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Was playing around tonight, lusting at Nikon 105's on eBay when I saw a reversing ring. It was fairly cheap so I thought I would get one for my 70-210 and 50mm.

Is this going to give me something reasonable to play with or have I just thrown a massive $5.99 down the drain.

Only other lens options were, 18-70 kit lens and soon to arrive Tokina 12-24.

The plan was to use extension on the 70-210 and reverse the 50mm.

Cheers.

You can't compare a macro lens, like the 105mm f/2.8, to a setup using a reversing ring.

The macro lens can be used for normal photography as well as macro. The main difference between it and a non-macro lens, is it has far greater bellows extension such that you can focus down to 1:1 magnification. Being an f/2.8, it lets in lots of light so focusing is relatively easy.

A reversing ring is for dedicated macro work and is for magnifications greater than 1:1. It may be fun to use but is going to be very difficult. The effective maximum aperture is going to be smaller than f/2.8 ("larger" f/stop) which means focusing is going to be a real pain.

As you can already get to greater than 1:1 using your extension tube, I'm not sure if the reversing ring would give you much of a benefit. You'd be better off buying a set of extension tunes (e.g. Kenko), which you can use with the 50mm lens. The tubes do exactly the same thing as when you focus a macro lens in close (move the lens element further from the sensor/film). With the Kenko tubes, you get 3 tubes of different lengths and so each one will let you work at different ranges of magnification.

To Andrew's notes, I will just add that the general consensus is that zoom lenses and reversing lenses don't mix very well. Many years ago, I used one with some primes and got very good results though. Images were well over 1:1
This just reinforces his conclusion. I will also second his recommendation of Kenko Tubes.

I have the Kenko's already and am using them on the 50mm. Thought I would have a play with the reversing ring to see what extra magnification I could get. Might be too crappy on the 70-210 but worth a go for $5.99

Definately know its not in the same ballpark as the 105 just not sure if I am going to be able to raise the funds for such a purchase in the near future.

Hang on... how much does a kidney go for these days!

The 50mm with 12+36mm tubes will give you more magnification than you'd get from the 105mm lens on its own. The lens to subject distance will be somewhat less (which can be an advantage) and the largest aperture will be effectively smaller (but not by much depending on which 50mm lens you have). As such, the combination would be a fairly good substitute for the 105mm macro lens - and a much better substitute than the reversing ring.

The reversing ring will give you more magnification, but you will also get all the problems that brings, such as significantly reduced depth of field.

ATJ wrote:The reversing ring will give you more magnification, but you will also get all the problems that brings, such as significantly reduced depth of field.

Its more of a fun excercise than how I am planning to shoot from now on.

I just got some electrical tape to give it a go.

Required equipment: D70s, 70-210, 68mm Kenko Extension, 50mm f1.8, SB600, red electrical tape



on the camera



Struggled to get the iTTL to work on the flash untill I realised the aperture ring on the 70-210 wasn't locked. Everything after that worked perfectly.

Tried to find something outside to shoot before the sun went down and got 5 shots off so didn't quite have time to nail a sharp picture, there wasn't much to choose from either. Here is what I got... a weevil I think (from seeing them on other sites). As a comparison the first shot repeated from another post (sorry but I think it illustrated just how much extra magnification this gives) was the same subject size and shot with just the kenkos and 50mm.





Looking forward to getting the reversing ring and getting a setup to hold the flash...