Need a camera recommendation

[Lonnie Utah]

Uncle_Bob

Adaptor rings aren't just for mirrorless cameras.  I have an adaptor that allows me to use the lenses from my old Minolta on my Canon T5.  Aside from having to shoot in manual mode, the other disadvantage is that those big old steel-and-glass telephoto and lenses weigh A LOT more than modern composite lenses.  As others have said, a good tripod is essential, but especially if you use long and/or heavy lenses so that your camera doesn't inadvertently jerk when you take pictures. Not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but if you're interested in heading out to take pictures in the great outdoors, such as passing trains , you can turn many DSLR's and some point-and-shoot cameras into video cameras.  Happy camera shopping!

 

The issue with using adapter rings on cameras other than mirrorless cameras is that unless the legacy system has a longer flange distance (the distace from the back of the lens (mounting surface) to the camera's sensor or film) than the modern system, then you lose the ability to focus to infinity.  That may or may not be an issue depending on the type of photography you do. 

In the above example, the Minolta MD system has a flange distance of 43.5mm, while the Canon EF system has a flange distance of 44mm.  This means than while you can mount your old minolta lenses to the Cannon, you aren't getting sharp focus at infinity.  In contrast, the Sony E-mount or NEX cameras have a flange distance of only 18mm. So a 25.5mm deep adapter will allow full focus with that system on an E-mount camera. 

As for "big telephoto" lenses you are right. The big bulky telephoto-zooms aren't really optimum for what I'm talking about. I’m speaking more about high quality prime lenses (one focal length).  In addition to their size/weight, the big zooms also usually have/had very small minimum apertures making them less than useful in anything but fairly bright conditions. All of my telephoto lenses that I regularly use are modern large aperture f/2.8 lenses.

But for macro type work on a model railroad layout, My guess is that the user will be working with normal focal lengths, wide angles and short telephotos. Larger telephotos 100+mm focal length will be used much less often (to shoot details of areas where you can’t get close.  I will give one word of caution about using ultra-wide angle lenses and adapters. Under certain conditions they can produce a noticeable color shift in the corner of images. But without getting overly technical, this is more due to the construction of modern digital sensors than the lenses (remember they worked just fine with film).

Now the reason that Focus stacking is so important for macro photography, is at the small apertures needed to get maximal depth of field (how much of the image is in focus from front to back) the image is subject to diffraction. Diffraction is the loss of sharpness in an image to due to “squeezing” all of the photos through the small opening in the camera lens’ iris.  Maximal sharpness can be maintained by opening the aperture, but at the expense of depth of field. So focus stacking works by opening the aperture for maximal sharpness, which in turn reduces the depth of field. A series of photographs are then taken with the focus point moved slight farther into the frame on each one. Then, the image processing software then selects the in focus parts of each stacked image and seamlessly combines them. The technique is very similar to what happens when you get a CAT scan with the camera moving down one’s body to take multiple images in cross section and these images are combined into a 3D image.

 

I’d also like to add a link to the “exposure triangle”, which I personally think is essential for anyone starting in the hobby.

 

 

 

Finally, I'd like to mention the usefulness of a hyperfocal calculator. There are many of them free on the web and available for download on smartphones or tablets. They tell you how much of your image is in focus at a particular combination of distance to subject, focal length and aperture. 

 

I know it’s a lot to think about and take in. My best advice is electrons are cheap and basically free. Read about composition, take lots of pictures and you will get better. 

Best regards and good luck! 

Lonnie