Last week my eleven year old daughter took some amazing macro shots with an old setup of mine. One image came out so great I wanted to share it with the community. This single image shows exactly why you’d want to buy a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens, and why you wouldn’t.



The camera setup

In order to take some macro shots, she took my old Canon EOS 400D and fitted a 20mm Soligor (electronic) tube and my Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens. As a flash she used the internal popup flash.

Exposure was set to manual, 1/200th, F/9 and ISO 100. Focus was set to manual on the 50mm, for the longest distance which put the focus plane somewhere 20cm out.

With this setup, she was ready to start the hunt for dragonflies and other small insects.


The final picture

When I saw this picture pop up in my post processing software, I immediately liked it a lot. And of course I was very proud, especially since my daughter is only 11 years old and able to produce shots like this:

Dragonfly photographed by my eleven year old daughter, using an EOS 400D, 20mm Soligor electronic tube and a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens. Camera set at manual focus, 1/200th, f/9, ISO-100. Click the image for a larger version.


When you look at the picture, two things are immediately apparent:

  1. The dragonfly is very sharp;
  2. The highlights on the water beneath are very clearly pentagonal;
  3. … And it shows a cheap setup can produce very good macro images!

These are exactly the two reasons why you would and would not buy this lens: Yes it can produce very attractive images and the lens is very sharp (especially considering its price point!). On the downside, the pentagonal highlights are produced because of the five aperture blades. When using a lens that has more aperture blades, these highlights would become more circular. Because the bokeh of this lens is very nervous, the highlights aren’t nice and smooth as well. Still, I think it “works” very well in this particular picture.

I’m so proud Gwen… I think you did an amazing job!