Macro and My Full Frame Experience - Part 4

Macro shot of a damselfly (zygoptera) taken in the Singapore Botanical Gardens. These tiny insects measure about 4cm in length, and are usually found skimming the surface of ponds. They actually start off their life as eggs which hatch into nymphs underwater.

In my previous posts, the shots I posted all played to the advantage of the Canon EOS 5D's full frame sensor. However, there are a number of situations when a cropped sensor had the upper hand. Macro shots are one of them, as the crop factor helps tiny subjects to fill up the frame.

With a full frame sensor, you do need to get closer to the subject - not an easy feat with jumpy insects! Unfortunately, the closer you get, the narrower the depth of field. To get the whole damselfly in focus in this scene, I had to stop down the lens aperture to f/16 (all you need to do is breathe and it goes out of focus!). This cuts down the light entering the lens so much that, despite it being a sunny day, ISO1000 was required to get an acceptable shutterspeed.

Having said that, it's still possible to get a decent macro shot with the full frame 5D (the lenses might even make more sense - 100mm for setup shots and 180mm for insects). However, after this photoshoot, I came away with the feeling that a cropped sensor camera is the better tool for macro photography. The advantages of reach and wider depth of field are simply hard to ignore.