Canon MPE-65mm f/2.8 Lens

First Impressions

The lens is very well constructed for a non 'L' lens. The lens extends a lot when you change the magnification from 1x to 5x. At 1x it is very nice and compact but at 5x it is very long, probably longer than my Sigma 180 macro lens I had earlier.

The lens comes with a tripod collar, tripod mounting this lens is absolutely essential as at such high magnifications even very small movements is amplified. I tried hand holding this lens just to see the effect of changing magnification, by the time I was done with my test and took my eyes off the viewfinder I was feeling dizzy from all the movement in the viewfinder and I think I have pretty stable hands.

A macro focusing rail is essential to achieve focus, the lens does not have a focusing ring but rather has a ring to change the magnification. So you set the magnification and move the camera forward or backward to achieve focus. When the lens is tripod mounted with out a focusing rail this would mean the entire tripod set up has to be moved forward or backwards. With a focusing rail, moving the camera and lens becomes easier. A flash is absolutely essential for this kind of work as there is loss of light as the lens extends, so the flash would be the main source of light. The viewfinder becomes dark at higher magnifications but it still very usable and one can carefully achieve focus. The easiest way to work with this lens is to set the camera at f/16 and 1/125 sec shutter speed and fire away using the flash for illuminating the subject

First Tests

This is the first usable image from my new Canon MP-E Macro lens. On the left is a shot taken at 2.5X Magnification, tripod mounted and focusing rail used for focusing. 550Ex at +1 exposure compensation placed to the right of the lens to illuminate the flower @F16 and 1/125 sec. On the right is the same flower shot with a TS-E 90 and 20mm extension tube.

The results from this lens are very sharp and am sure I will enjoy this lens immensely. This lens may not be for every day use, it is a very specialized lens and requires a lot of patience to setup the image. But the lens also makes us look at things differently. I like to shoot outdoors and getting a nice non distracting background outdoors is not problem but when I plan to shoot indoors during the winter months, having a clean background is very tough. With this lens I don't have to worry about backgrounds as the angle of view is so small.

Preparing the flash

Creating soft diffused light : Since flash is the primary source of light for photography with this lens I spent one whole afternoon trying different setups to get the lighting I liked. My main subjects are flowers and the reflective parts of the flowers demands me to have diffused light. My goal was to use the single flash I already had and create lighting with no strong shadows and no harsh highlites. The first picture I have shown above, the close up of Sulphur Cosmos, is shot at 2.5x maginfication with a 550ex and Lumiquest Soft Box, if you look closely there are places where the light has reflected off the smooth parts of the flowers. Looking at the picture I can see that I have used a flash to illuminate the flower. So I set out with a goal to have a lighting setup which is transparent and unless told nobody would find out that a flash was used. After one whole afternoon this is what I ended up with.

Items I used to diffuse the light from the flash

      Rosco Cinegel Tough Rolux Filter : Cut to fit the front of the flash tube

      Lumiquest Mini Softbox for Shoe-Mount Flashes

With the Lumiquest Mini Softbox and the Tough Rolux filters taped to the front of the flash I get a very nice even illumination which has given me consistent results for nearly a month now.

Below are examples of the lighting I get from the current flash setup

Both images were shot at f16, 1/125 sec and a 550ex flash unit at +1 1/3. The lighting setup does the trick for shooting stationary subjects, providing an even field of illumination with slight shadows.

Working in the Field

I have been using this lens for nearly two months now and I have been getting consistent results with the setup shown above. On the left I have the kirk macro slider mounted on a kirk ballhead. On the right is the distance sale on top of the lens. The easiest way I have found to work with the lens is to set the maginification on the lens while looking through the viewfinder making sure you are getting the composition you want. Once the magnification is set, use the distance scale on the lens (which gives the distance at which the lens achieves focus at the particular magnification) to set the lens at the ballpark of the distance needed to achieve focus. Now use the macro slider to fine tune the distance get the subject in focus by moving the lens backwards or forward while keeping the tripod in the same position. Depth of field is very narrow with this lens even at f/16 and composition takes on a new meaning with this lens. Using the depth of field preview is the only way to determine if you have the composition you need and have the subject in focus. The rule of the thirds holds true even at such high magifications. One little trick I have started using more often is to close one eye and view the flower from different angles to see which composition best shows the beauty of the flower. Setting up the shot from the interesting angle has increased the number of good pictures I can get with this lens. In the pictures below I have placed the stamen of the flowers at the lower left side third of the picture, which adds a little drama to the otherwise colorful picture. Adding a few dew drops of water using a sparyer also helps to create some interesting effect as the water drops get magnified adding some interesting effect.
Before you take a plunge into purchasing this lens you should be warned that setting up each shot can take a lot of time and needs a lot of patience. At the speed at which I work it takes me about 10 minutes to setup the composition and determine the critical point of focus. All this has sure slowed me down and I am getting about 10 shots in the place of 30 I used to get earlier. But my keepers from each shoot has considerably increased.

Examples of 1x to 5x Magnification

Here is an example showing the effect of magnification on the same subject. The images are captured from 1x on the left to 5x on the right. Used a MR-14ex Ring Lite Flash to illuminate the subject. I have been wanting to add these images from december last year and finally fall is here and so are the images.

Focus Stacked Images

Here are a few images that are focus stacked. I took the same image by manually focusing on different parts of the subject. The images were then combined together in Photoshop. The process in Photoshop is very simple, layer all the images in Photoshop, select all layers and do "Edit->Auto Align" layers. Once the layers have been aligned blend the images by choosing "Edit->Auto Blend" and choose Stack option. This will choose the infocus parts of the various layers using layer masking, flatten the image and you are done. Images shot at f/8 and above work really well for this technique.