Forum

Can you get reversal rings at a reasonable price for AF and digital SLRs these days?

I did have a reversal ring for a manual SLR and got some interesting pictures with it, but I guess it is a bit hit and miss – I got significant vignetting (circular images) with some lenses, but I think I got best results with a large-aperture prime lens.
The sharpness certainly exceeds that achieved with screw-in macro filters, but there are some significant drawbacks in using this technique:
– From what I remember you get very little flexibility in lense-to-subject distance and limited focussing control, so thus had to focus by moving the camera back and forth to focus.
– It's less than ideal to have the back element of the lense exposed, if you move too close and scratch it you might have to wave that lense goodbye... Also the back element, at least on pre-digital era lenses, don't have the anti-glare coating that the front element has to prevent flare and loss of contrast.

You can make your own adapter quite easily-say, for Canon- using a body cap-If you have a spare UV or skylight filter,break out the glass;-epoxy glue the filter-ring to the outside of the body cap,thread upward;-when set (24 hrs) cut out the circle of bodycap inside the filter ring;-attach body cap to body;-screw lens,(reverse) into filter thread;-Voila!-a macro lens! Regards, Ken Caleno