Macro photography with 12$ lens.

I love taking some macro photos, and I more like challenge that makes this kind of photography. Because I love cheap stuff and using them as much as I can, I will show you some examples of using really cheap equipment and making nice macro photos. Let's imagine that you already have camera where you can change lenses, so this is free. One thing that you need is lens, like M42 lens for example. For this, I used 10$ lens called Revuenon 35mm 2.8 with M42 screw mount. It has 52mm filter thread, so I bought 52mm to EOS (reverse adapter) which cost about 2$. So let's calculate, DSLR or Mirrorless camera is free (because you probably already have), lens is 10$ and adapter 2$ and sunlight is free so you don't need flash or you can use built in flash from your camera. 12$ for this photo shooting is really nice and cheap, just as I like. :D

With this you are getting magnification more than 1:1 for one Happy Meal in McDonald's. :D Only downside of this lens is how much you need to get close to subject, you need to get really close (like 5cm close, s you need to be really careful not to scare insects). Just imagine if someone stares at you at that distance, creepy and uncomfortable. :D

Sometimes built in flash really helps you when your subject is in deep shadows, like this for example. If I didn't used flash I will probably get just silhouette of this insect and that is it. I mean, it will be amazing silhouette too but you will not see any details of it.

One thing that you really need to keep eye on is shutter speed, you need approximately 1/100 to make detailed photo of subject, if you are using flash you can reduce shutter speed a little bit and your subject motion will be captured really well. But I'm here talking about cheapest macro photography. Because you are getting really shallow depth of field, you need to stop down aperture a lot, like f/11 or higher. For this, you are loosing really good amount of light so you need to raise ISO to compensate it with your shutter speed. So be prepared for grainy photos in some situations, but you can reduce it in post processing, not everything but a good amount of it.

Try it yourself, buy cheap lens and turn it into macro lens by buying cheap adapter and see results, you will be amazed! :)