Nikon D40 close ups, magnifying eye piece

[kaskiles]

Hi,

I'm having some trouble getting good focus on close ups for my corals. Here is one of my better shots of it:
http://kaskiles.org/phpgraphy/index.php?display=aquarium/purpleHazeMontiporaEncrusting.jpg

The EXIF properties are listed under the picture. This is the Nikkor 55-200 zoom, set to 200, at about 2 ft away from the target. The picture was captured in RAW mode, and I saved to JPG in UFRaw software. The only adjustment I made to the file was the White Balance temperature, I took it up to the max 12000 K. My light on this tank is a 150W, 14000 K Sunpod (new bulb). The camera is on a Tripod, and I used the remote control to pull the trigger. All my tank power heads and pumps were running normally during the shot.

Anyway, it almost seems like the algae on the frag mount, and the surrounding rock is in better focus than the coral itself. I tried to keep the fStop high to get some depth of field, but that didn't seem to help the frag focus much.

Am I just not see'ing the coral good through the eyepiece, and not manually focusing good? Would one of those magnifying eye piece attachments help me manually focus in on the frag? Would a good medium telephoto macro lens help me focus?

Thanks.

 

[MrSandman]

Kinda hard to tell but it looks like nothing is really in focus on that photo. This leads me to believe that you're taking the shot at a slight angle to the tank's glass. Make sure that you're square to the tank as much as possible.

 

[TitusvileSurfer]

Survey says: A "magnifying eye piece" is NOT photography equipment.

 

[kaskiles]

Yes, I was taking it at a downward angle (maybe 30 deg.) because the frag is so small and flat. I'll try to tilt the frag instead, and keep the camera square.

I noticed these DR-6 right angle view finder attachments had a 2x magnification:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/357239-USA/Nikon_4753_DR_6_Right_Angle_Viefinder.html#
But they are pretty expensive...

I'll try to get square first.

Thanks!

 

[nickb]

The 55-200 isn't really a macro lens. At 200mm, f/13 and 2' distance, you will have a depth of field of only 0.1" (well under 1 inch). This makes getting an in-focus picture very tricky. The specs for that lens also way that the closest focusing distance is 3.6' (3.1' for the no-VR version). Can you really get yours to focus to 2'? Or do you need to back up the camera a bit?

 

[kaskiles]

Ahh, I must have under estimated my distance from the actual Subject coral.

After you pointed out the depth of field calculation, I searched on google and found this site:
http://www.dofmaster.com/dofjs.html
It seems to give a depth of field number like you've mentioned. I'll use this calculator to try to adjust my fStop for a 3" depth of field on this lens. And try to tilt the coral frag (as mentioned earlier).

Thanks everyone for help!

 

[Toddrtrex]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13543257#post13543257 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by nickb
The 55-200 isn't really a macro lens. At 200mm, f/13 and 2' distance, you will have a depth of field of only 0.1" (well under 1 inch). This makes getting an in-focus picture very tricky. The specs for that lens also way that the closest focusing distance is 3.6' (3.1' for the no-VR version). Can you really get yours to focus to 2'? Or do you need to back up the camera a bit?

I was thinking the same thing, I have that lens, and for the heck of it tried to take pictures of my tank, could never get it to focus right. Gave up on trying to use it with my tank -- which is fine, since I had bought it for taking pictures while hiking.