro stuff but you need a LOT of light to make that little one chip look decent

lense adapter
 

thanks shekar, i ran into this site:

http://www.redrockmicro.com

Could you send me a link to ZGC or other dealers that have lense adapters for the xl2?

cas

optura
 

can you send me a link to the optura 20d, and the lense adapter you use?

thanks Jon

bob, i would love to see some of that footage or a screen shot of the praying mantis.

thanks for the advice. i am just trying to learn how to get extreme close ups.. thanks to everyone hear i have learned alot.

cass
www.motivitypictures.com

Cassidy,

ZGC is one of our site's sponsors. Just click on the sponsors link on the main page or Click Here. Be sure and tell them you found them through DV-INFO if and when you order.

Good luck with your ant filming!

=gb=