Turning a lens upside down is a cheap way to do macro photography and take advantage of a kit lens that we have lying around
The Reversed Lens Technique
Photographic lenses are designed to perform best within a specific range of focal lengths. General-purpose lenses typically work best when focused between 0.5m and infinity, while macro lenses are sharpest at shorter distances.
When we use a “normal” lens to take photographs using extension tubes, close-up lenses or bellows, we make the front lens closer to the subject than to the focal plane (i.e. the sensor in digital cameras or the film in analogue cameras) and project a larger image of the subject we are interested in. But we can achieve higher magnifications by reversing the lens instead, with the added advantage that we will be using it in conditions that are more like those intended by its designers and we will reduce the problems of optical aberrations and vignetting associated with other systems.
This technique is inexpensive. All you need is a reversing ring and maybe adapter rings if the threads on the reversing ring and the filter thread on your lens don’t match. And you’ll need a lens, of course. With a DSLR or mirrorless camera, you can use lenses with focal lengths of 50mm (full frame) or less; the shorter the focal length, the greater the magnification.
Reversing ring available on Amazon
- Reversing ring for Sony E-Mount
- Reversing ring Canon EF / EF-S
- Reversing ring for Nikon F
- Reversing ring for Fuji X
- Reversing ring for Pentax K
- Reversing ring for M43
Adapter rings sets on Amazon
Fixed or zoom lenses?
▌Picture taken with a Nikon D200 and a Nikon 20mm f/2.8 reverse lens with 55mm extension tubes.
Macrophotography with inverted lenses is not for everything or for everyone, but it adds a new resource to our toolbox
Any of them will do. Fixed focal length lenses are likely to offer better image quality, but a zoom will give you a whole range of different magnifications rather than just one, and that flexibility will come in handy if you want to shoot subjects of different sizes, which is likely. You can turn your 18-55 kit lens into a super macro zoom that can give you up to almost 4X magnification. Older analogue kit lenses in the 28-80 and 35-70 range are also worth trying. On the prime side, the brightest ones here are not necessarily the best. A 50mm f/1.7, f/1.8 or f/2 can give better results than an f/1.4.
Reversing a Macro Lens
Macro lenses designed to provide magnification ratios up to 1:1 can also be reversed when substantially higher magnifications are desired, but this technique is of no use with macro lenses designed to achieve very high magnifications.
What we lose and what we gain by reversing a lens
Since this setting only works at very close range to what we want to photograph, we will lose focus at infinity. When we talk about macro, that is not really a big setback, but it is worth noting.
Also, unless we have a system that maintains communication with our camera, such as those existing for Canon EOS cameras, we can also say goodbye to autofocus, aperture control from the camera body and EXIF data, although we will still have focus peaking, aperture priority mode and Live View. Exposure metering may also not work correctly depending on the camera we use, and we will probably lose some, if not all, of the automated flash functions, so we will have to resort to a flash with manual power adjustment.
And what do we and our images gain? If we are willing to deal with the inconveniences of using a reversed lens, we will have spectacular results compared to what extension tubes or close-up lenses can offer us, and that with a lens that we may already have.
Macro photography with reversed lenses is not for everything or for everyone, but it allows us to take advantage of an old vintage lens or a kit lens that we have put aside and that we don’t know what to do with. It offers us another way of doing things, one more resource in our toolbox.
Macro photography with opposing lenses
▌A 50mm facing a 70-300
This setup is different from using a reversed lens. It consists of placing a reversed lens in front of another lens mounted on the camera in the normal way by means of a coupling ring. The purpose is the same as always: to reduce the minimum focusing distance. As in the previous case, we will probably also need adapter rings depending on the diameter of the combined lenses.
Coupling rings (male to male) available on Amazon
One advantage of this technique is that electronic communication is maintained with the lens in contact with the camera.
The main disadvantage is that we will be taking photos through a large number of lenses that were not designed to work together, so the image quality will suffer. But it is something we can try for very little money.
Some points to keep in mind:
- This setup usually works if the focal length of the reversed lens is shorter than that of the lens mounted on the camera body. Otherwise, severe vignetting can occur.
- The shorter the focal length of the reversed lens, the more magnification it provides.
- When aiming for high magnification, it is convenient to mount a reversed wide-angle lens in front of a medium telephoto lens, although the working distance can be extremely short and some lens combinations will not work because the minimum focusing distance will be inside the reversed lens.
- In general, it is not easy to predict in advance which lens combination will work, and the best way to find out is by experiment. But the general principle is this: if a lens of focal length X is mounted reversed on a lens of focal length Y, the combo will offer a magnification of Y/X; therefore, if a 50mm lens is mounted reversed on a 200mm lens, we will get a magnification of 4X (200/50). What happens in practice is that the final result will not be what the calculation indicates since there are other factors to take into account, such as, for example, the space left between the lens mounted on the camera and the inverted one.
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