Showcase Olympus 30mm f/3.5 Macro

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Dew Drops by Dave Buckle, on Flickr

 

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_1040084 by Dave Buckle, on Flickr

 

[Underwater]

The 30mm is my default night dive lens; here's some shots from last week's trip to Roatan...
Brittle stars

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Polyps

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Coral and fish

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Arrow crab

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Tiny swimmers attracted to the light- zoom in to see a surprising amount of detail for the plankton captured in the focus plane

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[rfortson]

I just picked up a refurbished one for $150. I was feel pretty good about myself until I scrolled through and saw people getting it for $99! LOL! Oh well.

I had the 60mm but never really "got it". I was taking some photos of my watches and the 12-40 wouldn't get close enough to filter out the individual dots of light from the LED ring light so I'll see how this 30mm does. The examples in this thread give me lots of hope, though.

 

[Zairski]

Gotta have a little company at work.

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[Underwater]

Pacific tree frog

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The problem with amphibians is that they're often found near water; my yellow (nominally white) lab managed to find the foulest mud imaginable while I was flat on my belly shooting the frog. Anyways- I was surprised how well this lens did in a pinch for a portrait-type shot. Fortunately, I found one of those suds 'em yourself places that happened to be open on Easter Sunday.

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[Broddan]

I could have posted this earlier but I am trying out topaz sharpen IA to draw out even more detail. This was in-camera focus stacking original EM1

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[Underwater]

Pro tip: before you try your hand at a cliched macro shot with focus stacking and your M5mkII, make sure you actually have the latest firmware. I've done this in the past with my M1mk1, but I prefer to shoot macro with the M5 as it has (slightly) better IBIS. I could have sworn that the camera could do stacking, but the menu only let me bracket due to what was obviously user error. Again.

Although I pay for CC, I've only ever used LR and never PS. Well, until today when I thought I would give it a try; I'm pleasantly surprised at how well PS merged shots taken on a breezy day to end up with this result. Even more amazing is that the camera was just braced and not on a tripod. The other bonus is flexibility- I could delete images from the bracket that went too far and were entirely out of focus.

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[Underwater]

A couple of random shots from my front yard...

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[Underwater]

Aragog, is that you?

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[WaltP]

I just picked up a refurbished one for $150. I was feel pretty good about myself until I scrolled through and saw people getting it for $99! LOL! Oh well.

I had the 60mm but never really "got it". I was taking some photos of my watches and the 12-40 wouldn't get close enough to filter out the individual dots of light from the LED ring light so I'll see how this 30mm does. The examples in this thread give me lots of hope, though.

I just picked up a refurbished one for $150. I was feel pretty good about myself until I scrolled through and saw people getting it for $99! LOL! Oh well.

I had the 60mm but never really "got it". I was taking some photos of my watches and the 12-40 wouldn't get close enough to filter out the individual dots of light from the LED ring light so I'll see how this 30mm does. The examples in this thread give me lots of hope, though.

Where do you see this lens (30mm 3.5 macro) for $99, or even $150, please? I would love to have the flexibility. Thanks.

 

[rloewy]

It was $99 during introduction only. I have not seen it that cheap since.

 

[Underwater]

I've been keeping my eye on a western fence lizard that hangs out near my garbage and recycling bins; there's lots of stray cats in my area so every day I see him is a small victory. Yesterday my nephew was helping me with some yardwork, and I'm guessing he ran the lizard over with the yard debris bin. Fortunately, tails grow back and hopefully he can recover to eat bugs another day. The second photo is a 4-shot stack blended in PS. The 8-shot stack created in-camera has significantly less detail- it's a lot more effective to just do this in post if you have the software.

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[Bill Gaudin]

Monarch caterpillar feeding.

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[dbuckle]

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P7106855 by Dave Buckle, on Flickr

 

[Alexlotl]

Got this lens for my birthday on Saturday, and had a fun afternoon chasing insects around the garden.

Seems like a splendid optic in terms of performance, but managing lighting for macro is damned hard! I was using my FL-36R in RC mode, with a Sto-Fen diffuser mounted, holding it above the subject, but the hit rate wasn't great.

Quite pleased with this one, though - the light on the wings is too hard, but it's given me hope that me and macro are going to get with each other.

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The ability of the lens to transform your garden from something everyday and vanilla to a toybox full of things to photograph is wonderful.

 

[Giiba]

Got this lens for my birthday on Saturday, and had a fun afternoon chasing insects around the garden.

Seems like a splendid optic in terms of performance, but managing lighting for macro is damned hard! I was using my FL-36R in RC mode, with a Sto-Fen diffuser mounted, holding it above the subject, but the hit rate wasn't great.

Quite pleased with this one, though - the light on the wings is too hard, but it's given me hope that me and macro are going to get with each other.

View attachment 775387

The ability of the lens to transform your garden from something everyday and vanilla to a toybox full of things to photograph is wonderful.

I am really surprised Olympus didn't release a ring light to go with this lens. The small front element leaves a ton of space, but my searching only ever turns up enourmous ring lights for dslr lenses (72mm+).

I'm planning to hack something together if life ever gives me the time.

 

[dbuckle]

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P7106858-Edit-Edit by Dave Buckle, on Flickr

 

[Underwater]

Used this lens on a couple of night dives in Washington's Hood Canal last weekend...
Red octopus- I love the detail I was able to capture; for example, identifying characteristics of this species include the 3 little "eyelash" flaps of skin below the eyes

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Stubby squid- quite possibly the cutest species of cephalopod in our waters

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Yellowtail rockfish. Many diurnal fish sleep at night, making it easy to get close

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Tunicates

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Plumose anemone

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Decorator crab

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Pipefish. These guys are closely related to seahorses- you can see the family resemblance in the face

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[dbuckle]

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P8305534-Edit by Dave Buckle, on Flickr