macro v wide-angle

Until recently I had two macro lenses.  That's lenses that are capable of taking macro shots, and not really small lenses...

Anyway, they both had a full-frame camera equivalent length of around 100mm.  One, a Laowa 65mm "ultra" macro is capable of reasonably extreme twice life-size magnification, while my Nikkor 105mm is a more standard 1:1 magnifier.  This means you get life-size images on your camera's sensor.  It's science - and not that important.

Recently though, Fujifilm introduced a 30mm 1:1 macro lens; something quite different in the world of macro lenses in that it yields a reasonably wide field of view.

What then, I hear you all cry, is the point of such a lens?

I must admit that when it was first introduced, I had the same question ringing around my mind.  (Yes, I am that boring.). After all, you'd need to get so close to your subject that firstly you'd be cutting out quite a lot of available light and secondly any insects would be rightly terrified by its presence.  And this lens gets close: 10cm to be precise.  As the lens is just short of 10cm long this means you can press your subject against the front element!

But after seeing some sample images I began to understand the reasoning behind the lens, and I bought one.

Put simply, the lens allows for close enough focusing to see all the detail you could possibly want while still affording a view of the subject in its environment.  Here's an image of a ladybird on a geum leaf as an example.

Now, I shot this from around only 30cm away from the ladybird and it shows all the details while still revealing the bug for what it is.  Tiny!

Anyway, if you want to see more images and a short review of the lens, just click on the video below.  Go on, make my day!