Hi, I apologize for my noob language in advance. Basically my wife is a dentist and currently using Canon 1300D + EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens + Canon MT-24EX Macro Twin Lite set-up to take a close up patient's teeth photos. It is a bulky and heavy set-up as you can imagine, but was working fine so far.. Except it was lacking some more details and clarity on the photos when you zoom in. Which she realised is kind of crucial. So I bought Canon R. So I have 2 questions here: 1) Is this still a relevant set-up to use same lens + flash mentioned above for taking macro shots With Canon R? So far she was told to use 100mm lens because if you use smaller ones there is a visible image distortion (which is a big issue in this case, image has to be as close as possible to real one) and also you have to keep lens much closer to the object (mouth in this case). Is this still relevant to full-frame mirror-less camera? Can she get away with equaly good results using smaller Canon RF 35mm f/1.8 IS STM Macro lens + same flash if you adjust settings? 2) Second question is just for general use, since we did not buy any lens for Canon R yet. We have just standard kit 1300D lens I believe it is 18-60. Will it be enough for travelling and casual 'any situation' photos or would you recommend to go for R's offered RF 24-105mm f/4 IS USM lenses? Thank you in advance.
Well the 100mm and the 24-105 are both L (professional grade) lenses and very sharp, so lack of sharpness or clarity should not be an issue. Going to the 35mm from the 100 will not help, 50mm is generally what the eyes see so 35mm even at macro focus distance will appear much further from the mouth than 100. I guess you could get a longer macro like the 180mm and get closer to the teeth. What ISO are you using? If the ISO is high you will see digital noise zoomed in. Also how far are you zooming in? These are not meant to be be viewed or printed at 100%, it will not look good you should be good up to maybe 35%, this would still probably equate to a poster size image if printed.
Hi. The settings used for 1300D are: 1/125, aperture f20 - f26, iso 100, white balance - flash. if you look at this website: https://www.dentalphotomaster.com/macro-lens-60mm-or-100mm-which-one-is-better/ It says that most optimal lens for portrait is 100mm? With the 50mm the face still looks a bit narrow and distorted if you see picture 3. So my wife tried same settings as for 1300D on R and results are totally different, photos come out not focused, some are dark and some are bright. So we are a bit flustered what is the issue.. Maybe I need to try R's standard 24-105 lenses. But at the same time these lenses are not macro and just general use?
Yes, as mentioned the wider you go (smaller mm length) the more issues with distortion you may have. Also you will generally have more issues getting really close to the teeth. That is the goal right? You want just the mouth, not the face? The 24-105 will not replace the macro, the macro is able to get 1:1 because it focuses while very close to the subject. For example your macro can get focus at 30mm from subject, that 24-105 is 45mm so your substantially further away so even at 105mm you will see much more of the persons face. You really need a macro lens if your shooting extreme closeup. But you could go with a long macro like the 180mm if that works better with getting as close as you need, I would rent one and see if that helps. You could use the term general for a 24-105 as it gives the user the ability to shoot wide shots through slight telephoto. But really that depends on the user. For example I came from film, and since crop camera's actually only see 2/3 of what the lens sees on full frame or film, I used a 17-40 as a general use lens on my 20d when I started in digital.
Well you have low iso so you shouldn't have noise, but you have room to bump it up a little bit if needed. I guess my question is are you dialing in these settings because you read something? Or is everything on auto? With flash, exposure is mostly controlled through aperture. If you open up the aperture to 5.6 or 8 you still have some depth of field in the macro shot and you don't need as much flash. For consistency you could shoot the flash with a manual setting and dial in brightness that way. Honestly I would figure out the general range of settings without the flash in the office lighting, then you could add the ring flash as fill flash at a low power and adjust manually as desired till you get the results you need. A little bit of testing here with the settings and you will get to know very close to what you need to use each time and can adjust very quickly on the fly.
