I just finished archiving all the photos I have taken since I’ve owned a digital SLR camera. It filled an entire 500 GB hard disk for all the files from November 2003 to December 2007. Three separate digital SLRs were used to create those files, the Canon EOS Digital Rebel (300D), Canon EOS 20D, and the Canon EOS 40D. What a long way we’ve come in just a short amount of time.

I have all of my images stored on two Western Digital 500 GB My Book drives. Each drive contains the identical information as the other, and I will be moving one drive to an off-site location. I think that’s a pretty good backup strategy. Before archiving the files were stored in two locations as well. Older files are stored on a 250 GB Buffalo LinkStation, and newer files are stored on an internal 250 GB hard disk. The files stored on both of these drives are backed up to an external Western Digital 500 GB My Book drive. This helps keep the files safe from a single point of failure and also provides extra security from accidental deletions or overwrites when I am editing them. The downside to all of this is all the extra storage I need to keep the duplicate copies of each file. Still, I’m looking forward to filling up the next 500 GB, which I’m sure I’ll reach sooner than 4 years.

My dad just purchased the Dot Line DL-DRF14/C Macro Ringlight Flash for Canon E-TTL II. It has a guide number of 46 feet / 14 meters at 50mm, which is similar to the Sigma EM-140 DG Macro Ringlight that I use. In practice the unit is less powerful than the Sigma, has no manual controls, no high-speed sync, and no master/slave capabilities. However at 1/3rd the cost it’s not a bad alternative and for most macro shots you wouldn’t miss those features. The flash has a ring diameter of 52mm, and it comes with step down rings for lenses up to 67mm. You could probably get a step down ring for larger lenses, say 72mm and 77mm, but you’ll start to notice some viginetting. The build quality is also not as good as the Sigma, but did I mention it was less than 1/3rd the cost? He’s been using it very effectively with his Tamron 90mm Macro lens.

The next few days I’ll be at the 11th Annual Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival in Titusville, Florida. If you’re attending I hope to see you there…

Labels: 20D, 300D, 40D, Archive, Backup, Birds, Macro

Outstanding macro images! I think the ring light works really well. I may need to get one. Superb depth of field (DOF) on the images. What DOF do you find you use most on average for macro photography?


I usually shoot in Manual mode at f/16 and 1/250th of a second at ISO 400. I have to vary the flash output from 0 to -1 depending on how close I am to the subject. Sometimes I'll go as high as f/22 or bump down my ISO to 200 if there is a lot of light.

At that those apertures, no matter how much I've cleaned my sensor I usually spend at least 5 minutes in Photoshop cleaning up dust spots.

What do you think of a close-up lens? I have found some in 72mm and 77mm. Will it work with any of my lenses? I found a set with 1.5x, 2x, 4x, and 10x power.

I wasn't crazy about close-up lenses. I have a Canon 500D (58mm) which I bought for my 70-300mm lens. I didn't like it. Autofocus is out of the question, you need to go manual if you want to get stuff in focus. Also you lose infinity focus when you have a close-up lens attached, which is what drives the AF nuts.

I used the 500D for a couple of weeks then I put it away and saved up for the Sigma 150mm. I lent the 500D to my dad and he ended up buying extension tubes instead, and finally a real Macro lens. As you can see, he and I did very little Macro until we got our true macro lenses. Even with the 150mm, I only used it occasionally until I got a ring light, although with a diffuser, you can get away with using the 550/580ex flash.

Labels: Macro, Reader Mail, Technique