dental lense and ring flash

I am an oral surgeon who recently bought the Canon Rebel XT with the standard

lense, and am considering upgrading to a macro lense and ring light for both

my intraoral uses and surgical pictures. I am a poor resident on a tight

budget and have been considering the canon ef 100mm f2.8 macro vs. the tamron

90mm f2.8 and also the new sigma 70mm macro lenses. I am also looking to buy a

ringlight and am debating between the canon and sigma. I am a beginner and

just using the pictures for my own presentations not professional use. Does

anyone have some advice onwhich system to buy.

Macro Photography is tricky and requires a new set of skills - just owning a macro lens and a ring light will not do it for you - I think, unless you are willing to invest a lot of time to learn. I would suggest instead an advanced P&S camera - like a Fuji or one of the Canon Powershots with Macro mode. It is much easier to get a decent Macro shot our of these than it is using a DSLR with a Macro lens. I use both for Macro shots. When I am really serious and need the 1:1 ratio, I will use my Canon 5D with the 100mm Macro, extension tubes and the ring light. But when I am just out strolling around and something catches my eye, I will use my Powershot G7 as my Macro tool. It works great and the pictures are cristal clear amd it is sooooo easy.

There are cameras with a ring flash specifically designed for intra-oral photography. They are optimized to the purpose. And they are trivial to use.

Signed off too quickly.

 

Look into the Yashica Dental Eye III, for example. It has the built in flash (three units in a ring about the lens.) Surf for the rest.

 

Making up the same on your own will be more difficult and in the end it may not be more economical.

 

(I did a lot of this work and other surgical photography long ago, and there have always been specialized, easy to use dental cameras. Go for it and be happy.)

The Canon EF 100mm macro and the MR-14EX ring flash work together like a dream. The flash snaps into the small ridge on the front of the lens. I've put this combo on the Canon bodies of relatively new photo graphers who have used it with few or no problems.

 

More here:

 

http://jimdoty.com/Tips/Eye_Closeup/eye_closeup.html

 

Jim

My 2 cents, Use the right tool for the right job. Get one of this. new here

 

http://www.dinecorp.com/DineDigitalRingandPointFlash.html

 

or a used one at ebay.

 

Add to that a EFS-60mmm and you are done for less $450 + $380 (B&H)

Never done any sort of dental work but my guess is that the 60/2.8 will serve you better than the 100/2.8 because it will allow you to get closer for the same 1:1 magnification.

 

Happy shooting,

Yakim.

I'm not sure what my dentist uses, but he has a camera on something similar to the size of the mirror in your mouth, and it's video, and he can capture stills off it.

Canon DSLR or a Nikon DSLR with a macro lens and ringflash though expensive is by far the easiest way of producing high quality intra oral images. Definitely 'point and shoot'. With the right settings results will be consistent. For more info visit http://www.thedigitaldentist-site.org.uk.