How Focal Length Matters in Macro Photography | 30mm vs 60mm vs 90mm Compared

[@rich3419]

Thanks for the tutorial. Very well done. ☺️👍

[@BMadPhoto]

You’re welcome 😊 Thanks for checking it out!

[@Steve33-c4o]

Thanks for sharing! As a beginner in Macro all of your videos and photos are spot on.

[@BMadPhoto]

Thanks, hope it helped in any way - enjoy the journey, macro is lots of fun :)

[@lydiatroyer668]

Super helpful video! Thank you.

[@BMadPhoto]

Thank you for leaving the kind comment - Glad to know these are helpful for others 😃

[@srfbum123]

Very informative! Thank you

[@BMadPhoto]

Glad it was helpful, thanks for watching 😀

[@weekendwanderer5514]

The Olympus 30mm was never on my radar because I have the Lumix version but I miss being able to use the in-camera focus stacking. May have to do a swap!

[@BMadPhoto]

@weekendwanderer5514 oh maybe you know, does bracketing still work with lumix lens? I have found I like bracketing better most times anyways, more control in post and many more images to use. The oly will give you a bit more magnification also if the specs I see are right. Happy shooting!

[@weekendwanderer5514]

@@BMadPhoto Bracketing works well, but the in camera focus stacking feature is grayed out. It's a nice little lens that's a little faster than the Olympus at f2.8 and, like all Lumix lenses, has image stabilization.

[@photographer8486]

Thanks for sharing! I wanted to learn photography. So I got a used Sony A7s2. Then lens I got with it was damaged. I thought buying a zoom lens would help me practice diversely with different focal lengths. Bought the Tamron 24-70 f2.8. The thing is I don't keep my camera with me. I should have got a fixed focal length lens (which would have also been smaller) and a smaller camera so that I can keep this handy with me always. I need to practice more and more. The setup I have currently I just don't carry with me. Keeping in mind I want to click pictures in low light during evening and night after office, please share some suggestions for a body and lens to have with me everyday.

[@Chrispitchwildlife]

I was considering recently maybe a 25mm or 30mm, but I can not find yet something that I like. Fujifilm do a good 30mm 1:1 but the working distance is 1cm which I don't like at all. I looked at the Laowa 25mm but it more a lens for micro photography as opposite to macro... Thanks for the video comparison. 👍😀

[@BMadPhoto]

Yeah is it almost comical how close you have to get - I was not even showing in this video how close it is at 1.25x - I pissed off a few bumblebees accidentally bumping😅them. But if you are ever planning to do non moving subjects, its so nice what it can do with distant background.

[@Tom-Tenerife]

Let's buy 65mm 2:1 Laowa for Fuji because is far the best for Fujifilm. The 80 macro is too havy. The 30mm is for ambiented mushrooms and something similar, not good for insects. Very important a good diffuser. The nest in my opinion is Cygnustech

[@Chrispitchwildlife]

@@Tom-Tenerife I have 2 Laowa 65mm (canon & Fuji), and I agree with all what you said. 😀👍

[@tomasbordi362]

Thanks for this! I own the 30mm and the 90mm and thinking about getting the 60mm aswell. But maybe it won´t add as much in between?

[@BMadPhoto]

@tomasbordi362 hey thank you! I recently sold the 60, happy with the 30 and 90!

[@tomasbordi362]

@@BMadPhoto No need to collect lenses. I will stick with the 30 and the 90 aswell.

[@BMadPhoto]

@@tomasbordi362 Happy shooting! Photography can feel like pokemon sometimes want to catch em all 😀. Thought about it some more - I would say the 60 if you also needed a really nice portrait lens or a pocketable weather sealed macro and didnt enjoy carrying the 90. But yeah just based on focal length distance for macro - I dont think owning the trinity makes sense for most people.

[@wizard6207]

Thanks Brian. Very useful information as always. I may get the 30mm for fungi in the Autumn or fall as you call it. I will stick with the 90mm for insects though. When I was using Nikon for macro I had the 40mm to start with. It was a really nice lens but very difficult to shoot insects with because of the close working distance as you say. It was a whole lot easier with the Nikon 105mm. I love the OM 90mm though. 2X magnification is crazy good, but I often find the insects I'm shooting, say like a Hoverfly is to big to fit into the frame at 2X. Looking forward to your next video. 👍😀

[@BMadPhoto]

Awesome, yeah basically feel the same! The 90mm is a beast for insect macro :) Happy shooting and thanks for the nice comment.

[@LonerJoe]

Nice video. We tried all spring to grow echinacea from seed and didn't get a one.😂 I'm reminded of the sony 30mm macro I lost 😢. I don't know how I could loose it but I'm old and misplace things. I doubt I'll replace it. I like my 65mm on my crop sensor and my Sigma 105mm with auto focus

[@BMadPhoto]

@Joe_I_Hadley nice set up, those 2 lengths I imagine give a great range for different subjects! Is that about 90 and 150 FF equivalent?

