I am the new owner of the PanaLeica 45mm macro lens and am becoming fascinated by the prospect of macro photography on my E-P2. I am inspired by some of the amazing shots on this site. In order to get the greatest flexibility and control over aperture and shutter speed it seems obvious that a decent portable light source must help a lot. The Macro Arm Led (MAL-1) from Olympus is quite tempting but I really don't want to lose the use of the Viewer which is so critical for accurate focusing in macro work. What do you experts out there use? Something lightweight and affordable hopefully! M
Unfortunately, you will need to lose the viewfinder for most of your options. Ring flash, macro twin flash, etc. all use the hotshoe as well. Only way around that would be to trigger regular flash guns wirelessly through the pop-up Remote Flash Commander.
Thanks for that Ned - what a shame.... Am I right in thinking that the use of the hotshoe in the LED type ring flashes is for support only? They are powered by AA batteries so I maybe could fix it to the base of the camera instead with a screw-in shoe such as used on a tripod ?? Or am I being stupid? M
I have been playing with my Leica Elmarit 45mm f2.8 with a 16mm extension tube and the Oly Macro Light Arm. In this shot, at f16, focus by moving the rock on which the subject sits fractionally in and out of focus. Love the MLA — better than flash for my kind of subjects, unless you bounce flash. {}
Ive been looking for a good setup without spending a lot on a twin flash system. I got two FL300-Rs and a cheap ebay flexible dual flash bracket to start. The ebay bracket broke in a couple of days, so I just ordered a Manfrotto 330b dual flash bracket. This looks much more sturdier, and not too expensive at $55.
I'm no expert, but I shoot macro the way Ned described - viewfinder mounted on the camera, external flash triggered using the pop-up. By using a large flash with a big diffuser close to the subject, you can shoot at lower power (= faster recycle time) and get more diffused light.
D'oh... Well in that case I guess you'd have to mount a flash and rely on the magnify button to check focus using the camera screen.
Wouldn't it be nice if someone would provide a cable of sorts to extend the EVF to another location while allowing a flash to be on the hotshoe???
Same issue with the ELV in use, I am investigating an external lead for the port, which is independent of the hot shoe, but I am told it disables the advanced Olympus flash types, but leaves the basic hot show firing available. I worked in camera repairs, and it is friend still in the business who is looking into the PM-1 problem. There is a quick and dirty way to get flash with the ELV in use, and with close up set ups on a tripod, set up the focus, turn ambient lighting to low, put camera on bulb and then fire flash set-up manually, close bulb, this assumes a small aperture is in use, which is usual in close up work. Works a treat for most simple static close-ups. Stephen.
I have worked out a solution this afternoon, a microswitch to fire the flash, added to the extension cord switch, (a cheap after market one). It is arranged to fire a fraction after the main switch is triggered at the full push, with the camera set on 1/15th so far, but higher speed sync could be done with care and a bit of experiment. Works on the same principle as the vintage flash synchroniser needed on non-synced cameras in the past. Leaves the ELV in place and fully working. Stephen.
