Going Past 5x
Recently I pondered a bit how to break the 5x barrier in terms of macro magnification. While my MP-E 65 provides magnification up to 5x, of course I had to wonder about progressing beyond this. I read a bit about using bellows, reversing lenses, and other techniques, but all of them seemed rather a pain. For instance, bellows really aren’t practical when photographing out in the field.
It then occurred to me that the answer was quite obvious. First, by switching to my 7D instead of my 5D2 I reached an effective magnification (compared to my 5D2) of 8x. Second, I was curious if my 1.4x extender would work with the MP-E 65 – so I fit it on to give me an effective magnification of 11x. I decided to ignore the inevitable diffraction and try it out.
After trying it out on the carpet, I decided to find a real subject so I went outside with my contraption. I quickly found a fly that was temporarily willing to be a still subject – or at least up to 3x when it flew away.