My Extreme Macro Gear

My Store Admin

Hey buddies! I get a lot of questions about my macro gear so let me explain everything I use. 
I just upgraded to this equipment so eventually I'll update this and make a whole video on my set up. 

I usually call this style of photography "extreme macro photography" because I am using a microscope objective attached to my camera. But in the macro world, this is actually called Photomacrography. I think people who are new to this might understand "extreme macro photography" more. 

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Equipment I Use:

Camera Body- Olympus OM1 mark ii

Metabones EF-M43 mount (Canon EF Lens To Micro Four Thirds Camera)
*This is an adapter that allows me to use a Canon lens with my Olympus*

Canon EOS EF 200mm f2.8 L II USM Telephoto Prime Lens
*200 mm lens acts as a tube lens- Many microscope objectives — especially Mitutoyo objectives — are designed around a 200 mm tube lens standard.*

Sensei PRO 72-52mm Aluminum Step-Down Ring
*screws on to 200 mm lens

Converter for BD M26x36tpi Microscope Objective to M52 52mm Adapter ProScope
*this adapter screws on to the end of the step down ring so we can attach the microscope objective*

Mitutoyo 5x M Plan APO Objective
*I was going to get a 10x but my Olympus is a micro 4/3 camera so it would crop the photo too much*

Camera Body: OM SYSTEM OM-1 Mark II

The heart of my setup is the Olympus OM-1 Mark II.

I chose this camera because all my favorite macro photographers were using it. I think it's a good idea to just copy the gear that your favorite photographer uses.

People love this camera for its focus bracketing and focus stacking features. I can take 100s of photos at different points and the camera will add them all together.

Metabones EF-M43 Mount Adapter

This adapter allows me to connect Canon EF lenses to my Micro Four Thirds Olympus camera body.

Without it, the Canon lens simply wouldn’t physically fit the camera.

Adapters like this are extremely important in custom macro setups because microscope photography often combines equipment from multiple systems:

camera body

  • camera lens
  • microscope objective
  • specialty adapters

Macro photography is basically scientific LEGO.

Canon EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM

This lens is one of the most important parts of the entire setup.

Normally, this would be used as a telephoto photography lens. But in my setup, it acts as a tube lens.

Modern microscope objectives like the Mitutoyo 5x M Plan APO Objective are “infinity-corrected” objectives. That means they do not project an image directly onto the camera sensor by themselves.

Instead, they send parallel light rays out the back of the objective. A second lens — called the tube lens — is needed to focus those rays onto the camera sensor.

Many microscope objectives, especially Mitutoyo objectives, are designed around a 200 mm tube lens standard. That’s why a 200 mm lens is commonly used in high-end photomacrography setups.

The Canon 200mm f/2.8L II is popular because it:

  • is extremely sharp
  • has low optical aberrations
  • produces a flat field
  • has excellent contrast
  • works beautifully with microscope objectives

It basically becomes the bridge between the scientific optics and the camera sensor.

Sensei PRO 72-52mm Aluminum Step-Down Ring

This piece screws onto the front of the Canon 200 mm lens.

The purpose of the step-down ring is to reduce the filter thread size so additional adapters can connect to the lens.

In extreme macro photography, adapter chains are very common because microscope objectives use completely different mounting standards than camera lenses.

This tiny metal ring is what helps connect the photography world to the microscopy world.

BD M26x36tpi Microscope Objective to M52 Adapter

This adapter connects the microscope objective to the front of the Canon lens.

It screws onto the step-down ring and converts the threading system so the microscope objective can physically attach to the setup.

Microscope objectives use highly specialized thread sizes, and the Mitutoyo 5x M Plan APO Objective uses a BD M26x36tpi threading standard.

Without this adapter, the microscope objective would just sit there looking mysterious and expensive.

Mitutoyo 5x M Plan APO Objective

This is the actual microscope objective that creates the extreme magnification.

Unlike a normal macro lens, microscope objectives are designed for scientific imaging and can resolve incredibly tiny details with very high sharpness.

The “APO” in M Plan APO means the lens is apochromatically corrected, which helps reduce chromatic aberration and keeps colors sharp and clean.

I chose the 5x version instead of the 10x because I use a Micro Four Thirds camera.

Since Micro Four Thirds sensors already crop tighter than full frame, a 10x objective would have been extremely magnified and difficult to work with:

  • smaller field of view
  • harder lighting
  • more vibration sensitivity
  • shallower depth of field
  • more difficult stacking

The 5x gives me a better balance between:

  • magnification
  • usability
  • composition flexibility
  • image quality

It’s still wildly magnified — enough that tiny fungal textures start looking like alien landscapes.

My biggest struggles...

Extreme macro photography is beautiful… but it is also unbelievably unforgiving. Once you start using microscope objectives at magnifications like 5x and beyond, tiny problems suddenly become massive problems. A vibration you would never notice in normal photography can completely ruin an image at high magnification.

Even pressing the shutter button, walking across the floor, wind moving through a room, or your own heartbeat resting against the camera can introduce blur. I feel like I have to hold my breath and stop blinking just to keep everything steady.

My camera is a dainty little princess just like me!

So at these magnifications, depth of field becomes paper-thin, so photographers often rely on focus stacking — taking dozens or even hundreds of images at slightly different focus distances and blending them together later. If the setup shifts even slightly during the stack, the final image can end up with strange artifacts, halos, or alignment problems.

Stability becomes one of the biggest challenges in the entire process. A lot of photographers start with a traditional tripod setup, but many eventually move away from tripods entirely for extreme magnification work. Tripods are great for portability, but they can still transmit tiny vibrations through their legs and center columns. The farther your setup extends outward — especially with long tube lenses and microscope objectives — the more those vibrations get amplified like a lever. That’s why some photomacrographers mount their entire setup onto massive heavy platforms, metal rails, granite slabs, or even large industrial blocks. The extra mass helps absorb vibrations and creates a much more stable system overall. Some people even bolt their setups directly onto workbenches or dedicated macro tables to eliminate movement as much as possible.

Lighting

Lighting is another surprisingly difficult part of extreme macro photography. At high magnifications, you lose a huge amount of light, especially because microscope objectives are effectively operating at very high effective apertures. Subjects also sit extremely close to the front of the objective, making it difficult to physically position lights without creating harsh glare, reflections, or shadows. Many photographers use diffused LED panels, fiber optic lighting, flash systems, or custom-built diffusers to soften the light and reduce hotspots. Tiny adjustments in lighting angle can completely change the appearance of textures, spores, slime molds, or mushroom surfaces. Sometimes the hardest part is not finding a subject — it’s figuring out how to light a subject that’s smaller than a grain of rice without accidentally turning it into a glowing blob of reflected light.

And then there’s the emotional pain point nobody warns you about: you can spend hours building a stack, carefully adjusting lighting, fighting vibrations, and taking 200 photos… only to realize one tiny movement ruined the entire sequence. Extreme macro photography requires an absurd amount of patience. But when everything finally works, it reveals details and hidden worlds that feel almost impossible to believe are real.