At 04:22 PM 11/7/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Bob Neuman wrote:
>>
>> Hi--
>>
>> >At the risk of giving away some of your professional trade secrets, can
>> >you tell me how you get so much depth of field in your "bug shots"? I
>> >have been taking "bug shots" for over twenty-five years and always come
>> >up against the trade-off between magnification and depth-of-field. Do
>> >you use a small flash with a small aperture? What focal length lens did
>> >you use for the first few pictures (which have the highest
>> >magnification, but still are sharp across the whole insect)?
>> >
>> >If you don't want to share your tricks, I understand, but it frustrates
>> >the hell out of me to get what I think is a great insect shot, only to
>> >get the pictures back and part of it is fuzzy.
>>
>> It is hard work, but someone's gotta do it! ;-) Actually,
>> there is a LOT of slide selection! I use a powerful TTL flash,
>> and the secret is converters...;-) Actually, I seemed to get better
>> (crisper) results at f11-16 with a 1.4-2X added (and maybe a tube
>> and/or achromat) than by simple stopping down (I did a quick check
>> today [finally! ;-] of a 105 at 1/2X at f32 vs. the same lens at
>> f16 on a TC200 [same magnification and DOF, but sharper results
>> {well, maybe the same resolution, but with better contrast...}]).
>> Other tricks are necessary, like shooting the bug sideways, or hiding
>> the unsharp parts behind things, etc. BTW, look on my page under
>> "I babble", SLE(MN), then 90mm Vivitar and 200mm f4 non-macro...;-)
>> (The orange fly was shot with the latter - my best high-magnification
>> lens.)
>>
>> David Ruether
>> ruether@fcinet.com
>> d_ruether@hotmail.com
>> http://www.fcinet.com/ruether
>
>David
>
>Thanks for sharing the tips. I have used inexpensive TCs in the past
>and gave up on them because of the lack of sharpness and loss of light,
>but I was using them for telephotography, not macrophotography. Maybe I
>will have to invest in a half-decent TC. Lately I have taken a few
>shots with a macro lens (Nikkor 105) and a close-up lens (4T) and have
>been relatively happy.
>
>I had discovered some of the other tricks (sideways and hiding things),
>but never seriously considered using converters for macro shots. In
>your "babbles" on lenses, you mention using tubes with some lenses. Have
>you found that you get better results with TCs than using extension
>tubes?
Rick Mili

You're welcome!
Macro work is one of the few places where TC's shine, as it 'twere...;-)
Since the stops are normally small, the TC's are in their optimum range,
and they seem to provide better results at the effectively two-stops smaller apetures when using them, and they double the magnification, and they provide greater space in front of the lens with the same magnification - what else do you want??? ;-) The Nikkor TC200/1 and the Vivitar Macro 2X (which also has an extension ring built in) are both excellent for macro.