Crude Macro Experiments With The Canon S3
2006-06-10
I took a couple of old SLR (Tamron) lenses with focal lengths of 50 mm and 28 mm and tried them out as macro lenses today. You take the SLR lens and put it in front of the camera lens backwards. The focus is about and inch and a half to two inches in front of the whole assembly. And the great thing is that you can use the S3 zoom to make the image bigger.
This is what the Supermacro mode can do (full frame, reduced to 21%):
The "e" is about 137 pixels high on the original. With a 50mm lens in front I get an "e" of about 740 pixels; about 5.4 times more magnification:
And with a 28mm lens, the "a" is about 1300 pixels, a magnification factor of about 9.5 times that of the Supermacro mode:
The way I got these big images was by zooming the lens on the S3 all the way in. The depth of field is very shallow of course. The light level was very low, so the images are of very low quality (and have been enhanced a little), but this was just a magnification test.
I have ordered a reversing ring and an adaptor so I can properly fit the SLR lenses to the camera. Once I have those I will do some outside experiments in better light.
This is what the Supermacro mode can do (full frame, reduced to 21%):
The "e" is about 137 pixels high on the original. With a 50mm lens in front I get an "e" of about 740 pixels; about 5.4 times more magnification:
And with a 28mm lens, the "a" is about 1300 pixels, a magnification factor of about 9.5 times that of the Supermacro mode:
The way I got these big images was by zooming the lens on the S3 all the way in. The depth of field is very shallow of course. The light level was very low, so the images are of very low quality (and have been enhanced a little), but this was just a magnification test.
I have ordered a reversing ring and an adaptor so I can properly fit the SLR lenses to the camera. Once I have those I will do some outside experiments in better light.
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