first go with Mike's 100 macro

Finally got me a proper macro! whoo hoo!
D-FA 100mm Macro arrived yesterday and I stole a few minutes to snap the flies in the garden. I immediately realised I would need extension tubes and the old problem of having to get really close hasn't entirely gone away, but the lens is beautifully sharp and so far I'm very pleased.
Most of my snaps suffered from motion blur despite the flash because the ambient sunlight was strong enough to create a residual image but not strong enough to get me to f16 on iso 100. (roll on K20D)
These are OK, but some more practice is needed with this new setup.


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Oooh - I do want one of those lenses!

As a start in macro, these look very promising. Keep practicing.

Mark
I want one of those will you tell me the next time you leave your camera bag lying around

do you use a lens flash or is that next on the list

very nice start to macro photography

James

Can't claim to be new to macro - I'm just new to proper macro lenses
I normally reverse a 28 onto tubes which gets super duper close but you have to virtually touch the fly and they're not keen on that...
I use a normal flash with a sheet of paper taped to it, to spread out the light above the insect just like the sky. I sometimes hand-hold the flash.
The biggest advantage of a proper lens is you can turn round and photograph the deer behind you
But before you go out and buy (or steal ) a macro lens, here's a couple with my 99pence lens.


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thanks Gareth - yep, 47mm of tubes. I'm a real close-up junkie

Yeah that's classic K10D GX10 noise (and banding) I almost never go over 100iso!
I use a radio remote and everything on manual. The scene is lit by the light reflected off the paper, rather than direct pin light from the flash head.
I am going to try a 2 litre milk bottle painted white on top. The paper works well but it often scares off the insect.

Gareth,

That's fairly typical banding from a K10 (I see yours is the GX10, and they may share the same quirks). I have underexposed shots taken with my K10 - very similar banding in evidence. Another forum was filled with discussion in 06 / 07 about this very issue IIRC.

Mark,

Good one, all the best with the new macro (although the 99p lens clearly did the job for you too).

Very nice .. look forward to seeing some more, especially with tubes.
I have been experimenting with putting a Raynox DCR-250 on the front of the macro lens and it seems to be getting good results, if a little soft on the outer edges (which isn't so much of a problem with macro).

Wow, pretty amazing!

Even the ones with the '99p' lens are great. Makes me wonder whether I should try something with my 50 & 24mm lens before going down the 'proper' macro route.

Like your website btw, great to see some local shots on a Pentax!

A great set of Macro shots, annoyingly closer & sharper than anything I've achieved so far with my Tamron 90, I must be doing something wrong

Graham

Seen a lot of togs using them at weddings.
For my personal macro style tho', I don't think it would be as good as a big reflector, particularly when camera mounted.
Having the reflector hanging out over the front of the lens or hand held over the subject is much more versatile and controllable.
You need a really big diffuser (like the sky) to make it look natural.

The milk bottle is like a Stofen but much bigger (hangs out over the lens) and it's free

What I might consider is a small soft box diffuser. 6 to 9 inches would be a good compromise between good lighting and being too clumsy.

Stofen doesn't do a lot outdoors besides eating one stop of light.
Stofen relies on that it throws the light against the ceiling, the walls and the ground in the hope some bounce backs to fill in the shadows so it only work indoors.
They are after al not called omni-bounce for nothing
Lumiquest explains it with pictures link

To get softer light outside you either need to create walls to bounce the light off from it or make the apparent light source larger.

So for outdoors a small softbox like the ones from Lumiquest are your best bet or a bounce card.

What focal length did you try with raynox.? (I heard it behaves differently with long and short lenses)...
I was thinking of trying it as well with 90/100mm macro, but if you have tried it I would be happy to see the results before I buy that raynox .

You could reverse mount the 28mm onto the 100mm macro, it will give you a 3,6X magnification. Don't know how close you need to get though.

I've tried it once with the DA40 but the DOF is very shallow even with that lens.

These are wonderful shots. I known how hard it is to achieve this standard with macro shots as I've never come close!