Partial Pressures
Attachment
Posted by Spike (Bristol, United Kingdom) on 26 April 2010 in Plant & Nature and Portfolio.
Some are adventurous; others are reluctant to leave the nest.
Tech stuff: taken through a makeshift reversing adapter made with an old UV filter, a spare body cap, and a bit of epoxy glue. The lens is my OM Zuiko 50mm set at f/4 (whatever that means when it's reversed...).
Thanks for stopping to take a look.
@Curly: Yep, that's pretty much it. If you check the back of the body cap, you will probably see the obvious hole to make. I used a drill and a half-round rasp for the bulk of the work, and cleaned up the edge with a sharp knife. Make sure there's no plastic dust or swarf left on it to get into your camera.
I left the glass in the filter: it adds a bit of rigidity and protects the sensor from dust and other foreign bodies. Glueing: a couple of dots of "instant" glue to position and hold the filter in place, then a bead of epoxy all the way round to fix and seal it. Give it its full time to set.
Attach the adapter to the camera, then screw the lens onto the adapter. If you have extension tubes, put one on the exposed bayonet of the lens - it protects the rear element, acts as a hood, and (on some lens systems) forces the aperture to stop down to whatever's set on the dial.
That's pretty much it. I keep one hand supporting the reversed lens - don't want accidents. As it turns out, you'll probably do this anyway to steady and aim the camera. Focusing is by moving the whole camera back and forth, and tilting changes how the focus plane cuts through the image. I tend to focus and compose with the aperture open, and stop down to get the DoF you want. Beware that smaller apertures will show up every speck of dust on your sensor...
Hope this helps. Have fun! :-)