The Reversing Ring: A Cheap Macro Lens

A reversing ring is a good way to start with macro photography. The ring is an adapter to mount Your lens backwards on Your camera (the ring I use is an adapter EOS<->52mm). It makes a "more-than-1:1" reproduction scale possible. That's an amazing zoom!

Aperture

If the lens is wide open, You have more light (+) but a really short depth of focus (-). As the aperture is not controlled by the camera, You have to mount the lens the normal way at first, then You have to set the aperture, pre-release the aperture and remove the lens while pressing the aperture-pre-release-button. The lens' aperture is fixed, now mount the lens backwards with the reversing ring on the camera.

Focus

You have to focus manually. Through the optical viewfinder it is not very easy to focus: On the one side it is quite dark, so You should use some lamps - on the other side the depth of focus may be less than 1 mm. Luckily the EOS 1000D has a live preview feature - focusing is much easier with a digital zoom in the bulb mode.

Amazing zoom!

On the right You see a German Stamp from 1997: 100 years Diesel engine. It's original size is ~35x35mm. The first photo is taken with maximum zoom (Lens @17mm), the second photo with "minimum" zoom. Haha :)