Macro Kingdom II

For various reasons, I rarely post videos from others on the blog, focusing instead on creating original content. Yet, I can’t resist the urge to show you this clip from Clemens Wirth. The guy is super creative and mix 5DMrkII footage with visual effects perfectly.

I asked Clemens to share some tips and he gladly accepted.

He shot almost everything with the Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5X Macro (this one was easy to guess) with one sequence from the 100mm f/2.8 Macro. He also used the Z-finder to achieve critical focus. Having played with macro videography in the past, I was curious about his lighting setup and I was quite surprise by its simplicity: two 100 watts bulbs for indoor shots and the sun for the rest!

For those who never saw the MP-E 65, it is a manual focusing lens with a macro ratio of 5:1. As far as I know, it is the only commercial lens with such a magnification factor. While hard to use, it can produce some incredible results as Clemens showed us.