300mm min. distance?

[michael zaletel]

Does anyone know how close to the front of the 300mm Red lens you can focus on a very small object?

-shooter

[Adrian T.]

8 foot (2.44 meters)

Don't know if the new 300 mm will be different though.

[michael zaletel]

8 foot (2.44 meters)

Don't know if the new 300 mm will be different though.

Doh!

I was hoping to be able to shoot super-close-macro of very small objects from less than 1 meter away.

Hmm.

-shooter

[Steve Phillipps]

Try a very long extension tube or use a macro lens. If you have the Nikon mount there is a big choice, 55, 105 and 200mm macros, all great lenses and all go 1:1 life size (I think). Nikon also does a 70-180 macro or something like that, also nice. Sigma makes a couple of 180 macros in Nikon mount which you can get pretty cheap second hand.
Steve

[michael zaletel]

Try a very long extension tube or use a macro lens. If you have the Nikon mount there is a big choice, 55, 105 and 200mm macros, all great lenses and all go 1:1 life size (I think). Nikon also does a 70-180 macro or something like that, also nice. Sigma makes a couple of 180 macros in Nikon mount which you can get pretty cheap second hand.
Steve

Thanks Steve. Where would I find a long extension tube that would fit the bill for the 300mm Red Lens on Red One standard PL mount. What would it cost?

-shooter

[chuck colburn]

8 foot (2.44 meters)

Don't know if the new 300 mm will be different though.

Is that to the front element or the film plane?

[Steve Phillipps]

You might have to get one made, it's just a piece of tube with a RED front and back. BUT the problem is that the longer the focal length of the lens the more extension you need to make a difference in focus. So while a 1cm tube will make a big difference to a 17mm lens it'll do hardly anything to a 300mm. The rule of thumb I believe is that to get life size image on say a 50mm lens you need 50mm extension tube, and with 300mm you'd need 300mm (ie 1 foot!)
A long macro lens is definitely a better alternative.
Hope this helps.
Steve

[Brian Ferguson]

Doh!

I was hoping to be able to shoot super-close-macro of very small objects from less than 1 meter away.

Hmm.

-shooter

Remember that when shooting extreme close ups any movement will have a high degree of strobing. Especially with long lenses. I learned this from 35mm film, not Red. A wide angle lens with close focus ability is what the top food and table top shooters use. The longer it takes an object to travel through the frame the less the 24 fps stutter appears. Wider angle is better on movement. Compare a 90 degree angle of view from inches away to a 10 degree a meter away which do you think would be smoother. It is all physics. Overcranking helps also, even with the wide lenses.

This has become a point for me because I see people blaming the Red shutter for this effect and they would have it in a film camera as well. I have seen jewelry shots by an inexperienced cinematographer with a Nikon 200 mm macro that would make you want to barf with motion sickness. Totally unusable. If it is a locked off camera with a penny or something not moving much no problem. But when you introduce movement on macro with long lenses you better play it back on a large screen and make sure you are happy.

Quite a bit of time is spent educating people on basic film principles that are universal and not just Red related.

[Dallas Zhen]

for 300mm f4. sigma lens can shoot close by 1m.
for 300mm f2.8 lens can shoot about 2.2-2.6m at closest.

[michael zaletel]

Quite a bit of time is spent educating people on basic film principles that are universal and not just Red related.

But I LOVE to learn. Thanks for taking the time. I guess I just wanted to get a different perspective without the warping around the edges caused by a wide angle lens. If it was jewelry centered on a white background, it wouldn't matter as much (except that I'd see more of the sides and top of the jewelry than I want to) but when it is a nature scene like a woodpecker or ants at work, I don't want the whole background to look like a virtual tour frame warp. How do I achieve life size perspective on very small things other than by "locking down" a 300mm lens with a 1 foot extension tube?

Please advise,

-shooter

[Steve Phillipps]

Always macro lenses are the best bet. With extension tubes/bellows etc. the problem is that while you get closer focus, you lose distance focus, so you might be able to focus from 3 inches to 2 feet. With a macro lens you can get in close but also still focus right out to infinity.
If you have the Nikon mount you've got a lot of options, the macro lenses I've already mentioned. For PL there are some macros (try www.visualproducts.com) and there was a company called Van Diemen that converted Leica lenses into SUPERB macros via a wireform conversion, but they were bloody expensive and maybe hard to come by.
Steve