Macro Experiments

The light is wonderful today, so I decided to try to do some macro. I've never really seriously considered doing macro because it was so hard to see with the E-500's viewfinder.

The difference, again, is amazing. I can actually use DOF preview to see the DOF at the chosen aperture. It was child's play to then focus with the available DOF at f/11, and snap the shot.

The detail is breathtaking. You can literally see every scratch and nick on the quarter's surface. I have to say though, that Olympus Raw files are fairly soft by nature, and they do benefit from a moderate amount of Raw presharpening. I never use the sharpening in ACR because of the fact that this lens is so sharp at f/2-f/11, sharpening would just create a picture that's excessively sharp. At f/11, though, some diffraction is already starting to occur, so I sharpened the picture after resizing using 128/0.4/10 as my settings in Photoshop's "Unsharp Mask". It's not significant, but it really shows how sharp this photo really is.

Lens and camera settings:

50mm f/2.0 @ f/11, 1/60sec and ISO 100. Mounted on a tripod, IS on and shutter on self-timer @ 2sec.