[@LonerJoe]

The 65mm is a cropt sensor lens. The Sigma is full frame so 1.5 times

[@photographer8486]

Thanks for sharing! I wanted to learn photography. So I got a used Sony A7s2. Then lens I got with it was damaged. I thought buying a zoom lens would help me practice diversely with different focal lengths. Bought the Tamron 24-70 f2.8. The thing is I don't keep my camera with me. I should have got a fixed focal length lens (which would have also been smaller) and a smaller camera so that I can keep this handy with me always. I need to practice more and more. The setup I have currently I just don't carry with me. Keeping in mind I want to click pictures in low light during evening and night after office, please share some suggestions for a body and lens to have with me everyday.

[@BMadPhoto]

Your welcome, and thank you for watching also! I totally understand what you mean about keeping the camera with you all the time - I have a Ricoh GR3x that is generally what I keep with me when I am not specifically planning to do photography. My Olympus gear is more for when I am going out with the express intent to do wildlife or street photography - or when traveling. Good luck, Let me know if you find your perfect every day carry :)

[@ericlundquist3466]

Great video sir. Id like to see a 6mm macro lens. Ultra wide 1:1

[@BMadPhoto]

@ericlundquist3466 Thanks Eric, much appreciated. Not for macro, but would love to try shooting an ultrawide sometime for astro.

[@smkunder1]

Great video! What body are you using?

[@BMadPhoto]

@@smkunder1 Thanks! It is the em5 mark 3 😀

[@mikecanzoneri2725]

nice video....thank you for doing it. i would have really liked to have seen the 3 lenses shoot the exact same thing and then had a side by side by side view to really see the differences. i'm assuming all 3 lenses rendered the same depth of field if the aperture was the same, because of the different distances from the subject. i can see how the 30mm would be difficult for any living subjects since you'd have to be right on top of them. i have the olympus 60mm and love it....i think, if you're shooting 1x, it might be more desirable than the 90mm @ 1x because you're able to get your on-camera diffuser up closer to your subject for better lighting. i'm not doing much true macro shooting nowadays...i do a lot of frog photography and you don't need 1:1 magnification, so when i'm using my M43 system, i've found shooting to be more fun with the olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 pro zoom...it's something like .3x and that's plenty for getting just about any kind of frog or small reptile to fill a M43 sensor.

[@BMadPhoto]

Thanks Mike, great feedback - I agree and am planning that for the next video to get a more replicable stationary subject with a decent background - the tips on side by side comparison is great, ill work that in! BTW when I am not shooting macro, I have and love the 12-45mm f4 pro which is similar and also works wonderfully close up similar to the f2.8 and its a lot of fun to shoot with. Happy Shooting!

[@mikecanzoneri2725]

@@BMadPhoto very cool! hey are you in the chicago area? also, do you work in technology?

[@BMadPhoto]

@@mikecanzoneri2725 hah yes, do you?

[@Tom-Tenerife]

Zuiko 90 is my favorite for insect and with 2x duplicator for dragonflies I'm using Cygnustech duffuser with Olympus flash doing focus stacking and bracketing Helicon focus, I do not know 30 mm Zuiko macro. I have a 50 mm 2.1 supermacro Laowa

[@BMadPhoto]

@@Tom-Tenerife Yeah it’s a blast - hard to beat the 90mm for m4/3 - love the fast autofocus for auto bracketing also!

[@jpdj2715]

"How Focal Length Matters in Macro Photography" - for one thing because focal length may only be what is printed on the lens when it is set to infinity focusing distance. My 105/2.8 macro lens effectively becomes 160mm at 1:1 reproduction ration and set to f/2.8, the effective aperture number becomes 4.3 because 105mm/2.8 equals 160mm/4.3. A lot happens in the macro domain that we may not be aware of. The change of focal length is also called focus breathing and a lens that does not do that actually is a zoom lens that compensates the focus breathing by zooming a bit, precisely to counter that. This is what makes "cine lenses" so expensive.

[@BMadPhoto]

Great information, thanks for sharing this! Definitely going into macro or extreme macro has a big impact (there is a formula somewhere i used to have) on what the effective aperture is, including increased effects on diffraction. I think it was something like on the 90mm at 2:1 m4/3 f8 becomes ff eq of f25+ (dont quote me on that, dont have the formula handy... but its more than just the normal double of it due to sensor size)

[@jpdj2715]

@@BMadPhoto - I had to learn these formulas by head over 50 years ago in photography school. With TTL metering the effective aperture is no big deal, except we suffer from it when we shoot video with manual exposure and in a take change distance from, say, 1:1 to infinity. With large format the bellows extension factor always played until we bought a SinarSix meter that measured in the film plane. Since that moment I forgot the formulas. Some people keep wining over needing a FF 150 or 200 macro, and forget that focus breathing already gives 'm that. Almost. My Nikon Z 105/2.8 "S" macro lens has its own LCD display where it displays the actual effective aperture number and with that we can calculate the effective focal length easily. While this lens focuses internally, it still has focus breathing. In sharpness it is on another level, as the floating elements that help with focusing also adapt corrections to the distance.

[@georgemahlum6542]

Just buy some extension tubes...Then any focal length can be a macro.

[@BMadPhoto]

@georgemahlum6542 yes, very true, I do similar with the raynox on the 75-300mm and can get 4:1 macro (ff eq) it's pretty amazing. But at least on olympus there are benefits to the dedicated macro lenes. Thanks and Happy shooting :)