From what I've found so far, I'm not interested. And I do a whole lot of night macro out in the field in the course of supporting scientific field work. I don't talk from theory but from a lifetime of extensive experience. Or maybe field is too nice, try swamps, awful thick brush and all the fun things. And remember this is Georgia, with it's share of snakes that can make you much worse than sick, and alligators that consider you a midnight snack, as well as other goodies. Like fire ant nests to stand in, been there, done that numerous times. And the reptiles and amphibians, they get photographed and documented, no matter how bad they are. And if they make a sound I record that too. I can do it all, combined at the rate of covering more than 100miles in a night documenting every species in every active location along that. Camera operation has to be fast and reliable. These new cameras are too slow in a number of aspects, some of which go right down to the basic physics involved.Greg Beetham wrote:The A55 would probably do macro and extreme macro very well in theory, but in practise it might fall short if the battery life is not very good and the flash compatibility is questionable, someone will have to do some tests with one to find out just how useful it is for night macro work out in the field.
Greg
Battery life is virtually a non issue to me with the camera. After all I used to use film, bulb flashes and all the rest. And got the job done. The issues are elsewhere, battery life is thrown in to distract from the real problems. And in the night field biology consider I was always carrying several flashlights, wearing a headlamp, using a portable GPS, carting a full pro stereo sound recording setup, as well as the camera gear. All of which uses batteries, most at a way faster rate than the camera. Even when my DSLR got only about 100 shots per charge. It's actually much easier now with LED lights that get far longer per battery set.
Speaking of flash compatibility, the ideal setup for an awful lot of that night field macro at the size of animals I was working is a DSLR, 100mm macro lens, AND the macro ringflash. See any macro ringflashes out of Sony? I sure don't. Here's the setup, though in actual field work it's not on a tripod but handheld:
http://madranis.home.mindspring.com/Min ... gflash.jpg
I've covered thousands of miles at night, thousands of sites with that rig or earlier versions that looked much the same over many, many years. That's how you find out how night macro is done and what's needed. You live in the field using the equipment.
Walt