Marvellous Macro page 6

Mike McNamee returns to his roots in microscopy

Nikon SB-R200 Macro Lighting System

This is a system in every sense of the word and we are grateful to member, Dr Paul Atkins who brought it along for us to test out – the carry case (top) contains so many goodies that it saved us many hours of manual reading having an experienced user show us around! Similar offerings and a ring flash are also available from Canon. The Nikon unit is controlled from either a D200 camera built-in flash (which needs the little flap shown above to keep the control flash off the subject) or from the dedicated SU-800, fixed to the builtin hot shoe. The actual flash heads (two provided in the kit) are attached to a ring fixed to the lens and may be assigned to the correct channel and group by a simple dial. You may also include SB-800 and SB-600 guns into the mix, making for even more versatility. You may, if you choose, add extra heads around the holding ring until you have a near complete circle, to make a ring flash. Each head may be fitted with filters, a light-concentrating lens and a diffuser as shown top

right. The image of the medallion shown above has none of the excessive flashing produced by a pure ring flash but does point up the perils of shooting in an open room setting. If you examine the reflections in the image above you can see the reflected burgundy of the wall units across the roses and the top left displays the reflected colour from elsewhere in the room. None of these effects is a problem if you use the DeVille dome. Our tests using the macro Macbeth Chart (available from Colour Confidence) showed that the TTL system was working within a third of a stop on exposure and just a couple of degrees off the correct white balance, a very impressive performance for such a complex lighting system and macro optical set up.

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Photo Quote: The challenge for me has first been to see things as they are, whether a portrait, a city street, or a bouncing ball. In a word, I have tried to be objective. - Berenice Abbott American Photographer, 1898-1991