Photo Pros - Which Camera Lens Do You Use?

The Canon xti does not support Live view.

 

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The XTi did not come with Live View. The XSi and XS were the first generation so equipped, the XS being a slightly "downmarket" model using the XTi's 10MP sensor instead of the XSi's 12MP.

There are adapters aplenty to combine virtually any lens with any camera, the limitation in most cases being the loss of electronic communication so the ability to manually set aperture at the lens is important. All the duplicating lenses we use, predating digital imaging, of course have aperture rings.

Lenses/adapters first, if you already have a tripod and need to do this piecemeal. A tripod aimed downward at a coin is inconvenient unless you can leave it permanently in place, but quite serviceable and will allow you time to research and wrap your mind around what you specifically want/need for a copystand. That may vary if you choose the "dedicated macro lens/maybe extensions" route over the "bellows/duplicating lens" route.

Keep in mind, in the real world where we usually only post images on the Internet, there's no reason to be so fixated on the ability to reach over 1x magnification or to have infinite mag adjustability. I've owned 4 different Canon 100mm Macro lenses, and all of them were just plain superb, never once being confused by a slab for autofocusing (in the years I used them as primary taking lenses, I rarely focused manually; didn't need to). The equivalents from Nikon, Sigma, Tamron et. al. are equally sharp although you'll far prefer the Canon and Nikon for internal focusing (not extending with focus changes).

In conjunction with a couple of 25mm extensions for when you really want magnification, there is no argument against these lenses save price. In truth, if I had more money than I do, I'd have a 100mm Macro-based rig dedicated to full-face imaging - it's so sharp you need not worry about whether you're 1:1 on the sensor - and a bellows rig for greater magnification needs.

 

Here's a useful chart comparing the XSi, XS, and XTi:

http://media.the-digital-picture.com/Information/Canon-EOS-Rebel-XSi-XS-XTi-Comparison-Chart.pdf

That is correct, just get a Canon EOS - M42 adapter and a Canon camera will fit in place of the Nikon.

IMO, the strongest argument for the extension/bellows type of setup is its ability to do variety imaging. A dedicated macro lens simply can't do that work, so you would need to buy the extensions/bellows anyway. Why not just start there?

 

I wouldn't avoid cameras with smaller pixel pitches, as long as they're at least APS-sized and as long as the readout noise and well capacity scale down in proportion to the pixel area.

If you want to capture everything the sensor can record, you need to shoot at the DLA or wider. My camera (Canon T6s) has 3.72 micron pixels with a DLA of 5.6, but the AA filter limits the maximum resolution to about 3 pixels per line pair, so maybe f/8 is good enough?

On the other hand, if you want to get all the resolution that a given lens provides, you'd need to oversample the image with a sensor with small pixels. Over at the other coin forum, there were some lens tests using USAF 1951 test charts where you could see that many (but not all) macro/enlarging lenses shooting at 1x could significantly outresolve the T6s sensor . A 10X microscope objective was used to project the areal image from the lens onto the sensor, greatly reducing the effects of pixel size.

There was also a test that showed that even the 10X Mitutoyo objective, with a sensor-side effective f-ratio of 15-18, could benefit somewhat from pixels smaller the 3.72 microns of the T6s. This test used a 2X teleconverter to magnify the image as seen by the sensor. It's also true that the 10X Mitutoyo doesn't max out the T6s sensor resolution.

Also, Rik Littlefield over at Photomacrography.net did some tests on a 135mm Olympus lens at f/11, and showed it outresolved a DSLR sensor.

Of course, there are disadvantages to small pixels -- the images take more disk space, and could be noisier if you do pixel peeping (because of the smaller well size and increased photon accumulation noise). Also, if you want to get the best images the sensor can capture, you may need to resort to stacking more often.

 

The AA filter is only part of the problem with sensor resolution. The bigger problem is the Bayer pattern itself. They are designed to interact to minimize things like false color and moire. When I had the AA filter removed from my T2i, I expected a significant improvement in resolution. I saw a small improvement, but not nearly as much as I expected. I attribute this to the lack of processing going on in the demosaicing algorithm. The algorithm is not expecting good pixel-level resolution, and is likely applying DSP tricks that expect the AA filter to be present. What I've seen from the newer cameras without AA filter is significant improvement in pixel level detail, which is why I am interested in getting a new camera, but unfortunately the right one has not come along yet.

 

Hmm, I never really looked hard at the 5DSR before, believing it would not do what I want, but in fact the AA filter cancellation is done in hardware, not software. It is similar to the D800E, which has two dichroic filters, one to split the image vertically (same as the D800) and one to re-merge the image. The re-merge replaces the horizontal split filter. They do this to keep the mechanics the same, so that they don't have a completely new camera vs the 5DS, similar to what Nikon did on the D800E. The result is not quite as good as having no filters, but better than having both X and Y splitters. I also just checked that it is supported by Helicon, so looks like I am a go from tethering/stacking perspective. Hmm...

 

I didn't realize it was all done in hardware; my information was based on "press release" type data which wasn't technically complete. That's even better.

It would be a worthy mount for a 105PN. 5800 vertical pixels....

 

I do love my D810.......suites me well enough for coin photog'ing as well as for other notions.......

 

It would be a near perfect mount for the 105PN!

My only issue now is that the versions of EOS Utility and Helicon Remote needed for operating the 5DSR won't run on XP. I am thinking of buying a separate PC with Win7/8/10 that will run the tethering and stacking programs and control the camera. Now I just need to convince my wife that spending $4k on a new camera and computer "makes sense"...

 

It's getting to the point where an XP computer really ought not be Internet-facing. OTOH, once they deprecate Windows 7 I'm switching to Linux.

 

One thing to keep in mind as a long-time Linux user: use a separate data partition, and completely blow away and reinstall your OS partition when you upgrade. Frequently when I've done the in-place upgrade, either sound, graphics, or wireless have just stopped working. It's usually fixable with some googling, but if it's wireless that breaks, that becomes slightly more difficult (you need to plug a network cable directly into your router).