My D.I.Y. - Reverse Lens Macro

A lot of people like macro photography, especially macro of bugs. The reason being is simply because they are so fascinated by the wonderful world of bugs. Although a decent macro lens is not so expensive, however there are some other cheaper ways to shoot macro. One of them is the Reverse Lens method.

I would like to show you how we can convert a normal zoom kit lens into a macro lens.

I used an old 62mm AF Nikkor 28-100mm 1:3.5-5.6G zoom lens reversed mounted onto my Nikon D80. How to do this? Please read on.

You can just buy a reverse lens adaptor, but I prefer D.I.Y. I love D.I.Y.

First of all, you need a rear lens cover, a camera body cap and a 62mm~52mm step down ring.



Make a hole on the camera body cap,


Glue the camera body cap to the step down ring,


Screw the step down ring to the filter thread of the lens,


Make a hole on rear lens cap and fix it to the rear of lens to prevent scratching the exposed rear lens glass. But before that you must manually adjust the aperture. As this is a G lens, you can not set the aperture via aperture ring like the D lens. So you have to insert a short piece to hold the aperture control lever.

Now it is ready to be mounted onto the camera body via the camera body cap. You will notice that you have to manually set shutter speed, focusing and etc. Adjust the lever position and take some shoots, until you are satisfy with the DOF, set the lever.

I tested it by taking some shoots at difference focal lengths, check it out.

This was shot at the focal length of 28mm (maximum magnification) .


At the focal length of 50mm.


At the focal length of 70mm.


You may ask "What are the magnification ratios it can produce?"

Fine, Let me show you the actual magnifications this reverse lens can produce.
By fixing the focal length, I did some magnification tests on a ruler.

At the focal length of 70mm , it can produce 0.6:1 magnification.


At the focal length of 50mm, 1:1 magnification.


At the focal length of 28mm, 2.5:1 magnification (the maximum).


So, happy trying and D.I.Y. rocks!

My D.I.Y. - Macro Rig

(Photo courtesy of GhChiam)

My macro rig consists of Nikon D80, Tamron SP90 macro lens, Kenko 1.4x Tele-Convertor, Raynox DCR250, Nikon SB900 speedlite and the most essential gear is the DIY flash diffuser.

The Tamron SP90 can provide maximum 1:1 magnification and it's normally enough for bugs with a larger size of 10mm to 15mm.

For those sizes between 5mm to 10mm, I add the Kenko 1.4x Tele-Convertor for a higher magnification at 1.4:1.

For tiny bugs less than 5mm, I will add another macro filter, Raynox DCR250 to get a 2.1:1 magnification.














(Photo courtesy of GhChiam)

You can see my DIY flash diffuser has a piece of translucent paper in front of it. This A4 size tracing paper acts as a shoot thru umbrella to further spread the light evenly onto the subject.

It weighs only 131 gram and the most important is the lighting effect is very good.

Sample No. 1 - Jumping Spider (Araneae: Salticidae)


Sample No. 2 - Jumping Spider (Araneae: Salticidae)













Sample No. 3 - Weevil













Sample No. 4 - Hover fly