As discussed in this email, I snagged an Olympus TG-6 camera after hearing about its macro prowess from a few colleagues. When I’m not equipped with a macro rig, I often rely on my Nikon D750 (typically equipped with a Nikon 24-120 mm lens), and/or my iPhone 13 Pro. With the Olympus now in hand, I performed a little macro comparo.

The Olympus has two exceptional features: a ring flash and focus stacking. For the latter, the camera takes a bunch of photos, focusing on different areas in the frame, and combines them into a single, sharp image. Especially helpful for non-planar subjects, like lamp filaments.

For the iPhone, I took photos in both JPG and RAW formats...RAW won out. I took the Nikon photos at 120 mm, f/4, ISO 450. Of course, it's possible to equip the Nikon with a macro lens, but I was testing my typical setup. The results are below...thanks to ICARS for the stellar coin! Download the full image here.

As expected, the working distance of the Nikon at 120 mm was pretty deep. In other words, I had to be ~12+” away from the subject to acquire proper focus. At that distance, the detail is nothing to write home about. The iPhone did a better job, though even in RAW the quality was a bit hyper-digital. Nevertheless, it was impressive.

The Olympus really outshined them both. The working distance was nice and close, but there was still plenty of light thanks to the ring light. Focus stacking brought both the drone and the background into focus (when taken as a single image, it was quite blurry). The detail is so good you can even see brush marks on the alloy. Ultimately, the TG-6 has earned a new home in my kit as a backup and macro rig.

Thanks for reading along. Keep exploring!

Lou Peck
​Lightpoint | Axiom

P.S. Enjoy the summer BBQs!